Fortuitous Garden Combinations

The Phactors practice experimental gardening. Almost everything tried is an experiment where the results range from successful to failure and lots of iffy inbetweens. Every now and again an experiment is ever so successful that you would like to pretend you knew what the results would be afore hand, but alas, it was merely a fortuitous combining, so you just enjoy the event, and the accolades. In this case a daffodil-hosta-fern garden under development for about 5 or six years now resides under the shade of redbuds, a flowering dogwood, and a couple of smoketrees (yes, trees, not bushes). In seeking a ground cover Mrs. Phactor found some giant bugle (Ajuga reptans) that had been languishing in a distant garden, and moved several clumps into this bed. The bronze low-growing foliage now covers most to the bed and it poses no impediment to the bulbs, hostas, or ferns. This season, just as the daffodil season ceased, the bugle burst into full bloom carpeting the area with a sea of purple puncuated by different colored and textured islands formed by the emerging hostas, a young yellow-leafed full moon maple, and the still erect bulb foliage. The overall effect is wonderful, gorgeous, just as it was planned! Even better apparently bunnies don't eat bugle either, at least not while they can fatten themselves up on our other garden plants!