Low-Maintenance Plants for DIY Landscape Gardens
Bordering Walks and Patios in Memorial and Meditation Garden Designs
Mar 16, 2009
Small trees and shrubs recently introduced to landscape gardeners save maintenance time, effort and money. They are smaller than their normal-sized relatives, relatively disease and pest resistant, and offer three-to-four season color.
Memorial and meditation gardens are usually small and intimate spaces. Typical landscape trees and shrubs can overwhelm such spaces. Below are suggestions for up-to-the-minute low-maintenance landscape plants to border walks and patio areas in a small memorial garden (Figure 1).
Both Sides of Walk
Oso Easy™ Rose 'Fragrant Spreader' Shrub Rose (Figure 2)
- Size: 1 to 2' tall and wide; spreading to four or more feet wide;
- Disease Resistance: black spot or mildew;
- Bloom Time: peak bloom in early-summer, blooming intermittently all summer;
- Bloom Color: vivid pink with a white center and golden stamens.
South and West Side of Patio
'Bangle'™ Genista lydia (Figure 3)
- Size: 2' tall and 24" wide, mounding characteristic;
- Bloom Time: mid-spring and persists for 3-6 weeks;
- Bloom Color: electric yellow;
- Winter Interest: bright green stems that provide interesting year-round texture and color.
Behind and Both Sides of Benches
Lo & Behold™ 'Blue Chip' Buddleia or Butterfly Bush
- Size: 24" - 30" tall forming a tidy 30" mound; does not need pruning or deadheading;
- Bloom Time: continuous blooming, mid-summer to fall;
- Bloom Color: blue to purple-blue;
- Foliage Color: grey-green;
- Special characteristics: drought resistant and deer resistant;
- Fertilize: early spring - a slow release fertilizer specialized for trees & shrubs; follow label recommended rate of application.
Set Back from Curve in Walk on East Side
'Carol Mackie' Daphne x burkwoodii
- Size: 2-3' tall, 3-4' wide rounded with mounding habit;
- Bloom Time: April – May;
- Bloom Color: pale pink and very fragrant;
- Foliage: grayish-green with cream-colored margins; foliage may persist through December;
- Needs: summer mulch or ground cover needed to keep roots cool; soils should not dry out.
Three Plants in Triangle to East and Slightly North of Curve in Walk
'Diana' Hibiscus syriacus (Figure 4)
- Size: 5-8' tall, 4-6' wide, erect multi-stemmed shrub; may also be trained as a single trunk tree;
- Bloom Time: early-summer to autumn;
- Bloom Color: pure white flowers (4-6" diameter) with no eye, hollyhock-like, 5-petaled, stay open at night;
- Soil Type: prefers moist, organically rich soils, but tolerates poor soils and some drought;
- Light: full sun to part shade, better flowering in full sun, tolerant of summer heat and humidity.;
- 'Diana' is a sterile triploid that produces very few if any seed pods.
East and North of Patio
Sarcococca or Sweetbox - Sarcococca hookeriana var. humilis (Figure 5)
- Size: height 12 to 24", mounds to approximately the same width;
- Growth Rate: slow to moderate, spreading by stolons;
- Flower/Fruit: clusters of fragrant white flowers in later winter to early spring, .04 inch round black fruit;
- Foliage: lustrous dark evergreen lance-shaped leaves;
- Soil Type: prefers organically rich, well-drained acidic soil, but tolerates high pH (alkaline) soils;
- Light: partial shade to shade.
Shady Edges North and West of Patio
Early Spring Bulbs and Brunnera 'Jack Frost'
- Leaves are silvery white with green primary and secondary veins and a thin green rim around leaf edges;
- Forms a 20" wide hosta-like mound of heart-shaped 3-5” wide leaves which remain attractive throughout the growing season.
Plant Selection Principles Utilized in a Memorial Landscape Garden Design
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