In the May/June 2018 issue, we got to know some of the plants that grace Mt. Cuba Center's hot, sunny South Garden during the spring and summer months (" 12 Great Natives for a Sunny Border," pp. 60-65}. The garden had been recently redesigned to showcase a collection of borderworthy natives that can take the heat of the Zone 7 summers in Hockessin, Delaware.At season's end, the carefully planned color palette transitions from the warm pinks and oranges of summer to an explosion of blue, gold, and burgundy. The plant list includes well-known fall favorites as well as a few up-and-coming autumn attractions, such as 'Summer Sunshine' coreopsis and 'October Skies' aromatic aster. Both top performers in Mt. Cuba Center's plant trials, they definitely deserve to be grown in more gardens.By massing several plants of each variety together and repeating these blocks of color throughout the garden, the horticulturists who designed the garden struck a delicate balance. The double borders feel formal but not forced, and each plant has enoughspace to really show what it can do.
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