Today we’re in North Carolina visiting with Bob and Linda Hatcher, sharing scenes of their beautiful, naturalistic garden.
We have a small pond (3/4 acre) and a stone patio on the edge with a boat whose job is just to look like a boat for pictures. The purple iris was probably brought in by birds. Editor’s note: This looks to me like it might be Japanese water iris (Iris ensata, Zones 4–9).
What we refer to as “The Circle” is a stone patio with an old metal Vermont-type maple syrup cooker we use as a firepit. Many hours have been spent here and many marshmallows consumed.
Looking through the holly hedge to the backyard, a hibiscus is visible in the small pot.
As we look at our pergola between the house and the backyard, we’re thinking it should be named the hosta pergola.
The right-hand side of the backyard includes repeating pots. The trick here was getting them level.
A bird statue poses with the purple iris.
We found this little statue in Charleston, South Carolina. Here it is backed up by hydrangea (we think this is Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Bloomstruck’, Zones 5–9), clematis, and giant garlic.
Rusting galvanized geese
The sleeping girl in the ferns (Dryopteris erythrosora ‘Brilliance’, Zones 5–9)
The walk off the front porch is flanked by ‘Annabelle’ hydrangeas (Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’, Zones 3–9), which haven’t flopped yet. That might be due to the fact that we cut them to the ground when they got to about 12 inches tall this spring. Also, on the right is ‘Carissa’ holly (Ilex cornuta ‘Carissa’, Zones 7–9) hedge. On the other side is Amsonia hubrichtii (Zones 5–8), a terrific plant with four-season interest. It self-seeds here, but just the right amount.
Just a little farther along the same path are mophead hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla, Zones 5–9), which look like this every year even though we still are never sure how to prune them!
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