Colvin Garden – Debby & Jerry Colvin Columbus - Northwest

Debby and Jerry’s garden sits on a 40’ x 110’ inner-city lot surrounding their house. Their garden contains a wide variety of plant material, including seventy five hosta – both old favorites and new introductions. Some of Debby’s favorites are H. Sagae, H. Praying Hands, H. Dream Queen, H. Lakeside Lollipop, and H. Lakeside Paisley Print. They are also members of Metropolitan Columbus Daylily society and have about 175 daylilies. Flowering trees and shrubs add structure to the garden. Shade and sun perennials provide all-season bloom. Spring blooms are provided by tulips, hyacinths, daffodils and native Ohio wildflowers. Summer annuals such as dusty miller, snapdragons, geraniums, petunias, and marigolds are added for color between the perennials. Last, but not least, there is a 8’ x 16’ plot for fruits and vegetables that includes raspberries, rhubarb, and herbs. All the daylilies and hosta are labeled, as well as many of the other plants. Debby is trying to use botanical plant names since competitive floral arranging now requires listing plant material by their botanical names.

Perennials Hemerocallis (daylily) Liriope Rose, miniature & standard Iris, bearded & miniature

Fern Heuchera (coral bells) Asarum europaeum (European ginger) Dicentra (bleeding heart)

Brunnera Paeonia (peony) Papaver orientale (oriental poppy) Rudbeckia hirta (black eyed susan)

Coreopsis Echinacea (coneflower) Leucanthemum × superbum (Shasta daisy) Hellebore

Trees & Shrubs

Japanese maple Purple leaf sandcherry Prunus cerasus (miniature sour cherry) Euonymous alatus (burning bush)

Tricolor Beech Dwarf Ginko Hibiscus syriacus (rose of Sharon) Cercis cadadensis (Eastern Redbud)

Cotoneaster Buxus (boxwood) Hydrangea (macrophylla and quercifolia Cornus sericea (red-twig dogwood)

Weigela Dwarf Beech Cornus florida, (white and pink dogwood,) Malus sylvestris (crab apple)

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Photos courtesy of Debby Colvin

Korting Garden – Deb & John Korting Upper Arlington

The 110’ x 130’ lot had only grass and foundation plantings when the Kortings moved there in 2001. They removed most of the foundation plantings and kept the trees. They installed the garden structures, paths, sidewalks, beds, and walls. Deb’s garden is divided into nine planting areas. The garden features many tree and shrub specimens including Butternut, Ohio Buckeye, Spring Snow Crabapple, Oakleaf Hydrangea, Wine and Roses Weigela, Hydrangea ‘Incrediball’, Ninebark, Gingko ‘Summer Rainbow’, Bottlebrush Buckeye, Fineline Buckthorn, Cherry Laurel, Purple Cherry, Dwarf Elk Horn Cedar, and other conifers. The beds are filled with perennials, including brunnera, astilbe, hellebores, hakonechloa, Japanese painted fern, lavender, coneflower, Siberian iris, allium, oriental poppies, crocosmia, daylilies, goatsbeard, heuchera, bear’s breeches, and others. Deb started collecting hosta seven years ago and currently has 130 varieties. Her big challenge with hosta is growing them under the evergreen trees in the back section of the property.

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Photos courtesy of Deb Korting

Spahr-Hitt Garden – Patty Spahr-Hitt Worthington

Patty keeps a small suburban garden with a mix of shade perennials, hosta, heuchera, and daylily beds. Her daylily collection numbers 450 registered varieties and she has about 100 hosta. Patty starts fifteen types of zinnia from seed and they should be blooming around TailGate time.

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25 Photos courtesy of Patty Spahr-Hitt

Skier’s Off Season – Jim Rush and Beth Mitchell Worthington

"Skier's Off Season" - City residence with compact gardens including bountiful large and dwarf hosta, colorful daylilly beds, dahlias, small koi pod, water plants, bamboo, towering bananas, plumaria, bird of paradise, and other exotics on a corner lot. Garden nick-knack scavenger hunt for adults and children.

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24 Photos courtesy of Beth Mitchell

Hower Garden – Fred Hower Worthington

Pine and a climbing hydrangea are espaliered to cover walls. The garden was designed with planned obsolescence in mind. Over forty-three years, as the landscape matured, the garden has changed from grass, foundation plantings, and annuals to flowering trees and shrubs - burning hot to shady cool. A Corneliancherry dogwood replaced a silver maple. Two of a group of Taxus Hicksii died and their branches now support clematis. “Right plant in the right place” guides his garden design. The south yard tends to be wet and hosts a deciduous holly, ‘Cinderella’ flowering crab, Button bush, and Clethra. Fred has about twelve varieties of hosta (60 plants), mini to large sizes, and the variety names are long lost. Fred Hower is the host of “Plant Talk” heard Saturday mornings at 8:00 am on many Ohio radio stations. As “The Ohio Nurseryman”, Fred Hower has over 50 years experience as a horticultural consultant, certified arborist and landscape designer.

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Fred describes his quarter acre as a “mature garden for all seasons.” A Euonymus provides winter interest by climbing up through a thornless hawthorne. Spring starts with vernal witchhazel, flowering bulbs, and hellebores. Trees and shrubs like Washington Hawthorne provide bloom through spring and summer, and berries in fall and winter. He makes good use of limited space by using climbing plants. A Euonymus has grown two stories and spread 25’ wide providing interesting cover for a stucco wall. Specimen trees like Bristle Cone Photo Google Street View