Shown to the left are plant descriptions for several of the varieties we used in the TulsaPartners' raingarden. You'll notice most of the descriptions feature a butterfly sticker, which indicates that they attach pollinators, like butterflies. You may also notice that we generally selected 1 gallon (1#) container sizes, which are lower priced, but generally fill out well within a season or two.
Color. Because the building is a light yellow and there are already lavender flowing plants present (a lilac bush sits just behind the raingarden), we kept with that theme and selected plants that would have lavender or yellow flowers. Because the building is surrounded by an evergreen hedge, which also forms the garden's backdrop, we didn't invest in additional evergreen material.
Moisture Tolerance. In general, plants in the deepest section of the garden will have the greatest depth and duration of inundation, so these plants should be water-loving or wetland-type plants. For this garden, we looked around the building for plants that were already present and found an overgrown clump of purple irises, which do well in wet soil. In addition, they are vertical plant and wouldn't get lost due to height. Some of these were transplanted into the deepest part of the garden. In the middle zone, we planted another popular lavender flowing plant, garden phlox, along with a yellow flowering plant, Helianthus. Both tolerate moderate levels of inundation but also do well with direct sun and periods of drought. In the back, which is the driest part of the garden, we planted Russian sage and Little Joe Pye Weed. The "Little" is important because a normal Joe Pye Weed would take up almost all of a garden this size!
With Spring just around the corner, I'm looking forward to seeing how these plants have handled the long dry fall that followed their installation. Stay tuned for more photos!
