Written by Barbara Gee
The following is excerpted with permission from Barbara’s upcoming book, The Rhode Island Gardener’s Companion: An Insider’s Guide to Gardening in the Ocean State, to be published by Globe Pequot Press in January 2008. Barbara will be presenting at the RI Flower Show in February, and signing her books.
All folks who garden by the sea face similar challenges—salt and wind. And given that there are 400 miles of coastline in RI it’s no surprise that there are many seaside gardeners in the state. There are islands, moraines, salt marshes, rocky shores, wetlands, beaches, cliffs, dunes, salt ponds – you name it and most Rhode Islanders are probably close to it. Doug Hoyt out on Block Island, for instance, gardens at his home high on a hill which has a great view but receives battering wind. He also maintains gardens in town too but still finds “drying wind and salt,” to be his main problems.
Anne Wilson suffers similarly at the seaside garden she has maintained in Newport for 18 years. Just off Ocean Drive it is very exposed and on a rock ledge which causes big drainage problems, she says. But the biggest challenge for her too is the wind – “coming from the west it’s not too bad but from north, northeast or south it’s bad.” They have planted living barriers in the form of privet hedges which you can shape and, she says “is dense enough that it does help block the wind and hardy enough to cope with the salt brought in on the wind.”
Rhode Islanders are blessed to call Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum their own. In Bristol, overlooking the Naragansett Bay, it is one of only two arboreta in the country situated on salt water. Visitors can explore 33-acres of plants that survive and thrive in those conditions. In particular the rock garden down close to the water gets battered by wind, salt and drenched with water every so often so anything growing there is an example of a great seaside plant.
Heather Driscoll is head gardener at Carnegie Abbey Club, a private sporting estate in Portsmouth on the Bay, directly across from Blithewold. She experiences similar problems “Gardening by the water has always been a challenge for me. Dealing with the elements of wind, salt air and microclimates are key factors in plant choices.”
Designing a Seaside Garden
How can seaside gardeners cope with their intrinsic challenges? “In a garden without the wind buffer of a house or even a shed,” says Driscoll, “sturdy plants like hydrangea and shorter varieties of ornamental grasses are at the top of my list. Add some Stella D’oro daylilies and hardy pink geraniums and you have a simple but classic seaside garden.” She also chooses perennials with strong root systems to withstand coastal winds. “Rudbekia Goldstrum and Bee Balm have been proven winners,” she says.
Right Plant, Right Site
A terrific book by two Rhode Islanders is Coastal Plants: from Cape Cod to Cape Canaveral by the late Irene H. Stuckey and Lisa Lofland Gould (who also founded the Rhode Island Wild Plant Society). It describes in detail the different habitats you encounter by the sea. They stress that knowing what kind of place a plant wants to be in – and then putting it there – goes a long way towards that plant’s happiness. And a happy plant needs less maintenance
Julie Morris and the staff at Blithewold deal constantly with gardens drenched by salt water and hit by drying winds… “Choosing plants that do well in our conditions is key,” she says.
Perfect Seaside Plants
June Halliday manages the perennials nursery at Chaves’ Gardens & Florist in Middletown. She gets daily requests from customers looking for plants that thrive by the sea. Her own garden in Jamestown has become a laboratory for these kinds of plants. And, as a bonus, she maintains that most of the following plants are not bothered by the deer that roam around her property.
Shade & Part Shade
Pulmonaria ‘Benediction’
Ligularia ‘The Rocket’, ‘Brit Marie Crawford’
Heleborus ‘Foetidus’
Hakonechloa ‘Aureola’
Dicentra Formosa ‘Luxuriant’, Spectabilis
Fern – Anthyrium ‘Bramford Beauty’ Woodland
Spigelia Marilandica ‘Indian Pink’
Mertensia ‘Virginia Blue Bells’
Asarum canadensis ‘Wild Ginger’
Cornus canadensis ‘Bunch Berry’
Phlox divaricata ‘London Grove Blue’
Sun (very long blooming)
Cranesbill Geranium ‘Rozanne’
Salvia ‘May Night’
Dianthus ‘Rosish One’
Rudbeckia ‘Herbstonne’
Veronicastrum ‘Fascination’
Gene Rinker’s garden on Prudence Island is a testament to having the right plant in the right place. He could not be any closer to the water which is just across the street. Anything you see growing in his garden can definitely withstand being drenched, blown, battered and salt sprayed. He inherited the garden from his uncle who created it almost 60 years ago. Rinker highly recommends annuals and biennials like cosmos, cleomies, nasturtiums and hollyhocks, while his friend Anna Levesque just down the road prefers what she calls trouble-free perennials like shasta daisy, rudbeckia, daylilies, asters…
Wilson reels off a list of perennials that do well for her on the Newport ledge – “alchemilla everywhere – irises, japanese iris, thalictrum (lots of different ones) – cimcifuga, toad lily, hostas of any sort, differant hydrangea, niko blue – massive, ajuga, pachysandra does well in summer but dries out in winter depending on location – old standby, Hakonechloa, Houttuynia ground cover, ginger, solomon seal variegated…”
Driscoll finds from experience that plants with gray foliage like santolina or artemesia perform well by the sea. “Of course Rosa Rugosa is synonomous with seaside gardens,” she says, “but I have found that even hybrid teas and landscape roses do well with the salt air acting as a natural insecticide.”
These are some of my favorite seashore plants:
• Panic grass (Panicum amarum ‘Dewey Blue’)
• Black fountain grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Moudry’)
• Miscanthus (Miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light’)
• Leatherleaf sedge (Carex buccchanii)
• Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia)
• Coneflower (Rudbeckia sullivantii ‘Goldsturm’)
• Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum ‘Sheffield Pink’)
• Daylily (Hemerocallis ‘Happy Returns’)
• Stonecrop (Sedum spurium ‘Dragon’s Blood’)
• Mugwort or sagebrush (Artemesia stelleriana ‘Silver Brocade’)
• Pine (Pinus thumbergii ‘Thunderhead’)
• Spruce (Picea pungens glauca ‘Montgomery Blue’)
The following is excerpted with permission from Barbara’s upcoming book, The Rhode Island Gardener’s Companion: An Insider’s Guide to Gardening in the Ocean State, to be published by Globe Pequot Press in January 2008. Barbara will be presenting at the RI Flower Show in February, and signing her books.
All folks who garden by the sea face similar challenges—salt and wind. And given that there are 400 miles of coastline in RI it’s no surprise that there are many seaside gardeners in the state. There are islands, moraines, salt marshes, rocky shores, wetlands, beaches, cliffs, dunes, salt ponds – you name it and most Rhode Islanders are probably close to it. Doug Hoyt out on Block Island, for instance, gardens at his home high on a hill which has a great view but receives battering wind. He also maintains gardens in town too but still finds “drying wind and salt,” to be his main problems.
Anne Wilson suffers similarly at the seaside garden she has maintained in Newport for 18 years. Just off Ocean Drive it is very exposed and on a rock ledge which causes big drainage problems, she says. But the biggest challenge for her too is the wind – “coming from the west it’s not too bad but from north, northeast or south it’s bad.” They have planted living barriers in the form of privet hedges which you can shape and, she says “is dense enough that it does help block the wind and hardy enough to cope with the salt brought in on the wind.”
Rhode Islanders are blessed to call Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum their own. In Bristol, overlooking the Naragansett Bay, it is one of only two arboreta in the country situated on salt water. Visitors can explore 33-acres of plants that survive and thrive in those conditions. In particular the rock garden down close to the water gets battered by wind, salt and drenched with water every so often so anything growing there is an example of a great seaside plant.
Heather Driscoll is head gardener at Carnegie Abbey Club, a private sporting estate in Portsmouth on the Bay, directly across from Blithewold. She experiences similar problems “Gardening by the water has always been a challenge for me. Dealing with the elements of wind, salt air and microclimates are key factors in plant choices.”
Designing a Seaside Garden
How can seaside gardeners cope with their intrinsic challenges? “In a garden without the wind buffer of a house or even a shed,” says Driscoll, “sturdy plants like hydrangea and shorter varieties of ornamental grasses are at the top of my list. Add some Stella D’oro daylilies and hardy pink geraniums and you have a simple but classic seaside garden.” She also chooses perennials with strong root systems to withstand coastal winds. “Rudbekia Goldstrum and Bee Balm have been proven winners,” she says.
Right Plant, Right Site
A terrific book by two Rhode Islanders is Coastal Plants: from Cape Cod to Cape Canaveral by the late Irene H. Stuckey and Lisa Lofland Gould (who also founded the Rhode Island Wild Plant Society). It describes in detail the different habitats you encounter by the sea. They stress that knowing what kind of place a plant wants to be in – and then putting it there – goes a long way towards that plant’s happiness. And a happy plant needs less maintenance
Julie Morris and the staff at Blithewold deal constantly with gardens drenched by salt water and hit by drying winds… “Choosing plants that do well in our conditions is key,” she says.
Perfect Seaside Plants
June Halliday manages the perennials nursery at Chaves’ Gardens & Florist in Middletown. She gets daily requests from customers looking for plants that thrive by the sea. Her own garden in Jamestown has become a laboratory for these kinds of plants. And, as a bonus, she maintains that most of the following plants are not bothered by the deer that roam around her property.
Shade & Part Shade
Pulmonaria ‘Benediction’
Ligularia ‘The Rocket’, ‘Brit Marie Crawford’
Heleborus ‘Foetidus’
Hakonechloa ‘Aureola’
Dicentra Formosa ‘Luxuriant’, Spectabilis
Fern – Anthyrium ‘Bramford Beauty’ Woodland
Spigelia Marilandica ‘Indian Pink’
Mertensia ‘Virginia Blue Bells’
Asarum canadensis ‘Wild Ginger’
Cornus canadensis ‘Bunch Berry’
Phlox divaricata ‘London Grove Blue’
Sun (very long blooming)
Cranesbill Geranium ‘Rozanne’
Salvia ‘May Night’
Dianthus ‘Rosish One’
Rudbeckia ‘Herbstonne’
Veronicastrum ‘Fascination’
Gene Rinker’s garden on Prudence Island is a testament to having the right plant in the right place. He could not be any closer to the water which is just across the street. Anything you see growing in his garden can definitely withstand being drenched, blown, battered and salt sprayed. He inherited the garden from his uncle who created it almost 60 years ago. Rinker highly recommends annuals and biennials like cosmos, cleomies, nasturtiums and hollyhocks, while his friend Anna Levesque just down the road prefers what she calls trouble-free perennials like shasta daisy, rudbeckia, daylilies, asters…
Wilson reels off a list of perennials that do well for her on the Newport ledge – “alchemilla everywhere – irises, japanese iris, thalictrum (lots of different ones) – cimcifuga, toad lily, hostas of any sort, differant hydrangea, niko blue – massive, ajuga, pachysandra does well in summer but dries out in winter depending on location – old standby, Hakonechloa, Houttuynia ground cover, ginger, solomon seal variegated…”
Driscoll finds from experience that plants with gray foliage like santolina or artemesia perform well by the sea. “Of course Rosa Rugosa is synonomous with seaside gardens,” she says, “but I have found that even hybrid teas and landscape roses do well with the salt air acting as a natural insecticide.”
These are some of my favorite seashore plants:
• Panic grass (Panicum amarum ‘Dewey Blue’)
• Black fountain grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Moudry’)
• Miscanthus (Miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light’)
• Leatherleaf sedge (Carex buccchanii)
• Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia)
• Coneflower (Rudbeckia sullivantii ‘Goldsturm’)
• Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum ‘Sheffield Pink’)
• Daylily (Hemerocallis ‘Happy Returns’)
• Stonecrop (Sedum spurium ‘Dragon’s Blood’)
• Mugwort or sagebrush (Artemesia stelleriana ‘Silver Brocade’)
• Pine (Pinus thumbergii ‘Thunderhead’)
• Spruce (Picea pungens glauca ‘Montgomery Blue’)