Summer 2008 - Border Renovation Update

All gardeners must evaluate the amount of time and money they are able to devote to maintaining their gardens. One of the renovation objectives is to reduce the overall maintenance demands of the Border, which is maintained by NPA volunteers. Withey-Price, project designers, have done a great job planning “maintenance intensity zones” throughout the Border, where more highly maintained areas will be balanced by less demanding collections elsewhere.

One of our most challenging tasks has been evaluating the existing collection. In standing by the commitment to less-demanding plants, tough choices have been made about what will be granted a place in the Border. The renovated Border will showcase plants that fulfill the commitment to well-behaved collections with year-round interest that have earned their place among the best perennials for our region.

Volunteers are working hard to lift and protect valuable plants for replanting into the Border. Some of these have become intermingled with more aggressive plants. Steps that are being taken to eliminate aggressive plants include digging valuable collections, washing their roots to rid them of all traces of aggressive roots and shoots, and potting them up for replanting this fall.      

Here is a sampling of plants found to be too aggressive for the level of maintenance desired for the newly renovated Border. Glenn Withey fondly calls these “plants we love, in other people’s gardens.”

Acanthus, Bamboo, Geraniums (free seeders) Phygelius, Allium moly, Dicentra (running forms), Lysimachia, Phytolacca, Arum italicum, Dracocephalum, Oxalis, Ranunculus ficaria, Astrantia, Euphorbia, Persicaria, Rumex

Here is a small sampling of genera that will remain in the perennial Border living collection:

Aconitum, Epimedium, Hepatica, Polygonatum, Aster (clumping forms) Erythronium, Hosta, Primula, Bergenia, Hacquetia, Jeffersonia, Rodgersia, Camassia, Hakonechloa, Lilium, Sedum, Corydalis, Helleborus, Paeonia, Trillium

Bellevue Botanical Garden Genus II volunteers and staff are committed to accessioning, tagging, and mapping the collections as they are planted to ensure that accurate, up-to-date information is maintained for internal curation purposes, for sharing with garden visitors, and for presentation to a global audience via the Bellevue Botanical Garden Society's Searchable Online Database. Click here to search the database.