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Saturday, May 24, 2008

The Red Garden

 
Lobelia tupa June 2009


 

 



Red is vivid, warm, hot. Here are some plants to redden to your garden with foliage, flowers & fruit. Not many plants have red foliage, even fewer purple. Both are included below.  Red flowers range from tomato to wine. Combine them to create striking effects. Wine-red flowers blend with blue & purple, tomato-red with orange & yellowPink flowers look very nice against red or purple foliage.  Lilium pardalinum (Leopard Lily) is a California native that frows well in the Pacific NorthwestLobelia tupa is a xeric Chilean native, probably the biggest Lobelia you have ever seen!  Sinocalycalycanthus raulstonii ‘Hartlage Wine' was named for Richard Hartlage, a director of the Center for Urban Horticulture. See it at the Miller Garden.

Plant List
Small Trees
Acer circinatum (Vine Maple): red fall color
Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’ or ‘Garnet’ (Japanese Maple): red foliage
Arbutus unedo (Strawberry Tree): red fruit
Catalpa x erubescens 'Purpurea': purple foliage
Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’ (Eastern Redbud): purple foliage

Shrubs
Callistemon rigidus or subulatus (Bottlebrush): red flowers
Hydrangea ‘Lady in Red’: red flowers & purple foliage
Nandina domestica ‘Plum Passion’ (Heavenly Bamboo): purple foliage
Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Diabolo’ (Ninebark): dark reddish foliage
Pieris ‘Forest Flame’: red new foliage
Viburnum sargentii ‘Onondaga’: red new growth & fall color
Weigela florida ‘Java Red’: red foliage & flowers

Perennials: most with red flowers
Astilbe ‘Fanal’ (Ostrich Plume)
Centranthus ruber (Valerian)
Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ (Flaming Iris)
Eucomis ‘Oakhurst’ (Pineapple Lily): purple foliage
Euphorbia amygdaloides ‘Purpurea’ (Purple Wood Spurge): red roliage
Imperata cylindrica ‘Rubra’ (Japanese Blood Grass): red foliage
Lilium pardalinum (Leopard Lily)
Schizostylis coccinea (Crimson Flag)
Sedum ‘Matrona’: purple foliage

Groundcovers & Trailers
Ajuga reptans ‘Bronze Carpet’ (Carpet Bugle): red foliage
Gaultheria procumbens (Wintergreen): red berries
Sedum ‘Vera Jameson’: purple foliage
Thymus serpyllum ‘Coccineum’ (Red Thyme): red flowers

2 comments:

  1. Jordan - I was just looking for info on a tree I fell in love with on a walk last week and saw your smiling face on the Google image search! So of course I have to ask you - where at your place is the Cercis canadensis? Do you love this tree? I have a tendency to fall hard for trees and then find out they are troublesome for some reason or another. Last one was Acer negundo, which looks great but is apparently a pain in the @#$)(*&. Thanks!

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  2. I don't have Cercis canadensis. But I know it to be a well-behaved small tree. I love the rich, purple-red foliage of 'Forest Pansy.'

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