Which brings us to the crux of this week's column. No, not women that any male over the age of 12 would slobber over. Instead, we're talking about flowers that take on the tall, statuesque beauty of these famous actresses. Flowers that really stand out in the garden -- whether they're planted as a backdrop behind border flowers or planted individually in a container or all alone in the garden.
Flowers that grow more vertically than horizontally provide excellent contrasts to the rest of the garden. Spire-like flowers add drama, contrast and three-dimensional interest to the garden. They look great against the more rounded shape of many annuals and perennials. Besides adding aesthetic balance, tall-growing flowers make ideal cut flowers to bring indoors because they have long stems.
Many novice home gardeners tend to ignore the importance of height. But every flower at 6 to 8 inches in the garden no matter how much they bloom can be boring. Incorporating different height plants and flowers in the garden helps create a sense of excitement and interest, and also ties together different areas as well.
Why not take your garden to dizzying new heights with some of the following? Snapdragons, stock, foxglove, delphinium and larkspur are a few of the more common taller-growing flowers. You can find snapdragon varieties that grow 6 inches or 6 feet. Goldsmith Seeds has dwarf varieties called Bells and Chimes. Two-foot-high types include Ribbon, La Bella and Liberty. Look for these snapdragons by variety name at any nursery.
No spire garden would be complete without delphinium or foxglove. Delphiniums are known for their arresting blue steeples of summer flowers. Spikes can reach 6 feet. Closely related are foxglove. These feature individual florets that resemble the fingers of a glove, thus their name. Plants are usually 3 to 4 feet high in an array of colors.
Sunflowers, coneflowers and cleome are still other choices. There's almost no need to mention sunflowers -- what with their popularity showing up in fashions, linens and more. Suffice to say, there are sunflower varieties that are real showstoppers, including 2-foot dwarfs to 8-foot-tall hedges.
Coneflowers are in the family of Rudbeckia, which offer many daisy-like flowers including black-eyed Susans and gloriosa daisies. All are known for their sunny golden flowers with dark centers. Varieties can grow 3 to 6 feet.
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