The other day a popular garden blogger was lamenting not being able to grow amsonia in her garden, mentioning that it was to be the 2011 Perennial Plant of the Year (from now on known as POTY). All I could remember was how liberated I felt the day I took a shovel to the amsonia growing all over the garden I had just acquired with our new house. So I jumped on that comment box, asking, "Am I the only one who hates amsonia?" Apparently so.
In my little mini-rant, I went on about amsonia's insignificant flowers of creepy blue and its floppy foliage. In minutes, impassioned gardeners were defending amsonia's honor and credentials as a worthy perennial and valuable native plant; citing its adaptability and drought-tolerance but mostly the gorgeous fall color that marks the season finale of this plant.
So I dug a little deeper so to speak. And then I felt a little silly. As an extension master gardener I am always preaching, "right plant for the right place". Could it be the amsonias in my garden were simply in the wrong place? Well, probably yes.
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We bought this house with a foot of snow in the yard. But the brochure said, "Award-winning perennial garden". After buying houses (gardens) from people who planted silk flowers in the yard, and after selling houses (gardens) to people who didn't know a daisy from a dahlia; that was all I needed to hear. What they didn't tell me was that the award was probably given 20 years ago! When the landscape thawed I was literally up to my ears in Joe-Pye Weed (don't get me wrong, I love Joe, but enough is enough), while whatever perennials left were overshadowed by this overgrown plant I had never encountered. It turned out to be amsonia.
A little strip of it was planted in a long narrow bed by the back door, that is really the front door, in a northern exposure. This amsonia failed to bloom and flopped to the ground mid-summer, long before the foliage could turn any color. But the bulk of it in the backyard had bullied the astilbes and astrantias into submission and was threatening to take on the lawn. This area sees only slivers of sun at varying times as the light falls behind the woods in back and then the cottonwoods to the west.
As with many gardens, as they age, shade encroaches, change is inevitable. I am sure the original owners did indeed have an award-winning perennial garden. Shame on the last owners for neglecting it. Shame on me for bad-mouthing amsonia.
Amsonia does grow in partial shade, but it grows best in full sunlight. And therein was the problem. Not only does it bloom more bountifully, but the unusual shade of blue shows better in bright light. And when positioned just right, the sun illuminates the fall foliage until it glows golden.
In addition, the POTY Amsonia hubrichtii is a variety called "Arkansas Blue Star", selected for soft blue flowers and bottle-brush bright green foliage that turns into a rich golden yellow as fall approaches. Check out "Blue Ice" as well.
Since I had, in my feverish frenzy, dug up and disposed of all the amsonias in my garden, I had to borrow a few photos. How embarrassing.
So I stand corrected, too bad my amsonias are long-gone to the municipal compost heap. But meanwhile, repeat after me...Right Plant for the Right Place.
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