Bower

By Paige Bowers
Homeowners across the country are finding there's more to a well-landscaped yard than that simple bit of curb appeal.

Virgin's Bower
Clematis paniculata
Very hardy semi-evergreen climber, will quickly grow to 30 feet, small clusters of fragrant white blooms in late summer and again in the fall. Clematis like their heads in the sun and their roots in the shade ...

Harlequin Glorybower
This spectacular deciduous shrub delights with colors and shapes that live up to its name. Pink and greenish buds give way to fragrant, white star-shaped flowers in late summer, and then jewel-like, bright blue berries.

Growing Woodland Bowers & Wetland Beauties
What could be more natural than a woodland setting in your own back yard, complete with a small stream or beautiful bog?

The Bower Vine Pandorea jasminoides is an excellent alternative to Jasmine or Wisteria.

In a different area of my garden I have a much larger area of flowers that I regard as a retreat or, more euphemistically, as a bower.

bowerA Bower is a garden seat protected by foliage. bowling greenA Bowling Green is a flat lawn for playing the game of bowls.

Christy gathered friends to focus on a particularly forlorn 50- by 300-foot plot on the northeast corner of Bowery and Houston streets. It was strewn with bed frames, old refrigerators, trash, and car parts.

- Virgin's bower (Clematis virginiana) Zone 3
- Purple-leaf wintercreeper (Euonymus fortunei 'Coloratus') Zone 5
- 'Baltica' English ivy (Hedera helix 'Baltica') Zone 5
- Climbing hydrangea (Hydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris) Zone 5 ...

Pam's flat, double-deep lot includes many garden structures, including a series of three metal arches that form a graceful bower of climbing roses.

May your home be surrounded by bowers of flowers.
Photographs courtesy of Judy Sedbrook.
For more information on clematis, see ...

The problem: Your treeless backyard desperately needs a shady bower, but you'd like flowers, too.

We are, for the same reason, drawn to arbors, bowers, allees, and pergolas. The roof need not cover your entire garden.

Some other vines which have flowers for a short period are: Trachelospermum jasminoides (star jasmine), Pandorea jasminoides (bower of beauty), Pyrostegia venusta (Orange trumpet vine).

' On each side, boxwood "chapels" harbor bowers of white 'Annabelle' hydrangeas. Gosse de Gorre's daughter will be married here on July 5. "The weather will be beautiful," the gardener predicts confidently.

See also: Plant, Flower, Water, Clematis, Rose