Recipes are not only for use in the kitchen. There are “recipes” for nearly everything, from romantic vacations to resumes. With the increased interest in gardening, nurseries are now offering recipes for gardens – with ingredients designed to suit certain tastes, or more commonly, an environment.

It makes sense for inexperienced gardeners to start with a prescribed recipe. Take for example this “deer resistant garden”. Many a new gardener has quit after their first attempt at planting things was decimated by these hungry neighbors, who have a particular fondness for tulip and lily buds right before they burst open. Deer consumption is not a gardener’s concern when using this recipe which includes the fragrant plants that deer usually avoid, such as lavender, salvia, perskovia, artemesia, yarrow, geranium, coreopsis, chrysanthemum, catmint and thyme, plants with woolly leaves, like lamb’s ear, verbascum and centaurea, and those with spikes, such as yucca and echinops. Some of our desirable wildflowers are included in the list, and observed, undisturbed, in meadows where deer graze — Joe Pye weed, daisies, golden rod and milkweed. Other flowers deer dislike are amsonia, columbine, Siberian iris, baptisia, peony, echinacea, spurge, liatrus, balloon flower and boltonia, a list that provides color in the garden from the pale blue stars of spring’s amsonia, to the flurry of sparkling daisies of fall’s boltonia. Ornamental grasses — calamagrostis, miscanthus, pennisetum, fescue — are also immune from deer consumption. Of course, if deer are hungry enough, they’ll eat anything, and there are some offerings on this list that deer in my yard have devoured, year after year.

Gardens are designed to attract certain creatures and not only to repel them. This year’s White Flower Farms catalogue offers hummingbird gardens for sun and for shade. The sun garden provides a long season that includes varieties of salvia, coral bells and columbine in spring’s sunshine, and varieties of phlox, penstemon, and bee balm under summer’s sun. In the shade, the dripping wands of bleeding heart, the pale and deep blue cushions of the woodland phlox and the blue bells of pulmonaria attract humming birds in the spring, and in the summer, hummingbirds love the flowers of those foliar favorites, heuchera and hosta.

Butterfly gardens are another favorite. Fletcher Memorial Library hosts a certified butterfly garden and provides a wonderful example of these. On a smaller scale, a garden of summer perennials and wildflowers could include the multi-colored plates of yarrow, purple liatrus stalks, the inflorescences of pink phlox, allium’s purplish pom-poms, magenta arrays of echinacea, and sprays of golden rod. To attract Monarchs, scatter milk weed seeds in the garden, the brilliant orange clusters of flowers providing the essential nutrients for their caterpillars.

Pollinator gardens are also popular, vital for those who cultivate bee hives, and for those of us who are interested in nurturing these species. Along with wildflowers and the plants that attract butterflies and hummingbirds, gardeners can select from a long list of pollinators. Some of the loveliest flowers include hollyhocks, with pale yellow to deep burgundy saucers climbing their tall stalks, the flaming spikes of the pure red cardinal flower, spires of digitalis lined with pink, speckled bells, clusters of scarlet bee balm, wands of indigo agastache, clouds of lavender catmint, and lemon thyme, its violet flowers smothered with honey bees in late summer. This list is not exhaustive, far from it, and gardeners wishing to create pollinator gardens should research the assortment of plants to suit their tastes and environments.

Another needed design is for the shade garden. I’ve heard many potential gardeners complain that they can’t cultivate gardens because of the lack of sunshine in their lawns. Along with the various hostas and ferns, which provide color and interest throughout the season, there are other foliar plants which are exceptional. These include the glossy leaves of European wild ginger and the ornamental grass, hakonechloa, a cascading mound of bright green and golden blades. There are also flowers which thrive with little to no direct sunlight. These include tiarella, a small plant with maple-like leaves and wispy flowers that give the impression of a pale pink mist hovering over the earth, brunnera, clumps of heart-shaped, frosted leaves hosting sprays of blue flowers, pulmonaria, with its dappled leaves and raspberry buds opening to vibrant blue bells, woodland phlox, a carpet of pale blue, feathery fronds of astilbe, and many of the geraniums, whorls of leaves, some scented, and all bearing beautiful flowers in jewel-like colors, from palest pink veined crimson to magenta, and the most delicate blue to the deepest violet.

Fragrance is important to most gardeners. While some consider scent a pleasant aspect, others view it as a requirement. Roses offer the most famous of fragrances, and though some gardeners still cultivate “rose gardens”, the visual and olfactory splendor of the rose is enhanced when partnered with perennials to create a perfumed garden. First on the list of scented, complementary plants for pink roses is catmint, its ephemeral sprays spiked with vibrant purple salvias, silvery lavender, pastel stalks of foxglove and saucers of yarrow. Gardeners can also experiment with companions for specific roses. Yellow roses are particularly glorious paired with deep purple clematis, bright red roses benefit from the dark blue globes of balloon flowers, and the perfect partner for the peony ‘Festiva Maxima’ is a crimson rose to reflect its center frills.

Another favorite is “the moon garden”, a garden of all white flowers, especially impressive at night when they glow beneath the light of the moon. Suggestions include towers of white delphinium, clumps of white phlox, bushels of Shasta daisies, clouds of baby’s breath, a ribbon of white astilbes and a bank of boltonia, edged with candy tuft, which will form needled mounds smothered in pristine white flowers in spring. Structure could come from one of several white-flowering vines or shrubs, such as lilac, mock orange, hydrangea, viburnum, roses, clethra and sweet autumn clematis. Remember that the most important ingredient in the white garden is not white flowers – it’s the foliage – green or silver — which separates disparate whites.
Most of us were inspired to start a garden after we visited the garden of a friend, who handed us a couple of plants. What ensued were some successes, some failures, and a love of tending to the earth. We learned, especially from our mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes proved costly, and always caused distress. Using a nursery catalogue’s design can help new gardeners achieve instant success, and still leave plenty of space, and time, for future experimentation, our own creativity, and the flowers’ whims.

Dayna McDermott