The Perennial Matchmaker: Create Amazing Combinations with Your Favorite Perennials

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About The Perennial Matchmaker: Create Amazing

Product Description Want foolproof ideas for pairing favorite perennials with an array of harmonious plant partners but don’t know where to start? Plantswoman Nancy J. Ondra helps you to jump-start your perennial garden with her one-plant-at-a-time approach for choosing plant partners. Having spent more than 30 years growing and experimenting with perennials and plant combinations, Ondra shares her extensive experience in this in-depth guide to eye-catching color combinations, dramatic textural displays, and stunning seasonal effects. The Perennial Matchmaker features 80 individual perennial profiles, close to 400 exquisite photographs of plant partnerships, and Ondra’s insight into the wide array of plants that make great combinations, including annuals, bulbs, grasses, shrubs, and other perennials. Each plant profile gives dozens of ideas and suggestions for pairings, including region-specific choices, Ondra’s top-choice perfect match, and an at-a-glance summary of the best color partners. Whether you are just dreaming of your first perennial garden or are a long-time gardener who wants to elevate plantings for a more cohesive and exciting look, The Perennial Matchmaker is your go-to guide for creating stunning plant medleys. About the Author Nancy J. Ondra is the author or coauthor of more than a dozen gardening books. She grows a wide variety of ornamental and edible plants at Hayefield, her 4-acre homestead in Bucks County, PA. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Achillea classic summer perennials Yarrows Full sun; average to dry soil Yarrows (Achillea) produce an abundance of tiny blooms clustered into flat- topped flower heads. Among the well-known yarrows with yellow flowers and silvery to gray-green foliage are 3- to 4-foot-tall 'Coronation Gold' and 'Gold Plate' fernleaf yarrow (A. filipendulina) and 18- to 24-inch-tall hybrids 'Moonshine' and Anthea ('Anblo'), all of which are hardy in Zones 3 to 9. Common yarrow (A. millefolium) and its hybrids, which usually flower at about 2 feet in height, expand the color range to include white, pinks, reds, and oranges, as well as yellows. They typically have very lacy bright green or graygreen leaves and are hardy in Zones 3 to 9. Color Considerations Yellow-flowered yarrows make striking partners for blue- to purple- flowering perennials, such as 'Brookside' and Rozanne ('Gerwat') hardy geraniums (Geranium), mountain bluet (Centaurea montana), and perennial salvias (Salvia). The bright yellows, including 'Coronation Gold' and 'Moonshine', also make eye-catching co-stars for equally intense reds and oranges, like those of Arkwright's campion (Lychnis x arkwrightii), butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), 'Lucifer' crocosmia (Crocosmia), and Maltese cross (Lychnis chalcedonica), as well as other strong yellows, such as Jerusalem sage (Phlomis russeliana) and sundrops (Oenothera fruticosa), and crisp whites, like 'Becky' Shasta daisy (Leucanthemum x superbum). The bright yellows are excellent for echoing companions that have yellow- centered or -throated blooms, like those of Frikart's aster (Aster x frikartii) and many irises and daylilies (Hemerocallis). When you're choosing companions for hybrids of common yarrow, be aware that it's common for their colors to fade as the flowers age. 'Cerise Queen' starts out bright pink and turns light pink, for instance, while 'Apricot Delight' goes from orangey pink to creamy pink, and 'Fireland' (also sold as 'Feuerland') turns from bright red to peachy yellow. Cut off the older blooms if you don't like their softer colors or leave them and select partners with the multicolor effect in mind. Yarrows in the pink and softer yellow ranges, such as 'Saucy Seduction' and Anthea, look good with blues, purples, creams, and whites, as well as with silver, gray, and blue foliage. 'Inca Gold', 'Terracotta', 'Fanal' (also sold as 'The Beacon'), 'Paprika', and others in the oranges and reds are also interestin