Master Gardeners of Lubbock

Eliminate the Negative

by Liz Smitten, Certified Master Gardener

Originally printed in Avalanche Journal Gardening Supplement, Spring 2004

Those of us who grow a variety of flowers in our gardens sometimes forget that not all parts of a plant are attractive, and that not all plants continue to look good after they have bloomed. This is not only a gardener’s blindness; we tend to feel the same way about our children and spouses, our pets and our houses. Fortunately there are ways to camouflage some garden problems by using companion plants which flourish under the same growing conditions and bloom at the same time of year.

There is no more joyous harbinger of spring in the garden than the sight of masses of early bulbs, from the lush and fragrant hyacinths to the nodding heads of daffodils and narcissus, and the airy grace of tulips. When I plant these late in the year and dream of their future, I tend to forget that much of the soil around them will be bare when my bulbs are at their peak, and that as they finish their bloom cycle I need to remember not to cut back their leaves, which are necessary to store nutrients for next year’s blossoms.

By planting certain perennial groundcovers between the clumps of bulbs to hide the bare soil and the dying foliage, and selecting those groundcovers that bloom early, the beauty of the spring garden is enhanced. Because these bulbs and perennials hopefully will be in the garden for many years, I choose groundcovers which keep their leaves over winter, require a minimum of maintenance, and have soft stems so the bulbs can push up through them.

One of my favorites, particularly as a companion to daffodils, is the creeping veronica. The cultivar called ‘Georgia Blue’, with small, clear blue flowers, does particularly well in this area and is usually available locally. Creeping veronica, which grows to about four inches tall by 18 inches wide, and should be planted in sun or light shade, will frequently bloom again in the fall, and the only maintenance I have had to give it is to shear it once in late winter.

Another favorite is the true hardy geranium, or cranesbill, an entirely different plant from the pelargonium, which we commonly think of as geranium. The most common cranesbill, called ‘Sanguineum’ because its leaves turn a beautiful blood red in the autumn, begins to bear rose-violet flowers in the spring, and looks particularly attractive with the hyacinths. It also likes full sun or partial shade and will usually continue blooming until July, and then start again in the fall. If you have the patience, one plant will suffice since ‘Sanguineum’, which grows to about eight inches in one foot clumps, will develop colonies over a couple of years, and can easily be divided and moved to other areas of the garden. Again, my only maintenance is to pick off dead leaves in the heat of late summer and give it an annual haircut in very early spring.

Many tulips are not perennial in our area of the country, partly because they do not have a consistently cold period in the ground in winter to maintain dormancy, and, as with other flowers such as peonies, an unseasonable hot spell in spring can prevent their buds from opening. I have had more success with the Darwin hybrid tulips, and the early double-flowering tulips, although the latter are sometimes hard to find. These tulips come in such a wealth of colors that whether I plant them in single color masses or in a mixed planting, I have found the best evergreen perennial companion plant is the candytuft, or iberis, with dark green foliage and small white star-like flowers, for at the base of the blue-green tulip leaves, they make the brightly colored tulips glow even more vibrantly. Candytuft, at eight inches tall by a foot wide, can use a haircut in late summer if it begins to look raggedy, and will usually bloom again in late September.

For me, one of the additional benefits of companion planting is that these groundcovers will also reduce the area of my garden which needs weeding, giving me more time to enjoy the flowers of spring!

For more gardening information in Lubbock, visit the Lubbock Garden Clubs site.