Perfect Garden For Halloween
In the spirit of Halloween, The Early Show's gardening expert, Charlie Dimmock, gives suggestions on how to turn your garden into a spooky and mysterious space.
In the Chelsea Physic garden, a secret garden right in the heart of London, Dimmock says plants might be dying at the moment but they're looking their most spectacularly spooky.
To create a sense of mystery, try a big vine with its big-textured leaves and low arch that draws you into the garden
To make the garden seem even more mysterious and magical, create a ditch at the entranceway and put timbers across the bridge, possibly with toadstools on it.
Some people have a "death lily" - a very striking plant with great big arrow-shaped leaves and beautiful white flowers all summer long. It contrasts really well with dark foliage
To keep the black theme going, Dimmock has planted a phyllostachys nigra with beautiful black stems. When they first grow, the stems are green and after two years, they change color. Now, if you want to make them more dramatic, it's a good idea to clean off the lower foliage. Some people even polish their stems with black boot polish.
Dimmock says if she were a witch she would want lots of cabbage to go into her cauldron. So she plants ornamental kale in place of lots and lots of flowers
Euonymous alatus, with blood red foliage, can be used in the garden to contrast with blue-black spiky Holly and the Hellibores with their sharp spiky leaves.
A cauldron-shaped pot makes a great feature in the middle of a flowerbed. You can surround it with the bizarre berries of the Callicarpa, which are violet in color and last all winter, and a white Pernettya.
Dimmock's favorite plant in the Halloween garden is the Corokia cotoneaster. It looks like its dead. It's a wire netting plant and it has lovely silver leaves underneath. It contrasts quite well in the pot and it will make a big mound and spill over.
If you really can't survive without a lot of flowers in your garden, how about some black Violas? They're called Molly Sanderson and they'll flower all winter long as long as you deadhead them..
When you're placing gargoyles or gothic ornaments, have them half hidden so they're creeping out from underneath the plants. If you want them to look weathered and really green, paint them with milk, because that colors them down quickly.
It's not only witches who use broomsticks — gardeners do too. They're great for sweeping up leaves and also for brushing up the lawn to stop it from getting diseased. They're really easy to make just out of birchtwigs and hazel handles. And they make a perfect Halloween ornament.
Here is a list Dimmock recommends for a magical garden:
Euonymous alatus
Helleborus Niger (Black Christmas Rose)
Corokia (Wire netting plant)
Violas (Molly Sanderson)
Phyllostachys nigra (Black bamboo)
Zantedeschia aethiopica (Death lily)
Black Holly (ilex Blue Angel)
Pittosporum "Tom Thumb"
Viola Bold Black
Tulipa Black Parrot
Tulipa Queen of the Night
(Black Grass)Ophiopogon Nigracens
( Silver Lace)Helleborus argutifolius
Twisted Hazel (Corylus avellana contorta)
Twisted Willow (Salix matsudana tortuosa)
Callicarpa
Pernettya
Bear's Britches (Acanthus)
Cotinus (Smokebush)
White Cyclamens
Raoulia hookeri (Silver alpine)
Lamium (Silver deadnettle)
Silverspear (Astelia)
Ornamental Kale