Today we’re visiting Adeline Kong’s garden. We’ve been there before, so if you enjoy these photos, be sure to check out previous posts beginning here.

Greetings again from British Columbia. The warm days just fly when you are having fun. It has been an incredible gardening year. The winter was mild except for a few snow-filled weeks, and spring came early. The garden perennials exceeded my expectations this year. The plants, in their fifth year, matured and filled in nicely, including the new additions. It’s all beginning to look like the cottage garden I had envisioned.

My favorite plants have always been the ones that will flourish with minimal attention, as my gardening time remains limited because of work and family. Given a choice, though, I’m quite happy to spend hours from dawn to dusk puttering around in the garden.

This year, I did not need many annuals to fill in the gaps. However, being the restless person that I am, I dug up more beds, which became home to the Annabelles. Meantime, the other beds again are filled with annuals, sown from seeds saved from previous years. Rudbeckias, zinnias, nicotianas, verbenas, and marigolds remain my favorites. The fragrant nicotianas, verbenas, and bidens had reseeded themselves, adding to the garden tapestry.

The following photos show the part of the garden that I previously shared. The perennials within the beds include Endless Summer’s ‘Blushing Bride’ hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Blushing Bride’), paniculatas such as Quick Fire and Pinky Winky, daylilies, and a generous scattering of Shasta daisies. The astilbes enjoyed the partial shade provided by the plum tree. The bright reds of the monardas and crocosmia are still the constant in these beds. Compositions of hostas, Silver Knight heathers, purple rhododendrons, rose campion, wild foxgloves, bearded irises, oriental lilies, asters, Liatris spicata, Abyssinian gladiolus, and sedums also grace these areas. I staggered and grouped like plants for easy flow along the borders. I selected all plants with the hope of extending the flowering period from spring to fall, with summer being the most colorful.

Cheers,

Adeline Kong

Lupines (Lupinus hybrids, Zones 3–9) with their stately spires of flowers

The romantic cottage-garden effect, informal and full of flowers

Repeating the same plants through the garden makes it feel more natural and unified.

A shady corner is no less flower-filled.

Fragrant ornamental tobacco (Nicotiana alata, annual) has reseeded itself. To encourage self-sowing in your garden, be sure the mulch isn’t too thick for the seedlings to germinate and get established.

A cottage garden is all about flowers, in every color of the rainbow. Here blue hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla, Zones 6–9) are backed by a kaleidoscope of flowers.

Bright red spikes of Crocosmia (Zones 6–9) arch over other perennials.

What a magical garden. I can’t wait to see more next time Adeline lets us all visit!

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