plants that do a little more

when i’m choosing plants for a landscape design, i’m always thinking about how much they can bring to the garden throughout the year. of course, there are plants that have one spectacular moment and are completely worth having for that reason alone. but when i can find a tree, shrub, grass, or perennial that gives us something beautiful in more than one season, even better.

serviceberry is such a good example. in spring, it’s covered in the prettiest, dainty white flowers that arrive before much of the rest of the garden has really gotten going. they’re light and airy and feel especially welcome after a long chicago winter.

then summer comes along and brings small edible berries. the birds tend to be pretty happy about those, too, which is another reason i love using serviceberry in a natural landscape design. i’m always thinking about how our gardens can provide a little something for wildlife in addition to looking beautiful for us.

by fall, serviceberry changes again. the leaves take on beautiful shades of orange and red, adding another layer of color just as the summer garden is beginning to wind down. and then there’s winter. once all of those leaves are gone, its branching structure and natural form are still there. instead of disappearing into the background, it continues to add shape and interest to the winter landscape.

this idea of designing for more than one season is especially important when we’re creating landscapes in naperville, aurora, plainfield, yorkville, batavia, geneva, glen ellyn, wheaton, downers grove, lisle, and throughout the western suburbs of chicago. we experience four very distinct seasons here, and our gardens should be able to roll with them.

when we’re planning trees, shrubs, ornamental grasses, perennials, and other plantings, i like to think beyond what something will look like on installation day—or even at the height of summer. what happens in october? what is still standing in january? what blooms early in spring? are there berries for the birds, interesting bark, seed heads, beautiful branching, or foliage that changes color?

good landscape design is really about layering all of those moments together. not every plant needs to be doing something spectacular all year long, but when enough of them take turns, the garden never really has an off-season.

and that’s one of my favorite things about designing with plants. the landscape is never finished. it just keeps changing, one season at a time.