Dwarf Perennials 



Dana M. Sansom 



Before the beginning of each semester, I clean my 

 office. I put all the papers into folders and all the 

 folders into the file cabinet. My floor gets washed 

 and it almost looks like someone with good organiza- 

 tional skills worked there. Anyone who has seen my 

 office around mid-semester will know what a falsehood 

 this is. It goes from those neat files to a kind of blender 

 effect — everything skewed, running together in general 

 chaos. I don't find this mess particularly bothersome, so it 

 always surprises me that I need such order in my gardens. 



There are gardens in which every plant or group has 

 to have its own space and each individual plant is or- 

 derly and neat; in other gardens, groups combine and 

 flow together and plants are scattered throughout and 

 not in group formation. 



When 1 first started designing gardens, everything 

 had to be like the first type Each plant had to be 

 spaced correctly and there had to be extra spacing be- 

 tween groups. The plants themselves had to be orderly 

 I didn't use plants that flopped or spread or needed to 

 be staked and started buying all sorts of compact plants 

 to use in my gardens. I became a dwarf perennial fa- 

 natic. 



Since then, I've seen many gardens and realized both 

 methods can be successful But my love for dwarf pe- 

 rennials has remained and I'd like to discuss a few of 

 my favorites. 



Before I do, there are a lot of terms we hear used for 

 dwarf plants, including "rock garden plants," "compact or 

 dwarf perennials," "alpine plants," and "saxatiles" and I 

 would like to clarify these terms. 



A "rock garden plant" is any plant that will thrive in a 

 rock garden situation. "Rock garden" is a very loose 

 term and is really any garden in which plants are grown 

 among rocks. A rock garden can be an area of natural 

 rock outcroppings; it can be a person-made garden with 

 rocks such as tufa that are brought in and used with a 

 gravel mulch, or it can be a stone wall with plants grow- 

 ing in it. It can be a trough garden (a trough being a ce- 

 ment or stone basin that is used for growing alpine or 

 other dwarf plants). Leo Blanchette of Blanchette Gar- 

 dens, Carlisle, MA, custom-makes these troughs, or you 

 can make them yourself — the Burpee American Gardening 

 Series has an excellent book on rock gardening and in it 

 is a recipe for making toughs adapted from one from 

 the American Rock Garden Society. Its only drawback is 

 that it tells you to cure the trough for three months and 

 I don't know about you, but I'm not sure I have that 

 much patience! 



A rock garden can be in the sun or the shade. It can 



be made of any combination of trees, shrubs, ground 

 covers, and herbaceous plants or just one of these 

 groups Most of the time, it's in full sun in well-drained 

 rocky soil. 



I've seen some wonderful rock gardens in my travels. 

 In Toronto, Canada, Hillside Gardens was an amazing 

 rock garden encompassing many acres. It's a beautiful 

 combination of conifers and deciduous trees, sweeps of 

 perennials and masses of annuals, all situated among 

 massive outcroppings rising above the pond at the base 

 of the hill. Garden in the Woods in Framingham. Massa- 

 chusetts, has a small rock garden of good quality using 

 mostly perennials. Smith College, in Northampton, Mas- 

 sachusetts, has an excellent combination garden that in- 

 cludes some incredible troughs, filled with three-inch 

 birches and elms, two-inch Cfiamaecyparis, and excep- 

 tional alpine perennials. 



As time has gone by, homes and gardens have gotten 

 smaller, due to the price of labor and the economy. 

 Also, most people have less time for gardening. There- 

 fore, plants which are more compact and easier to main- 

 tain have become popular In the last ten years, breed- 

 ers have introduced many compact |or dwarf) perennials. 

 Many of these do well in rock garden situations, but 

 they are not necessarily rock garden plants and usually 

 do well in the conditions that their larger parents did. 

 They are used for rock gardens, along the front of a bor- 

 der, as accent plants, as ground covers — in many ways. 

 There's always a space for one of these. 



An alpine plant "is a plant that comes from tree line 

 at high elevations. They're adapted to cool summer tem- 

 peratures, a short growing season, and continuous snow 

 cover all winter." These are used in rock gardens, but 

 many of them are difficult to grow, especially in hot ar- 

 eas. 



A saxatile plant "grows among rocks, usually in moun- 

 tain areas, but not necessarily alpine areas " These are 

 many times sold as alpine plants, but are more adapt- 

 able and easier to grow and are more commonly used in 

 rock gardens. 



Although 1 have a budding interest in alpines and 

 saxatiles, my main focus has been on dwarf perennials, 

 which 1 use in both rock garden and border situations. 

 There are so many wonderful plants that it's hard to pick 

 a favorite. However, Aruncus aethusifolius does come to 

 mind. What a beautiful plant this is. It has a mounded 

 form growing only 8-to-I 2-inches (as opposed to Aruncus 

 dioicus, which grows to 4-to-6-feet) 1 have one planted in 

 front of a rock next to my walk and it is enjoyable in all 

 seasons. Its flowers are small, dense, white spikes and 



October S November 1995 



