Last Father’s Day my present was a little Japanese Maple. It rested in it’s pot for a while and finally was planted in the fall when I had the perfect location for it, the Japanese Maple Garden next to our newly constructed patio. It’s a young garden bed with just a few plantings but in time it will grow as the Japanese maple grows. I tend to plant smaller plants and give them time to grow rather than spend lots of money on larger plants. Time is one element that a thrifty gardener can exploit! In this bed I planted pink Mulhy grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris), a Japanese Maple (couldn’t be a Japanese maple garden without one could it?), two ‘Husker’s Red’ penstemon (Penstemon digitalis), coreopsis, and hopefully a variegated hydrangea. I suspect the hydrangea didn’t make it through the winter but we’ll see. In the fall I planted daffodils and hyacinths with the idea that the purple and yellow colors would look great together but a strange thing happened on the way to blooming. The blue-purple hyacinths…
were not all blue-purple!
Apparently the hyacinths were mixed together when the package claimed they were all of one color. It happens sometimes. I’m not too picky about it so I’ll just leave them be for now. The gentle smell of the hyacinths wafts over the patio making it fragrant space to spend the warm pre-spring evenings.
The daffodils will thicken as they age and will gradually fill up the space. I could have planted them closer together to give the appearance of a more established bed but I’m content to wait until the bulbs multiply by themselves. I’ll add a few more daffodils to the gardens each fall.
Soon the daffodils and hyacinths will fade away and perennials and annuals will begin to take over the beds. It’s a good idea to leave the foliage until it turns brown to give the bulbs as much energy from the sun as possible for next season. There’s always something growing!
Looks great. Will be nice to watch it grow. I just got a Japanese Maple to plant in my yard/garden. Had tried one before, but it didn’t make it. Then someone told me here in Texas they need to be planted in the shade of other trees, because it’s too hot here. So I will try again and see.
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Hi Dave, it looks wonderful! Love the hyancinths and daffs, no matter the color! The white goes well with everything. We had some blues mixed in with an all white package, a happy turn of events. I was wondering what variety your maple is. I looked back at the older posts and it seems to be the upright type, rather than the smaller weeping ones. Maybe Bloodgood? I was asking because some of the plants underneather might be too large for the Crimson Queen types, but would be fine for the Bloodgood types which yours looks to be. I can picture the pink muhly with the red leaves of the maple in fall and the red foliage of Husker, it will be outstanding! I always love those newly emerging red leaves in the spring of the maples too, as pretty as flowers! What a great father’s day gift. 🙂 Now you need a foo dog or concrete lantern thingey. I love those.
Frances
And maybe a little sand zen garden with a small handmade rake and some well places rocks…..sorry, this is just too fun to think about. 🙂
Those daffys actually look pretty good right now. You planted quite a few. Your hyacinths are so much further ahead of mine. I love them. I bet your hydrangea made it. Mine are only slowly growing buds at the base now, but not all. Hang in there. A late start is good with unpredictable freezes.
I’m happy to hear that you like to give plants a chance to fill in on their own. I’ve seen too many landscapes that are planted to look established the first or second year. By the third or fourth, they’re overgrown!
Your Daffodils are so much further along than the ones here- mine are only leaves about 2-3″ high. Of course our high temperature is only supposed to be 28 today!
Dave,
Japanese Maples are very special…and they are complimented by many different plants…you are going to have a lot of fun! I can see a small underplanting of False Rue Anemone…it has leaves very similar to columbine and small white flowers…very short. The dafs and hyacinths look lovely…I bet it smells delightful outside…well, when it’s warm, certainly not today! It is fun to watch your garden grow…Sometimes I imagine starting in a new garden with a blank canvas…I wonder what I would do differently?
Gail
What a great gift! Beautiful blooms and I too tend to buy small and watch it grow myself!
You know your plants well, Dave. The combination did work out well.
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