When I told a friend who lives in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware that I was blogging about the roses I saw blooming there last week she said, “Oh, all the Knockouts”? Because there SURE are a lot of them! Sometimes to a nice effect, like this pond-side garden, or to a really boring effect, like the motel-side scene below.
To my eyes, single Knockouts like this one don’t add a whole lot to a landscape.
That’s better. And they do bloom for months, right?
These may not be Knockouts; the owner DID include an unusual redbud, after all – the gorgeous chartreuse ‘Rising Sun.’
The shrub roses above and below (maybe Drift?) are given plenty of company in these lawn-free front gardens.
The local garden designers have a plant palette that works and they’re sticking to it!
Gardens by Real Gardeners?
I found some flowering shrubs that aren’t roses OR hydrangeas – a nice Spirea and even nicer Weigela, a wonderful shrub I rarely see.
Real gardeners don’t mind a little chaos in the garden.
This corner garden – my favorite in the whole town – was featured for its peak hydrangeas last June.
I spotted this nice mix of roses and perennials, especially the too-rarely-seen yellow Baptisia, at the entrance to town.
The roses here barely registered for me, swooning as I was over these foxgloves. [Corrected – thanks, commenters!] Props to the gardener growing them so well in this region.
A professional may have selected these shrub roses but I bet the owner chose the cool statue.
I found rugosa roses in just one garden, despite how perfectly suited they are to beachy locations.
Less-lawn landscape misses? You be the judge!
Sure, I like annuals, but in pots, or massed in borders. Not like this.
Same criticism here but hey, they sure minimized the lawn, didn’t they?
I bet this triangle of rocks used to be turfgrass, proving that not all lawn-replacement projects are eco-service improvements.
This lawn-free front garden is kinda odd…maybe a work in progress?
Not sure what design purpose is served by these expensive boulders.
This home appears to have been added to and renovated. Next, maybe they’ll replace the sad, sad foundation plantings.
Now for Some Big Honking Lawns!
In a newer part of town with much larger lots, I saw acres and acres of uniformly weed-free turfgrass.
But most of the mega-lawns I saw were broken up by front-yard islands of trees, shrubs and perennials – just like the island I recently suggested that my neighbors create, a suggestion they actually took.
Nice!
These islands of mulch aren’t much improvement over lawn (really, any improvement), so I’m hoping a truckload of plants is on the way.
Delphinium? Looks like foxgloves.
Agreed
Fixed! Thx
All that mulch! Ugh.. I prefer islands with perennials, trees and shrubs.. groundcover.. perwinkle. Am impressed with all the roses. They just don’t do well for me in northern Virginia. The one photo of the huge bed of tons of mulch and annuals hurts to look at it.. obviously the owner is not a gardener.
This is like the old Glamour Magazine “Dos and Don’ts” feature but for front yards! Looove yellow Baptisia, which I just bought for my own square of Delaware ground.
I thought the exact same thing, remembering when visible bra straps were a faux pas rather than a fashion statement
Thank you Susan for the post showing the cross-section of yard treatment in this attractive, affluent shore town. Other than beautiful roses and healthy blooming plants in riots of color (thank God for May), I felt your post did a great job of exposing the extreme differences in property owner’s opinions on what a plot of land should be. It’s been said, if you look to a person’s library, you’ll know the person. I say as well, if you look to the property treatment, you’ll know the person. The saddest shot was the one with the stand of gangling shrubs. They are so emaciated it’s difficult to identify them.
Maybe the annuals were planted to cover the bare spaces until the perennials could fill in? Just a thought.
I couldn’t help noticing what looks like nepeta (catmint) planted everywhere, especially with the roses. What a beautiful, efficient workhorse that plant is!
So glad you mentioned the Nepeta! Beautiful and covered with pollinators all season long! And basically no maintenance.
You’re sounding a bit like Billy Goodnick and his “Crimes Against Horticulture”.
Hmmm. If he hasn’t written for you, you should look him up, he’d fit right in here. He’s a landscape architect from the Santa Barbara area.
Oh, we love BIlly and wish he’d had time to guest-rant more often for us. Here’s one of them: https://gardenrant.com/2013/01/stop-the-madness-crimes-against-horticulture.html
Now that you mention him, I think I’ll see if he has something he’d like to rant about.
It was enjoyable to see what others have done with their yards. And those were nicely executed photos. Thanks for giving us a look!
Ah, Knock Out roses: the clip-on ties of the rose world. They are work horses, and better than lots of nothing (like stones, gravel, beds of mulch, etc.) But I’ll take a David Austin rose over a Knock Out.
I spit out my tea this morning, laughing at that analogy, thanks for that laugh!
Be interesting to see in September if the little annuals have joined and created a quilt pattern.
Foxgloves, not Delphimiums
I think that any other rose (no, I’m not quoting Shakespeare) might not do well in such a humid environment and I do like the knockouts for the large swaths of color–especially with the right design, as you’ve pointed out. I’m all for the lawnless yards here at the beach–lawns seem incongruous to the max–an area of pebbles or rocks seem appropriate visually except not in Henlopen Acres which looks more like a suburban DC neighborhood. I’m also pleased to see all the yellow Baptisia here. Great photos, Susan.
Your town sure has delightful landscaping to enjoy, I’m so jealous!
Not where I live but it’s just over 2 hours away. My beach retreat!
Why is exposed mulch still a ‘thing’ ?
Why not plant groundcovers? Pollinators need all the help we can give them. Soil needs all the help we can give it. Ground water needs all the help we can give it.
Worse, mulch often brown & dead, or even worse, dyed orange & toxic. Then there’s nuclear worse earth mulch, shredded car tires with myriad poisons poisoning soil and ground water.
Pics in article give unintentional education. Assumption that mulch is a good thing. At the front end, yes, but that quickly passes once groundcovers fill in. Why the mulch fiasco? Easy to put on CONTRACT. Huge sector of landscape industry makes $$$ off mulch.
Imagine the combined harm of decades use of mulch, to environment……
Garden & Be Well………………………..people, wildlife, soil & groundwater !
I agree with you that the absence of rugosa roses is puzzling. They smell so good! To me, that’s the smell of summer: beach roses, salt air, seaweed, sand.