A Plant Nursery Suggests These Plants to Really Make a Landscape Pop in the Lancaster, PA Area
For a landscape that will put a smile on everyone’s face, you need color. You want the landscape to be as fresh and vibrant as possible not just seasonally but year-round. A plant nursery could suggest the following plants to make a landscape pop in the Lancaster, PA area.
Look for color not only in flowers (or flowering shrubs and trees) but in fall foliage, bark color, leaves, and fruits and berries. With the right choices, the landscape will be a cornucopia of gorgeous color!
Choose Natives
One of the best ways to achieve year-round color is by curating favorite native plants from your local nursery. Exotic plants may look pretty, but they aren’t adapted to the climate and require much more maintenance (water, fertilizer, and weather-proofing) than natives.
Consider Location
Plants need what they need, so to ensure they thrive, consider sun exposure and moisture levels. With a general idea of the cardinal directions as well as any shade from trees or the home, you can plan a successful landscape.
Some shady spots will be drier than others, and some sunny spots will be moist. So, you’ll want to get advice from the professionals at your local nursery for the right plant choices.
Color in Shady and Moist Areas
Some plants thrive beneath tall trees or behind rock outcroppings on the north or east side of the home, where moisture tends to linger. Wild Ginger, Blue Phlox, Virginia Bluebells, Woodland Stonecrop, Black Cohosh, Golden Ragwort, Canadian Columbine, White Wood Aster, Queen of the Prairie, Cardinal Flower, Wild Columbine, or Jack-in-the-Pulpit are great perennial flower options for shady areas.
Consider choosing Begonias, Violets, Violas, Pansies, Sapphire Flower, and Creeping Zinnia for shady spots.
Colorful shrubs to consider could be Rosebay, Arrowwood, Witch Hazel, Wild Hydrangea, Northern Spicebush, Mountain Laurel, or Spicebush.
Flowering Dogwood, Black Tupelo, and River Birch are great shade-loving trees with brilliant fall color; and birch adds a pop of color with its dramatic white bark.
Don’t forget ferns! Ferns add lushness and serenity to a shady area. The Maidenhair Fern features a soft visual texture and contributes to a magical feel.
Color for Sunny and Dry Areas
The south and west sides of the home—especially if there is little tree cover—will dry out faster, and favor plants that love to sunbathe. In this area, consider the Summersweet, Red-Osier, Witch Alder, Winterberry, Swamp Azaleas, Red Twig Dogwood, Black Chokeberry, Lowbush Blueberry, American Wisteria, and Blackshaw shrubs to soak up all that sun. Some will even delight your local birds and wildlife with delicious berries and beautiful flowers.
Perennial flowers you may enjoy can include Sundrops, Bee-Balm, Golden Sundrops, Black-Eyed Susans, Goldenrod, Garden Phlox, Blue Flag Iris, Jerusalem Artichoke, Mountain Mint, Wild Indigo, Obedient Plant, Foamflower, Butterfly Milkweed, and Turtlehead.
Beautiful native annual flowers include Geraniums, Zinnia, Heliotrope, Spider Flower Plant, Lantana, Sunflower, Verbena, Morning Glory, and Marigolds.
Red Maple, Swamp White Oak, Sugar Maple, Eastern Redbud, Sourwood, Green Hawthorn, Sweetbay Magnolia, and Fringetree will give you year-round color ranging from delicate spring flowers to brilliant fall foliage.
The Cinnamon Fern is an outlier in the fern family: This is one of few ferns that actually do well with lots of sun exposure.
As you can see, there is no shortage of stunning colorful native plants to grace a landscape not just in spring, but throughout the year.
Image Source: Unilock