1/1/2015
Fan Favorites
Mike Ingles
In the landscape industry, your calling card is the beauty of your work. Eye-catching, sustainable garden beds offering a variety of color and seasonal display solidifies reputations and demonstrates to potential clients that you have the vision and talent to design their unique outdoor living spaces.
Project managers Michael Beightol and John Peterson, Exscape Designs in Chesterland, Ohio, say that clients always explain, “I want it to look great, but don’t want to have to do any maintenance.”
They aim to please. The managers agree that in adding shrubbery they prefer Hydrangea arborescens Incrediball and Hydrangea paniculata Limelight because they work in almost any garden and show especially well in classic or traditional style designs. The benefits of both are that they have beautiful, larger and longer-lasting blooms than most hydrangeas and, just as importantly, the buds grow on new wood.
Michael adds, “In Northeast Ohio, the temperature can drop severely and early. These extreme drops can kill off the buds on an old growth hydrangea, leaving it flowerless the following summer. We’ve found that even varieties such as Endless Summer are not always bud hardy.”
He explains the Indrediball and Limelight Hydrangeas are less susceptible to extreme temperature damage, just by the nature of how they grow their buds. Therefore, they’re more reliable to continue to add their color throughout the growing seasons.
John explains the challenge with adding perennials is trying to get immediate impact without the eventual overcrowding, “Far too often do we meet a client who has a property that was planted to attain immediate impact and now they have a landscape that is overgrown and unsightly.” He favors the Rozanne Geranium as a reliable way to add color to borders and beds that require a short massing plant that won’t eventually get too large. The Rozanne Geranium also holds its blue color for most of the summer and will maintain its size.
Michael says that nurseries are producing more and more species varieties and it’s a challenge to understand what’s new to the market and how they’ll perform over longer periods of time. Longevity and beauty are what put the company’s reputation on the line and relying on experienced nursery professionals is critical.
“Sometimes it seems like overkill when you see 10 new varieties of the same plant. That’s when the relationship between the grower and the designer or installer is so important. Nurseries help us understand what is worth trying and what is most tried and true. That relationship is the key to ensuring high-quality designs that are current, relevant and able to be enjoyed for years to come.”
The managers also endorse newer cultivars of grasses, such as the hakonechloa, to bring a season-long gold or chartreuse tone into the landscape. John explains, “Hakonechloa has a low-mounding texture that looks great falling over a dark hardscape, as it adds color contrast and softens the hard edges. It is light and airy and moves with the wind to expose some of the darker tones underneath. It looks great in masses or as smaller color splashes to break up monotonous green lines.”
Bruce Allentuck, president of Allentuck Landscaping Co. in Clarksburg, Maryland, says their designers are using more and more plants with foliage color, such as Lime Rickey Heuchera or any of the other heucheras that show really well. And they’re incorporating more long-season bloomers, such as different coreopsis and sedums for fall color.
Bruce explains: “All of these varieties work well in pots mixed with annuals. For big foliage splashes, we are using banana plants, palms and elephant ears. Mostly, clients are looking for lots of color, low maintenance, low water requirements and deer resistance. If there is such a thing.”
Probably nowhere is seasonal color and sustainability more important that at “Ole Miss,” the University of Mississippi in Oxford. As part of their duties, Jeff McManus, director of landscape services, and Nathan Lazinsky, landscape supervisor, have to oversee the planting of approximately 20,000 annuals, including tulips and daffodils, each spring.
In addition, there are approximately 10,000 sq. ft. of perennial beds on campus. The focal point of this beautiful campus is a 10-acre area known as the “Grove” where tailgaters gather seven to eight weekends each fall for SEC football. Visitors are always asking about the plantings they favor and why.
For annuals, Nathan likes the color tones of the Serena Angelonia series, which blooms from May to the first frost. He also plants Hawaiian Blue Eyes Evolovulus and Butterfly Red Pentas because they favor full sun, attract bees and are low maintenance.
With perennials, the pair favors Goldstrum Rudbeckia, which blooms June through October; Blazing Star Liatris, to add a splash of color in July and August; and Shasta daisy, which doubles as a great cut flower and offers peak blooms in May through July.
Favorite shrubs on campus are native azaleas, because of the fragrance; Shishi Gashira Camellia, which adds color from October through January; and Shoal Creek Chaste Tree, which is fragrant, grows quickly to 20 ft. tall and is an excellent replacement for the Crape Myrtle that has had so much trouble with infestation in the South.
Ole Miss gets two color change-outs each year, spring and fall. In autumn, the campus comes aglow with mums, dusty miller, kale and ornamental cabbages. And Jeff says they’ve added a new tree trail on campus “featuring everything from bald cypress to Yoshino Cherry; some 23 species of trees in all.” GP
Mike Ingles is a retired freelance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, who has experience writing for the turf industry and a degree in business.