Fragrant Hedges

The walls of our gardens, the hedges, define spaces, imply boundaries and create soft retreats for the hot days of summer. A hedge can transform an awkward and unusable spot into a lovely secluded space.

The fuzzy honeysuckle contours trace edges for the landscape, soft and lacy in the breeze and accompanied by sweet scent.

Sheltered between walls and greenery a little outdoor room provides respite from the noise, heat and daily grind, with just enough space for a little bench and a fountain surrounded by the contrast of low growing and imposing stately perennials.

The bottom of the living wall blends with the graduated heights of the planted floor to make the delimitation line almost disappear, no sharpness, no hard lines.

Tall bushes arch gently over the smaller growies, providing shade for the lush hostas and homes for many birds and squirrels.

Anyway, my point is if you plant a hedge, choose a fragrant one, such as: lilac, mock orange, honeysuckle, butterfly bush, abelia, or viburnum.

If you are blessed with a sunny spot there is nothing more romantic than an old climbing rose in bloom draping over the top of a garden wall.

Every shade of purple

Changing the color of the ground is another great way do delineate a space: a mass planting of orange flowers, a field of yellow tulips, a delicate cover of blue plumbago.

My garden decided to paint an entire flower bed purple this year. I've got every shade of purple, from mauve to indigo; low growing bugle weed, tall wavering alliums, delicate sweet violets, intense grape hyacinths, real navy blue hyacinths, and crocuses. The purple garden phlox will start blooming any day now, followed by the butterfly bush and the deep burgundy daylilies.

It feels as if the garden internalized the unseasonably cold weather and took on cool shades of blue, purple and lavender to match it. It's finally warm now, we skipped spring again this year and moved from 50F to 80F in two days. The plants are growing at an accelerated pace, trying to catch up for the weeks of gradually warming weather that didn't happen.

After you tend to a perennial garden for a while you learn that even though the same plants come back year after year the flower beds never look the same.

What a charming picture is this winding path sprinkled with purple flowers! Sometimes the camera adds its own magic.