All-season color - flower gardening

Sunset, Sept, 1994 by Lynn Ocone

Perennials, annuals, and bulbs keep this Laguna Beach garden blooming year-roun

IMAGINE A FLORAL bouquet occupying an entire front yard. As old flowers fade, new ones magically take their place. The arrangement never dies; it just evolves. Landscape designer Scott Wright has created such a living bouquet in Laguna Beach, California. Thanks to a carefully choreographed succession of blooming perennials, annuals, and bulbs, the landscape has color virtually year-round.

The backbones of Wright's garden are perennials, although it takes a steady supply of annuals to keep the color show going. In addition to successive waves of planting throughout the year, the maintenance routine includes fertilizing, watering, staking, and deadheading.

The two major planting periods in Wright's gardening calendar are late November for autumn perennials, bulbs, and cool-season annuals, and late May, for summer perennials and warm-season annuals. The three peak bloom times are winter (dominated by tulips), spring (dominated by cool-season annuals and perennials) and summer (dominated by warm-season annuals and perennials). October through early November is the quietest color period, with only a few blooms lingering o the perennials. During this time, Wright lets perennials die back and go to seed. Then he pulls the last of the summer annuals, amends the soil, and gives it a rest.

HOW TO BEGIN

Now is a good time for beginning year-round gardeners to get started, since September is the perfect month to prepare new beds for planting in the fall. Don't worry about scale. The principles behind all-season color are the same whether you are planting a single bed or landscaping an entire yard.

One of the secrets of Wright's success is that he does more than simply fill a garden with dizzying splashes of color. He uses specific combinations of shapes colors, textures, and plant forms to create a desired look and mood. He even considers the beds--the frames for the plants--which have curved lines rather than straight ones. Even a narrow bed along a picket fence has a gently undulating outer edge.

Height is another factor. Wright generally keeps short plants, such as alyssum and golden fleece, in front and taller ones, such as cosmos and dahlias, toward the back. He also weaves a few low-growing plants in among those that are slightly taller to add depth within the bed.

For added drama, Wright plants in drifts, grouping plants of the same type and color. The result is a color scheme that seems to shift wholesale with the season. In winter, for example, blocks of tulips in brilliant, contrasting colors brighten overcast days. The garden is more subdued in spring as cool blues and purples of delphinium and larkspur dominate. Things warm up again in the summer when warm-color harmonies of red, orange, and yellow fill the beds.

TIPS AND TECHNIQUES

Except for the bulbs, Wright plants mostly seedlings from cell-packs. Seedlings give quick color, are less vulnerable than seeds, and leave little room for weeds.

Plants such as dahlias, larkspur, and delphiniums require staking. Wright uses easily camouflaged green bamboo stakes and green twist-ties to hold the stems i place.

Tulips receive special care at planting time. Wright digs trenches 8 to 9 inche deep and adds bulb food. He covers the fertilizer with a 1- to 2-inch layer of sand and positions the bulbs. Finally, Wright covers the bulbs with soil amende with compost and aged chicken manure.

To sustain high-impact color throughout the year, Wright regularly feeds both the soil and the plants. During the brief period in early fall when the beds ar "resting," he amends the soil again. When plants are pumping color, he fertilizes weekly, alternating between aged manure, a complete granular fertilizer, and a flower fertilizer.

Finally, the flower beds are irrigated with bubbler sprinklers rather than overhead spray, which would beat down the flower stalks.

PLANT & BLOOM CALENDAR

The Scott Wright-designed garden is in Sunset Western Garden Book zone 24, whic runs in a band along the coast from the Mexican border to Point Conception. The calendar and planting suggestions below will work best in similarly mild climates.

September & October

What's in bloom: dahlias, tuberoses, warm-season annuals, heat-loving perennials.

November

What to plant: perennials, tulips (early, midseason, and late), anemones, daffodils, narcissus, ranunculus, and the bulk of the cool-season annuals--when weather cools, by Thanksgiving.

December

What's in bloom: the first of the cool-season annuals, and narcissus.

January

What's in bloom: cool-season annuals, narcissus, early tulips.

February

What to plant: cool-season annuals and perennials to fill between bulbs.

What's in bloom: cool-season annuals, perennials, anemones, daffodils, and tulips.

March

What to plant: cool-season annuals and perennials as fillers.

What's in bloom: cool-season annuals, daffodils, delphiniums, and tulips.

April

What to plant: the last of the cool-season annuals for quick filler color, dahlias, tuberous begonias, Madonna lilies, tuberoses.