GARDEN MVPs

This month's special double issue of Horticulture magazine  ( Dec./Jan.) featured me and 6 of my fellow Garden Designers Roundtable members in an article titled Garden MVPs.

They asked that each landscape designer describe their favorite plants and its companions .  Here are mine :

                              Acer shirasawanum ' Autumn Moon '

One look at "Autumn Moon ' ( Zones 5-8 ) and you'll know why it's my favorite - it is a showstopper.  Its beautiful chartreuse color is effective  all summer and in the Fall it turns a beautiful intense pink/red.

I've used periwinkle beneath this maple because its beautiful shiny evergreen leaves contrast so well with the tree's foliage.  My second favorite companion plant for 'Autumn Moon ' is the Azalea ' Karen ", a compact shrub with vivid May flowers.  A good third companion is Chameocyparis obtusa 'Nana' or dwarf Hinoki cypress.  It is a most unusual, artistic evergreen with an outstanding shape that goes well with both the Japanese maple and the azalea.

As if that weren't enough, another great feature is DIVAS IN GREEN in which  garden blogger Carol at May Dreams Gardens, Kylee Baumle of Our Little Acre and others write of the plants which " they'll jump through hoops for . "