By Maureen Gilmer
DIY — Do It Yourself Network
Imagine the cool, foggy days of the English countryside that are ideal for plants but rather nippy for human beings. When Vita Sackville-West, the famous gardener of Sissinghurst Castle, woke in the morning, the leaded glass windows of her bedroom looked onto what she would call "our own little garden."
Sackville-West designed this garden in the cottage style, but not in the soft blues and pinks of the traditional English palette. This would be a garden vibrant and warm-hued with the fiery colors of a spectacular sunset. She described it as "a muddle of flowers, but all of them in the range of colors you might find in a sunset."
Long after her death, this area was her husband Harold's favorite place to sit outdoors, where its brightness chased away grief and dark thoughts. The gardens have been kept up and are open to the public today.
The Cottage Garden is composed simply of two crossing paths and four planted quadrants. At the center where the four paths come together is a large copper tub, tarnished with verdigris that Sackville-West salvaged from an old farm. At the outside corners are four matched Irish yews, Taxus baccata. This is the tree from which the wood of English longbows was harvested.
The remainder of the ground is a riot of vivid perennials that bloom in red, orange, gold and yellow. They are planted in masses to create intense color swaths that weave in and out like thin clouds of a Southwestern sky at dusk.
It's easy to create your own sunset garden to chase away the blues on cloudy days.
Daylilies are heavy in the red, gold and yellow range. With hundreds of cultivars, buy them strictly by color and grow in great clusters. The yellow and gold are most plentiful, and you can find willing cast-offs when friends thin out overgrown clumps. Hardiness can vary considerably, so be sure to buy only locally adapted varieties.
Few reds can compete with that of the Oriental poppy, Papaver orientale, which is hardy to Zone 3. These flowers are best reserved for northern gardens where they can appreciate a good winter's rest. They require a chill at 40 degrees for quite some time to remain vigorous. In warmer winters they may decline and eventually die out.
Large flowers on wiry stems tend to flop when wet. Look for shorter stem cultivars that will stand up and shine on rainy days.
Blanket flower was so named because it once blanketed the American prairie with its strong three colored flowers. They are deep red orange daisies with gold edged petals. What's cool is that the ratio of red to yellow can vary considerably from flower to flower on the very same plant. The best type of blanket flower is a hybrid, Gaillardia x grandiflora.
Few plants can stand up to the coreopsis clan for strong gold and yellow. The traditional garden Coreopsis grandiflora is a no-brainer for novice gardeners. Some claim these plants will bloom themselves to death because they flower so late in autumn. They don't take time to become dormant before the winter freeze. Plants are very hardy to Zone 3. There are many other species and hybrid coreopsis that make equally outstanding plants.
More reliable perennials to include in a sunset garden are red bee balm, "Monarda," "Cambridge Scarlet," black-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia hirta and basket of gold, Aurinia saxatilis. Spice it up with bright annual zinnias, "Tithonia," the Mexican sunflower, marigolds and the many shades of gorgeous Luminaire trailing snapdragons.
Follow Sackville-West's example and locate your sunset garden where you'll see it first thing in the morning. It is a promise of warmth and happiness that will stay with you throughout a dreary day of rain, fog and overcast skies.
(Maureen Gilmer is a horticulturist and host of "Weekend Gardener" on DIY-Do It Yourself Network. E-mail her at mo@moplants.com. For more information, visit www.moplants.com or www.DIYnet.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)
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