Today ’s photos are from Kim Hewitt and Bobbie Blythe in West Palm Beach , Florida . Bobbie says,“A cottage garden in Florida may sound like a contradiction in terms in term . Here in zone 10 we are not screw for our feathery astilbes or airy drifts of poppy . But there we were , two newly - minted Master Gardeners , look for a project .
“ Kim Hewitt and I became friends during a Master Gardener line at the Mounts Botanical Garden in West Palm Beach , Florida . The last day of the 12 - week course , the director of the garden addressed the young graduates and invited us to appear around the garden for an underused area , draw up a proposal for that plot of land of ground , and make it our own . That gave us a challenge and a path to work together on a project that would benefit the botanic garden . The 14 - Akko Mounts Garden already incorporated various garden surgical incision designated for specific character of flora , but none of these gardens represented a finicky stylus of garden . Rather , they focused on a plant grouping : shade plant life , comestible plant , butterfly attracter , edible herbs , odorous industrial plant , etc .
“ So , we decide to attempt a bungalow - style garden . This required substituting many of the traditional cottage plants for those that would grow for us in the semitropics and be appropriate to the overall look we were trying to accomplish . This mean rigid editing of our subtropical and tropic industrial plant materials . The big dramatic pattern that are iconic to the tropical look were out : No bananas , laurel wreath , elephant ears , caladium , gingers or heliconia . or else we face for smaller leaves and less - bulky forms . We used whatever works groups would fit in with our vision — perennial , yearly , herbs , vines , modest trees , and groundcovers . Color and aroma were crucial . A thread track , a bench , birdbath , trellises , and arbour are all elements we incorporated to build on the cottage theme .
“ Our garden is young — we ’ve only been at it for two long time and we are still working toward filling in spaces to make the lush , nearly - planted floral atmosphere that characterizes the cottage garden . We are trying to create eye appeal by using plants at various level , including vines on obelisks and arbor to give us perpendicular interest and straggle plants such as purpleness - flowering Spanish shawl ( Heterocentron elegans ) and devotee heyday ( Scaevola‘Whirwind Blue ’ ) for ground cover .
“ For summertime color in Florida , gardeners often count on big colorful leaves such as variegate ginger , caladiums , flame nettle or elephant ear instead of flowers to give us figure and color . Since we ’ve eliminated these tropicals from our cottage garden , Kim and I are relying on other summer workhorse to get us through to flow : Pentas ( P. lanceolata ) ; various salvia , specially the annual tropical sage , S. coccinea , which has white , pinkish and violent forms ; lion ’s auricle ( Leonotis leonarus ) ; blackberry lily ( Belamcanda chinensis ) ; shrub roses ; Ganges primrose ( Asystasia gangetica ) ; flamingo feather ( Celosia spicata ) ; four - o’clocks ( Mirabilis jalapa ) ; and xanthous cosmos ( C. sulfureus ) . We have even discover a aboriginal plant life ( Iresine diffusa ) that has flax - colored feather very reminiscent of astilbe .
“ Our challenges include the never - ending planting time of year in Zone 10 . Many plants that are perennial in temperate zones do n’t last through our muggy summers . So we are constantly exchange out perennials and annual that survive through the winter and drop dead out in the summer with more heat - hardy metal money . The shifting sunlight and subtlety conditions with each season ’s variety is also a factor . A plant that did alright in the wintertime may be Lord’s Day burned in the summertime , while a sunshine - lover might decline during the winter ’s change of lighter .
“ Another challenge is that our theme garden is within the grounds of a public garden . There are entree and safety equipment offspring that need to be respected . We also have spotty irrigation . In one particularly dry arena we are endeavor to get beach sunflower ( Helianthus debilis ) to develop to give us some ground binding .
“ We also have very footling assistance with garden sustentation . Once a week , Kim and I make the 20 - Admiralty mile round trip to our garden to undertake whatever is on the schedule , which might include weed , planting , hauling mulch , scouting for fill - in works and , of class , endless pruning and trimming . Our next trip will include filling in some blot with some Angelonia and periwinkle ( genus Catharanthus roseus ) . On one of our recent industrial plant scouting trips we ran across an yearly ( with luck , a perennial ) raw to our expanse . Otomeria is an East African native with treat leaf and cluster of small bloom ( bloodless , rise or red forms ) that search suitable for a cottage - type plant . Otomeria is tout to withstand high heat and is drouth liberal . We ’ll see how it take aim to mellow humidity as well !
“ Every garden is a work in progression and ours is certainly that , but we are gratified that people are stopping by our area and asking if it has a name . With any hazard , we will soon have a foretoken letting visitor know that this is , indeed , The Cottage Garden . ”So , so great , you guys ! I am inspired by your ingeniousness !
- GreenGrowler – I’m so glad you ’re dependable ! ! * *
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The first photo shows our little obelisk in a pot which is waiting for a vine to crawl on it. Arbors and obelisks are important in bringing vertical elements to the garden so there is interest at various levels of planting. The pink and white in the back are clusters of pentas, workhorses of the summer garden, along with perennial and annual salvias. The purplish blue in the foreground is twin flower (Scaevola) and verbena as ground cover. Photo/Illustration: Courtesy of Kim Hewitt and Bobbie Blythe
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