front bed makeover question

16 years ago

I have a 12' x 4' swath of my front flower bed that is in desperate need of a total makeover. The rest of the bed is fine. I have hydrangeas in the back, hostas in the corner. That section of bed is in shade a good deal of the time.

However, the front part is also in total shade except in, you guessed it, summer, when it is in blazing sun pretty much all the time.

I have only ever tried to grow annuals there - I mostly focus on perennials in the back garden. Nothing ever really takes off. I'm ready to ditch annuals altogether. I've been messing with this flower bed off and on all my life. I'm seriously thinking of filling it up with knockout roses and just keeping them weedeated below the hydrangeas.

Any ideas?

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Comments (4)

okiedoke
16 years ago
lambs ear maybe, or catmint?
marcy3459
16 years ago
Betty,

I have one of those crazy beds like you describe. I fought it and moved plants until I was a crazy woman. I finally got the transition right with peonies and daylilies. As long as the peony foliage stays looking good, it gets to stay if it's not in the way of a daylily, then gets cut back. When the daylily foliage starts looking ugly, I keep it trimmed and then when the daylilies are finished blooming, I cut them back to the ground. Within a week, fresh new lily foliage is coming back up and keeps things looking decent in front of the hydrangeas, which are my favorite anyway. I have the taller lilies, not the everblooming small ones. Gilbert Wild in Sarcoxie, MO (gilberthwild.com) is a good source for daylilies and peonies. The only thing that drives me crazy about them is that their catalog shows different inventory than their website and vice versa so you have to check both.

Another idea which has intrigued me, but I haven't tried it yet are the creeping crape myrtles which grow about 18-24 inches tall. They are beautiful in bloom.

Also, there are the landscape roses, which form a mat of sorts and grow 6 inches to 2 feet high and are fairly maintenance free. I know Heirloom Roses has some pretty ones that aren't your run of the mill types. But if you go this route be sure to keep a path for yourself to get to the back of the bed for hydrangea and hosta care or you'll have ankle scars ;-0

Let me know if I can help you with more specifics.

Marcy
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bettycbowen
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks both of you. I got the last 3 Laura Bush petunias (that supposedly re-seed) at Bustani plant farm the last Saturday they were open, and some Lamb's Ear at Oasis in Stillwater - she's starting her sale BTW. I will move some butter yellow daylilies in front of the blue Hydrangeas, and get a spot ready for a peony. I have some that need moved. So - thanks very much for the good ideas!
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
16 years ago
Betty,

I grow both the Laura Bush pink and Laura Bush purple petunias and they reseed all over creation for me. I love it. They pop up all over the flower beds and veggie beds, and I just dig up the excess ones and transplant them elsewhere. I was just admiring the Laura bush petunias in Maddie's little Peter Rabbit garden. They've survived a couple of weeks in the mid- to upper-90s and look better every day than the day before. It seems like the hotter it gets, the more they bloom. When the regular petunias are playing out in the heat, the Laura Bush ones are just going wild. I hope they do as well for you as they do for me.

Dawn