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Border Patrol August 27, 2009
of The Seasonal Walk Saga

By Tovah Martin

To Shake DownTo Head TurnersTo Lovely CompositionTo Good Things

Head Turners

Head Turner Even when they’re fading, Oudolf’s own signature echinaceas are headturners. The all-time favorite ‘Fatal Attraction’ continues to top everyone’s list, ripening into a burnished burgundy with purple/gray highlights. I’ve never caught that hue anywhere in the garden before – and it’s a great team player with the dahlias and ornamental grass plumes that serve as neighbors.

‘Vintage Wine’ is darker – almost mysterious. Meanwhile, Scutellaria incana continues to blossom, but the lower bracts on each wand are turning into tawny seedheads, Aster frikartii ‘Monch’ is going strong with its loose, aquamarine blossoms, and the same Actaea simplex ‘Brunette’ that has transfixed us from season’s start throughout the entire duration is now brandishing its candles of airy blossoms.

But it’s all interwoven. You can no longer see where one grouping ends and the next begins. It’s like a bouquet. And the ornamental grasses are stepping out. Actually, the ornamental grasses were augmented in August. The casualties of the month and a half of solid rain and drab weather in June/July were Sedum ‘Sunkissed’ and Sedum telephium ‘Xenox’ (on the other hand, Sedum ‘Matrona’ is the hero of the hour – it didn’t blink an eye – it’s magnificent, and in full flower). When ‘Sunkissed’ and ‘Xenox’ fell apart, they were removed or fitted with bedfellows. Head Turner Too

For that purpose, Panicum virgatum ‘Shenandoah’ and Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Redhead’ were selected by Kristin Schleiter of the NYBG and they are “spot on” additions. Schleiter also tucked in the annual Lantana trifolia earlier in the season, and that brilliant choice is now bearing fruit – literally. The lilac-colored flowers began opening a month ago, they elongated into cones of flowers, and now the cones are producing bright, shiny lavender berries along the same color lines as callicarpa. This is an annual worth watching. Otherwise, the annuals are pretty much out of the brew – except self-sown Verbena bonariensis (a vestige of past designs) and angelonias.

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