At this point in the season, things are really starting to come together. Lots of perennials and annuals are flowering, but I would like to show some of the plants I use for a “pause- affect” in the border. I find that “big leaf- plants” allow the eyes a resting place before moving onto the next flowering group of plants. Evergreens also work in a similar fashion. Just like when an artist creates “negative spaces” in a painting as a place to retreat before moving through the picture again; a gardener also can use larger flatter shapes in the border for a similar result. Big leaf plants are a great way to achieve this. Gertrude Jekyll was the first gardener to talk about “making pictures” in her garden at Munstead Wood. She was a painter and a photographer and part of the Arts and Craft Movement in England. When I think about most art forms: music, poetry, architecture, etc, I believe all these forms have the equivalent idea of a resting place, in which to pause, and then re-enter the art form.
Please read –Making a Bold Statement– a more in depth article
Petasites Japonica & Sumac “Tiger eyes” & wild rose in “Big Leaf Room”
Petasites japonica and Petasites japonica “variegatus” In the “Big Leaf Room”
Astilboides tabularis in the “Big Leaf Room”
Astilbiodes Tabularis in the border – creating a “pause affect”
Rooting for Ideas 
Can we grow those beautiful big leaf plants
in this record setting (108 yesterday) heat?
Oklahoma Unk
Hi Jim,
I seriously doubt it would work. They need consistent wet soil- (by a pond) in the shade. They don’t like a lot of direct sunlight. They grow along woodland streams!
Don, My tomato plants have grown about a foot taller than I am, but little produce lately. Can they be trimmed? I would like to fertilize so that I could get some tomatoes. Though I did with an organic fertilizer a few weeks ago. Do you know something about a fertilizer that would produce some fruit? It is burning down here in Texas, but I have found that tomato plants like mist as well as a shower to water. Last year our plants were so small, then Nathan put manure this year.
Best way to water is on the roots. And you probably need to leave it on for an hour or so. Water as late in the day as possible. Given your heat – I would think the misting it would just evaporate. Either put the hose on low and leave it for a while or put a sprinkler on. Sounds like there may not be enough consistent moisture to produce a crop.
Dang. Your place looks like a plant museum, very beautiful.
I will try to water that way. You would not believe how dense everything was. Now, only the outside is green. We probably planted too many. Last year they didn’t get big like that. I am sure that the difference was the manure.