Today’s photos come from Anne Price:
My name is Anne, and I live in Quebec, Canada, Zone 5. My main interest is trees and shrubs with four-season interest, which I highlight with perennials and some annuals. I hope you enjoy these photos. They are from different times during the growing season and are a mix of front and back garden.
A Japanese maple (Acer palmatum, Zones 5–8) steals the show here, with fresh spring foliage in the brightest shade of green.
Another Japanese maple, with the new leaves just unfolding in the spring. The fresh foliage is tinged lightly with red. Many plants have new growth flushed with a red color in the spring. The red pigment acts as an antifreeze to help protect delicate new growth from late spring frosts. As an added bonus, it is very beautiful!
The bold leaves of a hosta contrast beautifully with the delicate maple foliage.
A rich diversity of colors, textures, and forms, provided primarily by foliage. The emphasis on trees and shrubs also makes this a low-maintenance garden.
A spectacular flowering tobacco (Nicotiana sylvestris, annual). This species can reach 5 to 6 feet tall in the right conditions, with huge bold foliage and long, dramatic, fragrant white flowers.
A wide view of the garden, showing what an incredible diversity of plants Anne has in a very small area. You don’t need acres and acres to have a beautiful, interesting, diverse garden!
Flower heads of oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia, Zones 5–9).
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Comments
Anne, fellow Canadian, I loved looking at the pictures of your garden. The Nicotinia is spectacular. I must add one to my garden this season. You have done a wonderful job!
Sandy Prowse, Toronto Canada.
Thank you Sandy!
Lovely gardens and your photos are great. It's so nice to see so much green this time of year. I'm still looking at white. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks, still looking at white here too!
Those hydrangea blooms are amazing!
Thank you, those are from 2 years ago and we had a lot of rain.
Love the mix of plants particularly featuring small conifers.
Thank you!
The photo with the large leafed hosta was a particularly appealing vignette to me. I love how the graceful branch tip of the Japanese maple is practically tickling the hosta and the Japanese painted fern looks so cozily nestled in.
Thank you! I should have mentioned in my short description that the 2 ‘Japanese’ maple are actually Korean maples which do much better in our cold climate in Quebec.
Oakleaf hydrangea is such a spectacular shrub! Anne's photo shows us how even with it's ultra showy panicles of snowy white blooms at their peak, the leaves can grab your attention with their shape and certain sturdy crispness that draws me in. And those blooms, depending on the cultivar and sun exposure, can really continue on a journey of color transition that keeps entertaining us as we tend our gardens. Similarly, I love the late season color of those leaves, and finally, when those fall, the peeling bark offers winter interest on a spare structure of branches.
Thanks, Anne, for taking me on that journey with your beautifully composed photo.
Thank you, I love the Oakleaf hydrangea also. It does well in a protected spot and will hopefully stay with me for many years.
Your garden looks super nice!
I love your plan, (that's my plan also)- to plant a lot of trees and shrubs for four seasons of interest, with accents of perennials. I've seen perennial gardens without trees or shrubs and they are so empty looking all winter.
Every season you have a pretty garden to look at!
Thank you!
Anne, your garden is so lush, and the foliage and flowers are beautiful. Having lived and gardened in Montreal for 17years, we appreciate how much you have achieved with the season being much shorter than where we now live [Philadelphia suburbs(zone 7a now)]. The maples are beautiful. Interesting about the red pigment being antifreeze!
Hello, thank you for the nice comments. I also didn’t know about the red foliage being antifreeze, makes sense for the Korean maples though, it must help them in the northern climes. I have another Korean maple and it also starts out with red foliage.
Seems lots of foliage emerge red. Lots of tree leaves, and perennials like peonys and solomon seal…. I always wondered if it had something to a lack of chlorophyll from sun exposure. Same reason leaves go red in fall with diminished chlorophyll…?
Anne, what a delightful multitude of plants you have assembled - I spent time with each photo diving in and figuring out the ones that weren't named. I also love your nicotiana - it gave me an idea for our neighbors house whose windows are so high above the ground that only quite tall plants would be visible from indoors - that would be another plant to add to our candidate list! Thanks for sharing, and great job with your gardens!
Thanks Cheryl, that variety of Nicotiana is my favourite annual, I have planted it enough that it reseeds for me, as the one in the photo did.
Gorgeous garden - you really have an artistic eye for mixing plants. The textures and shadings of colors are so interesting and look like they would be throughout the seasons. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you!
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