Software
Houzz Logo Print
editoria

Need help with pleasing placement, please!

11 years ago

I used to have large flower beds--mostly perennials, and no shrubs except for roses. Unfortunately, I never paid much attention to garden design. Thanks to my advancing age and a complete takeover by the groundcover weed Germander speedwell, I've had to give up a lot of my garden, with more to follow.

All that's left of the bed alongside the vegetable garden are two rugosa roses and a weigela I forgot to include in my drawing. The weigela sits next to the vegetable garden fence, a little closer to the roses than to the Pinky Winky.

The long, L-shaped bed on the other side of the path will have to be sacrificed too. I need to move some iris and peonies out of there, but it's not long for this world, sadly. I have several hydrangeas and am particularly fond of the paniculatas. The ones I have in the ground were sort of plunked down with no plan. I want to do better with three I just bought: Pillow Talk, Fire Light, and Little Quick Fire.

If it's possible, could someone please look at this rough map and suggest where I might place the new ones? They're from Bluestone, by the way.

Thank you!


Comments (13)

  • 11 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    I am not good at this but this information may be useful: what zone are you in; where are you located? Can you identify areas of the map that get full sun, afternoon shade, etc? Looks like to the right of the apple trees may be sunny because you have no hydrangeas but not sure if it is "too" sunny (in my zone and location it would be).

  • 11 years ago

    Thanks, Luis. I'm in the northeast, in Zone 4. I'll have to check tomorrow to make sure, but I think the Limelight and Little Lamb at top right get afternoon shade. I know the Endless Summer gets afternoon shade. The Limelight at the left gets full sun; in fact, everything on that side gets full sun.

  • 11 years ago

    This far north the paniculatas are fine in full all day sun. Be aware of how large Pinky Winky can get (mine is 8' tall x 12' wide in 5 growing seasons) and don't plant anything too close. Mine has completely eaten a couple of clematis that were supposed to grow into PW.

  • 11 years ago

    12' wide in 5 years? Woooooooooooooooooooow! Obviously they never said it would stay at the advertised size of 8x8 or so (my prev guess at its size). Probably break that record if I tried planting it here since my growing season is so long.


  • 11 years ago

    Do you spray Pinky Winky (and others) for deer, NHBabs? I do, and if I forget and let it go too long they are likely to prune ruthlessly. My full-sun Limelight would be a lot bigger now if it hadn't gotten severely damaged the winter before last. So much ice and snow.

  • 11 years ago

    Here's Pinky Winky in mid-September. To give you an idea of size, the spiral trellis in front of the arborvitae is 5' and its base is at the same level as the low-growing Dianthus in front of the gold shrub on the right side. PW has its base about 1 1/2 ' lower (bed is on a goodly slope) and the top is about 2' taller, and is much wider that it is tall. Perhaps only 11' wide, but quite big as it is partly behind the arborvitae. (Believe it or not, there was in this photo another identical trellis that is inside the PW but that I couldn't move due to the clematis clinging to it.)


    Alisande, as you maybe can guess from the photo above, this garden is surrounded by woods. We have plenty of deer, but they don't generally eat the garden, probably because they are cautious of people due to hunting in the area as well as because there is plenty of other food available to them in areas that might seem less threatening.

  • 11 years ago

    Babs, that's beautiful! I wish I'd paid more attention to garden design and the use of shrubs years ago.

  • 11 years ago

    Babs~ Your garden is absolutely gorgeous!!!!!
    What a beautiful Hydrangea!!!!

  • 11 years ago

    Thanks, Mertie, it is a beautiful shrub, though I have done nothing beyond prepping the bed, planting and mulching it, and once a year removal of old blossoms in early spring. I tend to like the H. panicualtas with lacier, looser blooms rather than the really huge really dense blossoms. The bed it's in has one other H. paniculata, Quickfire, which I like even more since it is a bit lacier and smaller (6'-7' in all directions) and blooms for a month longer. It's the first bed I actually planned rather than just buying and putting in plants willy-nilly, and i've been pleased with how it came out. I just bought H. paniculata White Diamond, which also has lacier blossoms. If you don't have room for a huge H. paniculata, there are ones as small as 3'-5' tall and wide such as Bobo, and a bunch with "Little" in their names such as Little Lime, Little Lamb, and Little Quickfire.

    Here Quickfire starts blooming white in late June to early July

    and turns pink around the time that Pinky Winky is starting to open buds in early August. This is Quickfire in late September.

  • 11 years ago

    Oh my Goodness, Babs! Those plantings could be on the cover of Better Homes and Gardens!!! What perfect planning... and plantings! Love the Blue Spruce and the purple foliage to the left of your second pic.. and the woods as a backdrop... Just beautiful!!!
    Wish I had had the foresight years ago to get the larger shrubs and trees planted like you did.
    What few arborvitae I did plant have been either eaten by the deer or crushed by heavy snowfall, and I had to remove them. Congrats on a perfect garden!

  • 11 years ago

    NHBabs, Thank you so much for the pics! Wonderful garden and I love your philosophy about when best time to plant! I just read another quote - 'my favorite plant is the one I don't have!' The Pinky Winky is totally amazing.

  • 11 years ago

    "...The second best time is now".... I love that philosophy also!!!
    Babs~ I definitely will remember that next Spring. I thought the darker shrub was a ninebark. I love them too! Thanks so much for the link to your beautiful gardens and gardening tips. Against the advise from my children and Grandchildren, I started a new bed this Spring, closer to my house. I'm 73 and am finding that it's harder every year to keep up with the large perennial gardens I have. So....a "Normal" person would have realized their limitations... But I'm not normal! lol.. and I love gardening! Just wish I still had a few months left of this summer!
    The soil there is sandy and rocky.... as is most of my soil here, so I spent over a month just digging up rocks and amending the soil with compost and professional grade peet moss. As far as hydrangeas, I've not had good luck in having blooms, so am starting over with "Forever and Ever", "Endless Summer", and "Next Generation Pistachio". It's a long fall here in Michigan, so I didn't want to winter protect them too early. Went out yesterday and did that so hope they don't suffer too much if and when we get -20 temps. this winter. I wrote down the H. paniculatas that you mentioned and will look for them next Spring also. Thanks for listing some of your favorites and for taking the time to help fellow gardeners, Babs. I really appreciate it!