An English-style Garden in Tennessee

12.03.2024 - 08:23 / finegardening.com / GPOD Contributor

Today we’re off to Tennessee to visit Lou Ann’s garden:

My neighbor Linda calls my house “the English cottage,” and I suppose there’s reason enough. I lived in Suffolk for three years, and the lovely people there planted a garden in my heart. I dreamed that one day, I would have my own cottage with roses and clematis around the front door.

This is purple Clematis ‘Jackmanii Superba’ (Zone 4 – 9) and ‘Zephrine Drouhin’, a beginner rose and a fine choice for bordering a walkway since it is beautifully perfumed and thornless.

‘Zephrine Drouhin’ reaches its peak in early May before the Japanese Beetles emerge, so aside from the yearly bout with aphids, she remains unmolested. As you can see, she comes out the winner in that fight.

This next one is a David Austin rose that I won on Instagram: ‘Olivia.’ She is a beauty!

My perennials putting on a burst of growth in May.

This clematis grows next to my deck out back. I believe it’s ‘Dr. Ruppel’, but I confess that I am not certain.

These sweet little windflowers (Anemone blanda, Zone 5 – 8) come up every spring along with the daffodils and hosta.

Azaleas (Rhododendron hybrid, Zone 6 – 9) and bugleweed (Ajuga reptans, Zone 3 – 10) grow on the side of the house. Sadly, my shrubs tools a hard beating in a December flash-freeze winter before last. They will take a while to recover.

Phlox (Phlox paniculata, Zone 4 – 8) is another favorite of mine. I think this one is ‘Bright Eyes’. Happy Returns daylily looks cheerful with bee balm in the background. That lemony sunshine blooms all June and into July with occasional late flowers into fall.

I couldn’t grow lupines in my clay soil, but my heart longed for them. Then I saw baptisia (Baptisia australis, Zone 3 – 9) growing happily