Our Landscape Designer's favorite plants

Author:
Kim Davison
Jensen Gardens Landscape Designer

Amsonia ‘blue ice’

Amsonia ‘Blue Ice’

I started using this plant about 10 years ago and have found it to be very reliable. Very few plants provide everything that homeowners ask for low maintenance, lots of color and hardy.  This perennial provides multiple seasons of interest, early season blue flowers, wonderful summer foliage and a sturdy habit and golden yellow fall color.  No pests or disease problems does not spread throughout the garden and is deer and rabbit resistant.  Another variety has been found to grow naturally in a variety of locations, limestone ledges, damp grassy slopes and riverbanks.  I have noticed they prefer a lot of water during the heat of the summer and will take part sun to full sun.   They will do best in full sun as long as their roots stay somewhat damp.  I love to mass this plant as it looks so natural in sweeping beds. The flowers of the blue ice complement just about any other plant I set it with. 

The fall color is just as colorful as the summer flowers, and it pairs well with purple coralbells, switchgrass and Rozanne geranium. 

butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)

Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)

This plant seems to be an obvious choice for most gardens, but unfortunately not all gardens will support it, for too much shade, or too wet or just the name milkweed seems to turn people off.  I have found this to be another highly regarded plant by gardeners that really want to bring bees and butterflies into their living space.  Butterfly weed commonly grows in dry open habitats and is very common in the prairies and grasslands of the Great Plains.  It is a native wildflower that unlike many other milkweed species does not contain the thick milky sap but instead has a watery transparent sap.  This is an excellent choice for most gardeners as it is an easy to grow long blooming native that is a magnet for Monarch butterflies. It is the perfect wildflower for dry full sun locations and does well in poor soils.

I have found it to be mostly pest free although I may see a few aphids but giving them a good shot of water to knock them off tends to free them of the pest.  Crown rot may also occur if they get to much water.

I like to plant with other deep tones like ‘May Night’ salvia and Liatris kobold. 

Seven Son Flower Tree (Heptacodium miconioides)

Seven Son Flower Tree (Heptacodium Miconioides)

This unusually named small ornamental tree has become my signature tree.   I tend to plant at least one on every site that allows. It is the perfect large shrub, as it has seasonal color, late bloom time and not many folks have ever heard of it which makes it the perfect plant.  A fairly fast-growing small tree reaching 15’ at maturity it is a plant that can be placed as a background planting or as a specimen planting.   It blooms in late summer white fragrant flowers and after the petals fall the pink sepals remain giving the appearance that it is in bloom again. It has tan peeling bark which is a great texture for winter appearance.  It also is a Monarch magnet attracting them during their migration south.  Easy to care for with little to no known pest problems. Although it is not native to this area, but native from China the only other problem I found noticed are that it will die back where the temperatures become extreme. 

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