Tip of the Week: Use Caution with Catalogs

Posted in Gardening Tips on January 25 2010, by Sonia Uyterhoeven

Don’t Forget Foliage as well as Flowers in Garden Design

Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education.

In last week’s tip I reviewed the basics of good garden design to remember while facing the onslaught of catalogs that tempt us to do more in our gardens. So what are some of the hazards in designing your garden from the glossy images you find in your winter catalogs?

For one thing, sometimes the colors in the catalog can be misleading. Years ago I cut and pasted photos from a catalog to create a collage of perennials for a border based on a specific color scheme. It looked glorious on paper. When I arrived at the nursery, I realized that many of my combinations didn’t work, because I had based my design just on the flowers shown in the photos, without consideration of the foliage. My pairing of perennials changed drastically, and I was forced to rethink my plan in terms of the entire plant.

Catalogs often do a beautiful job of showing us photographs of the flowers, but they rarely give us adequate views of the foliage, which is just as important. A good design should still look good even when the flowers are gone. Break up color combinations with areas of neutral shades where your eye can rest. Focus not only on color but texture and form.

The biggest problem with catalogs, though, is that they always offer too many good choices. I have to remind myself that selecting new plants for the garden is like packing a suitcase. You lay out your outfits on the bed and remind yourself you are traveling only for a week. A handful of outfits go back into the closet, and the bag is packed.

The bag is too heavy so you unpack it and more outfits go back into the closet. Toward the end, you choose judiciously and with much regret. Finally, you are packed and ready to go. This is the inevitable process that besets winter catalog shoppers.

During this time of year, ideas are born, designs are sketched, and a few decisions are made with some early orders. If you see a new introduction or a sought-after plant in a catalog, it may behoove you to order early as your selection may sell out quickly.

For those of us who buy seeds from catalogs—I am thinking in particular of my vegetable garden—it may be wise to order early this year. With all the national attention on “growing your own” vegetables last year, seed orders doubled.