Each time I find myself in听front of two particular houses in my neighbourhood, I wonder about the听lives of the people inside. These are homes whose front windows face me directly when I approach a stop sign at a street鈥檚 end, before turning right or left. Both homes are close to the street, fully exposed to lights from cars stopping directly across from them.
Over the years, a laurel hedge has grown and filled in to screen one of the homes. The other house was sold early in the spring. Soon after, a hedge of young evergreens appeared across the front of the property. It听will be a few years before the plants fill in and grow tall enough to form an effective screen.
To create a more immediate and substantial, if temporary, barrier to car lights shining directly into the front windows, the owners planted sunflowers behind the young hedge. The sunflowers grew quickly into tall plants with an abundance of large leaves 鈥� an ingenious screening for the summer and through the fall until frost.
I鈥檓 often asked for ideas on plants for summer screening, to hide unwanted views or to create areas of shade from the hot sun. A听neighbour has demonstrated that sunflowers can do the job beautifully.
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Screens and fillers. A perennial that I grew from seed and transplanted into the front garden in听early summer is another flowering plant that can serve admirably as a screening or 鈥渇iller鈥� plant.
I found Rudbeckia triloba (three-lobed coneflower, many-flowered coneflower, brown-eyed Susan) in the Johnny鈥檚 Selected Seeds catalogue, where it is described as a 鈥減roductive filler flower鈥� with wiry, well-branched stems bearing many small, bright yellow, daisy flowers with dark centres that have an iridescent violet cast in sunlight.
A native of eastern North America, R. triloba is an easy-growing, substantial filler or background garden plant as well as a provider of numerous stems to serve as 鈥渇illers鈥� in cut flower arrangements.
As a species, rather than a听named, cultivated variety, R.听triloba is variable. Different plant and seed sources will offer varying strains of the species. My plants have formed sizeable, two-metre-wide bushes, with the听tallest, centre stems rising to听almost 180 cm.
Britain鈥檚 Chiltern Seeds describes the plants as 150 cm tall. Heritage Perennials, wholesale provider of perennials to our local garden centres, in their publication Perennial Gardening Guide gives the height as up to 100 cm.
Though native to moist areas of eastern North America, the plants have proved remarkably drought tolerant in my garden this summer. They are strong plants, still loaded with bright daisy flowers. I听made daily stops at the plants through the summer, to watch in quiet delight as bees worked the blooms.
I鈥檓 hoping the plants live up to听their reputation as self-sowers. I鈥檇 like young plants to fill in odd corners of the garden and to plant along garden edges and in front of听fencing. They would also be excellent summer screening and providers of light shade.
The Perennial Gardening Guide author notes that he first became aware of R. triloba while visiting gardens in Germany, where he often found the plants combined with soft blue Michaelmas daisies.
GARDEN EVENTS
Rose meeting. The Mid Island Rose Society meets Monday from 6 to 8 p.m. in the North Nanaimo Library on Hammond Bay Rd. Details 250-390-2805.
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Comox meeting. The Comox Valley Horticultural Society meets Monday at 7:30 p.m. in the Florence Filberg Centre, 411 Anderton Ave. in Courtenay. Doors, 6:45. Chanchal Cabrera will explore the听Japanese art of forest bathing. Non-member drop-in fee is $5. comoxvalleyhortsoiciety.ca.
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Bulb and plant auction. The Victoria Lily Society hosts a Rare Bulb and Plant Auction on Tuesday in the Couvelier Pavillion of the Horticulture Centre of the Pacific, 505 Quayle Rd. in Saanich. Doors open at 6 p.m., live auction begins at 7. Everyone is welcome.
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Pond care. Dinter Nursery, 2205 Phipps Rd. in Duncan, is offering a free, drop-in, approximately one-hour seminar on Winterizing Your Pond with Scott Stevenson of Van Isle Water Services on Saturday, Oct. 21, at 10 a.m.
