Purchase Tickets
One of my greatest joys as a gardener is discovering that there are so many “right answers” out there—a seemingly unlimited number of plant selections and combinations capable of elevating a garden space into a transformational experience for those who pass through it.
As someone who has been gardening since birth (so I am told), I always strive to assemble plants in an order that is new… to see a space differently… to see a plant differently… to find myself in a different garden space than I’ve ever been. Last April, becoming acquainted with South Alabama’s long growing season, I tried something a bit different.
Northwest of the brick patio near the Great Lawn (where Bellingrath serves you your delicious hot chocolate and s’mores during Magic Christmas in Lights), there is a mass planting of Autumn fern. Although it was already quite beautiful, I wanted to do something to spice up the 125 sq. ft. of Dryopteris erythrosora ‘Brilliance’. While most garden beds focus on color range, coordination, and diversity, I decided to keep it dramatically simple; so, I added plants that add contrast in height and texture.
Just two plants: look what happened when we interjected ‘Tineke’ rubber tree (Ficus elastica ‘Tineke’) and some tractor seat (Farfugium giganteum ‘Marco’)! Tall, coarse, stout, variegated tropical texture stands proudly above a sea of lush ferns—proclaiming their aesthetic dominance. Also coarse-textured, but seeing eye-to-eye with the ferns, the surreal leaves of Farfugium add a hint of magic.
The rubber tree is not leaf-hardy below freezing and is likely to die out altogether if temps linger below freezing for very long. But we’re just going to treat these easy-to-propagate woody plants like big ol’ annuals. The tractor seat is easily winter-hardy in South Alabama but will likely freeze back temporarily below 25°F.
This is a mixed planting… containing both perennials and “annuals.” Besides being another “right answer” to garden display choices, this dramatic mixed planting is rather labor-, resource-, and cost-efficient. After the initial installation, the cost to embellish such a space in subsequent years drops dramatically compared to covering 125 square feet with annuals every spring. The Autumn ferns and tractor seat are long-lived perennials. Once they are in the garden, they look great year after year, needing limited yearly input compared to an all-annual display. This spring, we were selling the Farfugium for about $15 each—we planted 20 in between the ferns. With perennial bones firmly established, all we needed were a few large accents to really tie the outdoor room together. In Bellingrath’s plant sales Atrium, the Ficus ‘Tineke’ used in this display are for sale at $15 (small)–$25 (large)—we only needed seven of these to complete the planting! Spicy… not pricey.
This is just another idea to try in your garden. The next time you are thinking about how to lay out a garden space, simply have fun—we sure do! Isn’t gardening exciting!?