Colors of Summer: The Square Fountain Garden

The Square Fountain Garden—a place of intricate planting patterns, an ever-changing array of spring bulbs and summer annuals, and a soothing fountain—is a peaceful place indeed. This summer, it’s also a place of vibrancy, showcasing all the colors of the rainbow with dozens of plants putting on a spectacular show. Follow along as I share the design of this summer’s Square Fountain Garden, the beauty you can see here, and how the plants chosen for the garden support pollinators, formalize the informal, and evolve throughout the season. 

This summer’s display at the Square Fountain Garden is all about embracing the vibrant colors of summer, and—as my first summer display that I’ve designed for Longwood—it’s one in which I’ve continued to challenge myself to create a diverse, colorful display that mimics that diversity found in nature. I started designing display gardens a decade ago; looking back, my first display garden contained five different types of plants. Since then, the diversity of my garden designs has ranged from 25 to 120 different types of plants. This garden contains 30 different types of plants and showcases all the colors of the rainbow.

This informal mix of vibrant blooms is held together like a bouquet surrounded by a sea of vibrant Impatiens ‘SAKIMP025’ SunPatiens® Compact Electric Orange. Some of my favorites this season have been the red and yellow Gaillardia pulchella (blanket-flower) and the grape-purple Gaillardia aestivalis 'Grape Sensation'. These gorgeous pincushion flowers have been blooming nonstop, seeming to eat up the heat of the most current heat wave! If their flowers are consistently deadheaded, both will continue through the summer months. Both prefer well drained soils in full sun. 

Another showstopper has been the tropical Tibouchina urvilleana (glory-bush). There are hardly words to describe the rich purple flowers standing above the rest of the display! Tibouchina prefers a little shifting shade during the hottest part of the day, and the changing shadows of the hedges and trees over the Square Fountain Garden are the perfect spot. In thinking about the best performers in the display this season it is difficult to pick the best, since most all have and continue to perform beautifully in the unpredictability of this summer’s weather!

It is truly a display that must be seen up close to take in all of the details—which I do each morning as I care for the space before we open to guests, listening to countless birds singing from above in the towering bald-cypress trees and, while knee-deep in the sea of flowers deadheading spent blooms, watching hummingbirds collect nectar from the garden’s five different types of Salvia. Time goes by quickly in the peace and solitude of the morning hours at work, but just like that, at 10 am, the fountain turns on, and the plants begin to glow in the intensifying sunlight, as if they know the show has just begun. Thankfully, the bright colors of the garden—and the pollinators that often visit it—can be experienced all throughout the day. 

In planning a display garden, not only do I look for plants which can tolerate the heat and humidity of summer in Pennsylvania, but I also plan for the display to benefit wildlife, particularly pollinators.  This season I mixed together Pentas, Gaillardia, Cuphea, Dicliptera, Salvia, and Dahlia, to create an oasis for hummingbirds, butterflies, and bumblebees. One of my favorites is the Dicliptera suberecta (hummingbird-plant). Having doubled in size since planted at the end of May, this plant is known not only for its tubular shaped red flowers, but also its spectacular fuzzy grey green leaves.  

Another favorite for pollinators is the Mystic series dahlias. Pollinators prefer single petal flowers, and the single ray disc flowers of the yellow Dahlia ‘Knockout’ Mystic Illusion in the Square Fountain Garden this season are no exception. 

Salvia or sages in general are also beloved by a plethora of pollinators and provide colorful accents from the vibrant red of Salvia ‘Faye Chapel’, the fuzzy bubblegum Pink of Salvia oxyphora, to the cobalt blue of Salvia ‘Big Swing’.

Along the walled steps going down into the Square Fountain Garden are eight window boxes expertly constructed by our carpentry shop to allow for planting up the sides with Sempervivum, commonly known as hens-and-chicks. Longwood Volunteer Pam Currie and I spent a morning planting these lovely boxes this past May. We carefully placed 30 Sempervivum per side in chicken wire frame and surrounded by sphagnum moss along each side of these window boxes. Sempervivum are naturally found on rocky slopes and prefer well-drained soils in full sun and are perfect for container gardening. Cascading out of the boxes is a wonderful tropical summer vine, Pseudogynoxys chenopodioides, or Mexican flame-vine, lighting up the brick wall with its red-orange cascading flowers. 

The display is not even two months old, and already on fire. The window boxes erupt around 8 am each day with the glowing flowers of Portulaca umbraticola ‘POR1600’ Mojave® Red (purslane), closing again in the heat of the afternoon. The carpet of Impatiens ‘SAKIMP025’ SunPatiens® Compact Electric Orange glow in the shadows of the arborvitae hedge. The striking true-blue flowers of Salvia guaranitica ‘Black and Bloom’ and Achetaria azurea (Brazilian-snapdragon) provide a cooling contrast to the sizzling oranges and reds.

Be sure to stop by the Square Fountain Garden and take in all the details of this summer’s fiery display. This display will continue to evolve and erupt with contrasting dominating floral hues as the days get shorter and as we approach autumn. The intoxicating energy of this display changes and with each visit a new view and appreciation for the beauty of planting with pollinators in mind can be enjoyed. Whether it’s staking, tying, deadheading, or watering, a special thanks to Laura Durkovic, Susan Meyers, Amanda Smith, and our wonderful team of weekly volunteers that tirelessly keep the Square Fountain Garden and the entire Flower Garden Walk looking its best.