Today we’re in Zone 6, visiting Lynne’s garden.
Sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima, annual) makes low clouds of tiny white flowers. They can bloom all summer long as long as the weather doesn’t get too hot, and even keep blooming after the first frosts of fall. Here they’re paired with a brilliantly colored ornamental grass that looks like Pennisetum ‘Fireworks’ (Zone 9–10 or as an annual).
This beautiful mixture of colorful foliage from annuals comes from two different colors of sweet potato vines (Ipomoea batatas, Zone 9–11 or as an annual) backed up by some coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides, Zones 10–11 or as an annual).
Though sweet potato vines are mostly grown for the colorful foliage, their flowers aren’t bad either. These blooms make apparent their close relationship to morning glories.
Autumn fern (Dryopteris erythrosora, Zones 5–9) has beautiful fronds that blush red when they first emerge and then fade to green as they age.
Coleus and ferns take on extra beauty as they glow while being backlit by the sun.