Schneller - The Ever-Blooming Flower Garden: A Blueprint for Continuous Color

THE
EVER-BLOOMING FLOWER GARDEN

A Blueprint for Continuous Color

LEE SCHNELLER

To Richard, and to the memory of Lollipop

The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by publishing practical information that encourages personal independence in harmony with the environment.

Edited by Gwen Steege Art direction and book design by Dan O. Williams

Cover photography by Lee Schneller

Interior photography by Lee Schneller, except for GAP Photos Ltd.: 125 middle, 126 bottom, 131 bottom, 136 top, 155 top, 158 bottom, 164 bottom, 172 bottom, 174 middle, bottom, 175 bottom, 183 top; courtesy of Schreiners Gardens: 161 bottom; James H. Schutte: 176 middle; Liz Stanley: 28, 29, 48, 53 top left, 6366, 68, 69, 82 bottom four, 187 middle; Mars Vilaubi: 50

Color illustrations by Dan O. Williams, with additional illustrations on by Sarah Brill, top right; Beverly Duncan, top left, middle right; and Mallory Lake, bottom right

Diagrams by Alison Kolesar,

Indexed by Christine R. Lindemer, Boston Road Communications

2009 by Lee Schneller

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages or reproduce illustrations in a review with appropriate credits; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other without written permission from the publisher.

The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations are made without guarantee on the part of the author or Storey Publishing. The author and publisher disclaim any liability in connection with the use of this information. For additional information, please contact Storey Publishing, 210 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA 01247.

Storey books are available for special premium and promotional uses and for customized editions. For further information, please call 1-800-793-9396.

Printed in the United States by CJK
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Schneller, Lee.

The ever-blooming flower garden / by Lee Schneller.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-60342-139-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Flower gardening. 2. GardensDesign. I. Title.

II. Title: Ever blooming flower garden.
SB405.S36 2009
635.9dc22

2009001392

What gardener doesnt dream of blooms from frost to frost? For many, this is an impossible dream. Like other gardeners, I used to be humbled and dismayed as my best efforts produced gardens that burst forth with splendor in June but fizzled out into a dried-up mass of foliage as the summer wore on. In The Ever-Blooming Flower Garden, I share the techniques that Ive developed to unlock the secret of continuous blooms and put it within reach, even if youve never gardened before.

My first continuously blooming garden marks the entrance of a beauty salon on a tawdry strip of U.S. Route 1 in Rockland, Maine. Surrounded by asphalt, fast-food joints, and a quick-oil-change shop, a more challenging location could hardly be found. Hired to rework a lackluster garden, I was able to create a traffic-stopping oasis bursting with perennial blooms from April to November in a very small space. Thanks to its fortuitous location, my first garden brought me a flood of business from the beauty salon clientele and many opportunities to refine my technique over the next decade.

When I started designing gardens, my first attempts felt like mortal combat with messy lists of plant information. Height! Color! Zone! Bloom time! Sun or shade? The bigger the garden, the more cumbersome and confusing the lists. It seemed impossible to remember and organize all the details, and making changes in midstream created even more chaos. I knew I wanted a broad selection of plants with different heights and bloom times, but getting a grip on the big picture seemed impossible. Then I came up with a simple system for taming the jungle of plant data by using a totally new sequence for garden design. My system delivers a detailed snapshot of a whole garden on a single page and even doubles as a shopping list, which cuts out another step. Ive used it to design and rework over 100 gardens of all sizes and shapes. After finding it so useful, it occurred to me that I had something important to share with other gardeners, so I started giving four-hour workshops for gardeners of all skill levels, who told me they felt empowered by my technique and inspired to new levels of confidence and creativity.

Anyone can use my system. Heres the basic approach:

Create the Blueprint by selecting short, medium, and tall plants whose various bloom times guarantee color through the season (), a conveniently organized list of prescreened plants.

Buy all the plants ().

Lay out and plant the new garden: place the plants in the prepared bed and move them around until youre satisfied ().

My standard system involves planting everything very densely. This offers several advantages: The bed appears full and mature more quickly, weeds and unwanted seedlings are minimized (because they have little room to take root), and you get more blooms per square foot. You can still use my system of organization (the Blueprint) for beds that are not dens-ley planted if you prefer that style.

Many books tantalize with promises of continuous blooms, but most merely catalog bloom times by season. Those books can be useful for choosing individual plants but fail to help gardeners organize the information flexibly to create the elusive season-spanning garden. This book has everything you need to plan and plant a successful, continuously blooming garden, whether youre a novice or an experienced gardener improving mature beds.

Gardening is a form of creative expression accessible to almost everyone. The materials to do it are relatively cheap and abundantly available all you need is the smallest patch of ground. Unlike a painting displayed in a private interior space, gardens are generally enjoyed by many viewers. When someone creates a garden, it enriches many lives and inspires others to be creative, too. Thats why I hate to see anyone fail, especially if theyre new to the world of gardening. Admittedly, things can go wrong, and failure may sour people on gardening for good. They think they have no aptitude for it and give up after the first attempt. This book is my contribution to easy, successful gardening. Success encourages gardeners to experiment and create more, and I think that makes the world a better place for everyone. Good luck, and happy gardening!

Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea