Apricot in the Garden
by Eileen Kostock

ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED: 1999 Spring

Apricot and blue happen to be my favorite combination right now, along with a little yellow and white to keep things from getting dull. I'm trying to be modest, but this early- to mid-June, my apricot garden was to die for! I have the ÔWesterland' rose and love it, and I'm also fond of Rosa ÔSweet Juliet' and ÔGraham Thomas'. I planted two Rosa ÔGolden Wings' roses this spring and am totally enamored. Here are some more suggestions for plants for an apricot color scheme...

First, you just have to have some Delphinium ÔBelladonna' and ÔBellamosum' for the contrasting blue. I get lo-o-o-ong periods of bloom from these two, and their best feature is that they are absolutely idiot-proof to grow from seed: I've grown lots of babies from my original plants.

ÔSutton's Apricot' and ÔAlba' foxgloves look great, and are especially fabulous with ÔMadame Hardy' rose as a partner. In this bed I also have the miniature rose ÔJeanne Keneally', which is a beautiful soft salmon color. Included too is Helianthemum numularium, the one they call apricot. It makes the most charming groundcover with miniature flowers that look very much like little roses. It's said to not be hardy here, but I cover it with pine boughs after a good hard frost and it has come back faithfully for three years. Of course, there are tons of daylilies that come in those peachy, apricot, coral, and salmon colors.

Annuals that make me happy, if you are looking for apricot color schemes, are Nicotiana alata ÔSalmon' (alas, it's not fragrant) and Salvia ÔCoral Nymph'.

I find that you really do have to have a good balance of blue in this scheme, and, as I said before, a splash of yellow and/or white peps it up. For blue, I can't say enough for Caryopteris, which grows wonderfully for me and is just the prettiest shade of blue. By the way, it grows very easily (and I do mean easily--I'm no propagator) from cuttings. In fall Ô97 I took 4 cuttings to start new shrubs. I dipped Ôem in "Rootone", stuck them in a pot and shoved them in front of the south-facing family room window. They grew like gangbusters and all four took. I moved them out last spring and they are looking wonderful.

Another blue and one of my favorite plants is Aster frikartii ÔMonch'--what a workhorse! I have also planted Cerotostigma plumbaginoides (leadwort) as a groundcover. As you can see from my descriptions, I have lots of blue in the fall--I love blue! For yellow in this garden, I've included Achillea ÔMoonshine' and Dyssodia, which I hope will reseed. Of course, the ever-faithful Coreopsis ÔMoonbeam' mixes perfectly. Whites include my ÔMadame Hardy' rose, the white foxglove, some near white daylilies, white baby's breath, and Buddleia ÔWhite Profusion'.

Eileen Kostock gardens in Darien, IL, and is just back from England, where she visited the gardens of her idol, garden writer Margery Fish.

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