When we hit August the buzz word on the gardening front was Prairie Planting, technically now called new perennial planting. This is because so many of the late summer perennials and textural grasses emulate the natural planting on vast wild Prairies. These look wonderful right through until autumn.
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| Achilea |
We have a whole array of herbaceous flowers that stand tall and beautiful amongst some of the feathery grasses.
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| Aster |
Open sunny spots with well-drained soil are the best for planting and you can add organic mulch, sand and grit to your soil to lighten it.
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| rudbeckia |
The aim is not to make it too rich as this encourages over tall floppy growth that may need support.
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| echinacea |
Plant-wise you use a combination of perennials with some height and a mixture of tall and short grasses providing a soft and translucent foil for the flowers with texture and movement.
The flowers need to look natural and to do this they are planted in clumps or drifts and repeated providing a natural rhythm as they repeatedly echo through the space. We use a variety of shapes and heights. Classically daisies from the Asteraceae family. These are helenium, rudbeckia and echinacea that we instantly call on for prairie plants.
To make it work we also need tall candles or spires like veronicastrum and salvia, and round globes such as the silvery blue echinops and phlomis. Umberliferals and phlox, hemerocallis, iris, cirsium or thistle flowers and iris all add variety and height.
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| helenium |
Finally, don’t miss the tall vivid purple clouds of Verbena bodnariensis and the flat heads of achillea. All these shapes planted is clumps create a varied but naturalistic pattern within the grass.
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| Verbena bodnariensis |
Here are a few ideas of plants you can use:
Tall Grasses
Calamagrostis (2m)
Panicum (Red tips)
Stipia Gigantia (Feathery foil)
Miscanthus
Short Grasses
Molina
Deschampsia
Pennisetum
Molina (Transparent)
Hakonechloa
Stipia tenuissima
Tall Perennials Spires:
Crocosima
Lythrun
Perovskia
Salvia
Solidago
Stachys
Verbascum
Veronicastrum
Daisy Like Flowers:
Anthemis tinctora
Aster
Echinacea
Helenium
Helianthus
Rudbeckia
Round heads:
Allium
Echinops
Phlomis
Everything else:
Anthriscus
Cirsum rivulare
Eryngium
Hemerocallis
Iris sibirica
Knautia
Phlox
