Kelly with Bernese Mountain dog Lucy in front of her Annabelle Hydrangeas. Her peonies grow behind the Annabelles and are the first act in this long lasting flower show.
Kelly Lehman
Kelly Lehman of Cranbury Fields Flower Farm starts us off with a classic combination of blue hydrangeas with an evergreen hedge.
Her Endless Summer macrophylla type hydrangeas look elegant paired with yew, or Taxus.
She also loves to plant early flowering peonies behind later flowering Hydrangea arborescent ‘Annabelle’. Each of these divas has its time to shine.
Here’s Kelly on her YouTube channel explaining how to prune the hydrangeas she talks about on the podcast. You can see the lovely row of yews, or Taxus, behind her and they do make a great combo.
Linda Vater
Linda Vater of Potager Blog talked about a lovely and simple combination of two successful shrubs in her garden: an Oak Leaf Hydrangea and a holly. The dark shiny leaves of the holly make a perfect backdrop for the native Hydrangea blooms.
Linda has a very successful YouTube presence also and I hope you remember our chat about her amazing new book, The Elegant and Edible Garden.
Linda Vater’s new book — you can shop for it here!
Marianne Willburn
Marianne has graced us with her presence so many times on Into the Garden with Leslie and with this episode she comes through with a really gorgeous shade combination for moderate to moist soil.
Read the caption from her photo below for the lineup. Don’t forget to check out Marianne’s books and blog on her site and keep up with her on Garden Rant.
Linda Vater in her garden with this beautiful and easy to achieve combination.
From bottom left corner and going around I spy… a cute little nandina, maybe Lemon Lime? Then above that the Rodgersia that she forgot to mention on the pod. Above that behind the big circle is probably the Hedychium, or ginger, and the variegated one that she mentioned, ‘Vanilla Ice’, can be found here at Plant Delights, The lovely Morning Light Miscanthus gives a vertical airy texture and that contrasts perfectly with the ‘Tractor Seat’ (Ligularia or Farfugium) next to it. I think below that may be a Tricyrtis? (toad lily?) and then the Autumn fern takes the lower center stage. Lovely combo, lovely photo— thanks, Marianne!
Painting and Plant Pairing
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Karen Blair
You heard me mention my friend Karen Blair on the pod this week. Karen is a Charlottesville based painter whose work I know you would love. She is known for her joyous use of color and for exuberant mark-making, and her own garden and those of friends inspire the flowers and trees also prevalent in the paintings and collages.
My Iris ensata, cultivar unknown, shared with me by long time friend Sherley Keith.
I am so excited to start this partnership with Karen, and each week I will feature here one of her paintings with a corresponding garden photo! Follow this link to see more of her paintings.
Serome putting together one of his mini Enchanted Gardens on Virginia Home Grown.
Serome Hamlin
When Serome Hamlin gardens, he could be putting his fine, so very fine motor skills in practice because what he is known for is the lovely tiny landscapes that he makes.
But on our combo episode, he walks us through a shade border that encompasses a 20’ Camellia, and that’s enchanting but not tiny.
Serome is regularly featured on the television show ‘Virginia Home Grown’ and he is the owner of The Enchanted Garden.
Serome talked about his variety of hostas— here’s a good group from the Breck’s catalog.
Coffee Time!
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Jenks Farmer
Jenks on his working Crinum farm, which is for production and display, so it has to be good and look good.
Check out Jenks’s new book on Crinums here.
Jenks Farmer is known as the Crinum Guy, and he took the idea of a plant combination to another dimension, and yet, and expected and hoped for, he did include Crinums in his combo.
He gave us some ideas on successive, as opposed to concurrent planting. Wait, how did he know that I have been raving about succession planting lately because of the Great Dixter Symposium?
Anyway, it’s so rewarding to always keep your garden looking good, and Jenks recommended starting with Leucojum, segueing to Nicotiiana, and ending up the season with a late Crinum.
I suppose you could even precede that plan with early daffs or snow drops, but try to avoid the look I had this year of early daff foliage looking objectionable until planted with zinnia seedlings that were 4” tall when I last saw them. Please let them have filled in the space by the time I get home.
Lizzie Fox with one of her favorite plants!
Lizzie Fox
For Lizzie Fox of The Rose Press Garden, it’s all about the lavender. She tells us how to combine it with lots of different lovely plants, but you have to love how it looks just on its own, too.
Lizzie’s enthusiasm gave me a new interest in it— needed because of my poorly draining clay soil.
But I am inspired to get a few clay pots and sharply draining potting mix together next summer and use some of Lizzie’s ideas.
Even just a mix of three or four lavender would make a pretty scene!
Lizzie has a burgeoning UK seed business, and check out her cheerful IG feed here.
Steph Green
Steph Green of Contained Creations in Richmond.
Steph Green of Contained Creations is our go-to container guru on Into the Garden with Leslie, and she didn’t let us down with a winning combo that she uses frequently. Honestly, if a picture is worth 1000 words, then these great variations on her basic recipe makes it so I have finished my writing for the day.
Scroll down for her beautiful looks all taken from her gorgeous Instagram feed.
