Cheryl Lewy's Garden

 

Cheryl Lewy has a real love of great gardening and of great plants. Her gardens and landscape are beautiful, including rock gardens, a cascading pond garden, and beautiful stands of shrubs and trees. One area of the garden is more formal, with a picket fence, gravel paths, roses and mix perennial plantings. It is spectacular in the spring, with iris, oriental poppies, and roses. I was hired this April with task of bringing more interest to this area of the garden from July through to October. I began in the spring by eliminating a great deal of phlox and poppy plants that had been taking up more than their fair share of space. I prepared planting areas in between many of the established plants, digging in rich compost. I then proceeded to plant, perennials, annuals (many I started from seed or purchased from Walker Farm), Dahlias, and tender Salvias.  This October, the garden is looking incredibly vibrant, full of flowers and foliage, contrasting in color, form and texture. 

Above: Bright red spots of Emilia javanica set off against the purple Verbena and Nepeta sibrica, the gray haze of Perovskia, and the dark red foliage of Dahlia 'Bishop of Llandaff', Pennisetum 'Vertigo', and Cotinus.

-->

Low light in high summer, the phlox is floating in big white drifts. In the foreground the deep pink grass, Pennisetum 'Fireworks,' is coming into bloom.

-->

Cheryl has a strong connection to Great Dixter and she loves the grass Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster.' Here I planted this grass in a wall-like-hedge, directly influenced by the Calamagrostis planting in the Peacock Garden at Great Dixter. Those bleached straight-up blooms catch the light in spectacular ways.

 

The following pictures were taken in the first week of October and the garden is still so varied and colorful. The Sedum has turned its robust pink, off set by a tangle of bronze fennel and silvery sprays of Panicum virgatum 'Ruby Ribbons.' The tall yellow aster is unknown to me, but it is a stately specimen with great upright habit and mildew-free foliage.

-->

Upright blossoms of the large, pale pink Dahlia 'Karma Prospero,' with Salvia 'Phyllis Fancy,' and the dark leaves of Pennisetum 'Vertigo.' This particular salvia is one of the most outstanding performers, it is a huge plant, loaded with blooms that starts early and ends late. Stay tuned for more shots of this plant as the weeks progress.

-->

 Bright fall foliage of the low spreading Indigofera.

-->

White flowers of Gaura lindheimeri and the bright red Dahlia 'Bishop of Llandaff.'

-->

The bright blue of Salvia uliginosa pokes its head into this October scene.