GUIDE TO OPTIMISM
PLAN AHEAD AND SAVE FOR LATER

Making room in a spring garden that includes lady’s mantle (Alchemilla mollis), Tulipa ‘Cistula’, Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’, woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata), and a freshly divided Siberian iris.

In order to grow a late-season garden that is larger than life and full of it, you’ll simply have to remember to allocate some space in early summer for the small starts that will become full-grown late bloomers well before summer’s end. Here are some tricks to finding room for frost-tender keepers even as the garden fills to bursting with plants that self-sow and spread.

Remove early bloomers. Spring and early-summer volunteers like forget-me-not (Myosotis
sylvatica) and white lace flower (Orlaya grandiflora) will no longer need their space after setting seed. Remove early bloomers after they’ve gone by, making sure to scatter their seeds, and tuck tropicals and tender perennials in the vacancies.

Carve out space between spreaders. Use division of spreading perennials as an excuse to open new slots, graciously sized to accommodate late-season color.

Use tulips as placeholders for keepers. The timing is right: tulip foliage will wither as the temperatures warm past the danger of frost, exactly when warm-season heat-lovers should be planted. Fork the tulip bulbs out after the foliage has had a chance to die back, to open a patch of earth that is loose and easy to plant in. (Store the dormant bulbs dark and dry for the summer, and replant them in the same loose soil in the fall after rotating the keepers out for storage. Or start over then with new colors.) If you’d rather leave your tulips in the ground, plant over the top and around them, being extra-careful to avoid slicing through the bulbs with your trowel.

Plant keepers in containers. Not only will it be more efficient to move containerized plants in and out at the start and end of the season, but they will look great grouped on the deck with other potted annuals, hardy perennials, and shrubs. Sometimes too, a single pot achieves an even better effect out in the garden. A glory bush (Tibouchina urvilleana) in full purple burst or a large-leaved elephant’s ear (Colocasia) can provide a focal point if one is lacking. You can also use pots of felicia, dahlia, abutilon, and begonia, to name a few, to plug holes as other plants fade out of favor or bloom.