Planning for the Red, White, and Blue: Part 1

Part 1. Displaying the Colors Year-Round

By Mary Free, Extension Master Gardener

Introduction

With meteorological spring less than two weeks away, it is time to do some garden planning. What better occasion than George Washington Day (Presidents’ Day) to consider if those plans should include a nod to the 250^th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with plants displaying red, white, or blue flowers, foliage, fruit, or bark. In Northern Virginia, the City of Alexandria is commemorating America250 by encouraging residents and businesses to plant red, white, and blue native plants. To give you some ideas about designing new gardens or individual species that display patriotic colors, we have updated and are reposting a two-part series introduced on this holiday in 2019. (Part 2 will post on Washington’s actual birthday, February 22.)

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As winter slowly winds down, you may find yourself yearning for those summer days that melt the cold and brighten the dreary. Perhaps you are dreaming of your summer gardens and feeling a bit patriotic this George Washington Day (Presidents’ Day), wondering how they would look abloom in red, white, and blue for the Fourth of July. Or, perhaps you are feeling even more ambitious and would like to pursue a patriotic theme for various groupings or gardens year-round.

If so, we can help you on both counts. First, we want to introduce you to five Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) “Patriotic Gardens” publications to aid you in planning for and planting red, white, and blue color for all four seasons. These publications were first created to mark the 400th anniversary (in 2007) of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas, and updated in 2026. Additionally, in the second part of this series, “Displaying the Colors on Independence Day,” we will identify the red, white, and blue perennial plants that we have found blooming in Northern Virginia on or around July 4 over the past several years.

The first VCE publication (426-210 (SPES-766P)), “Patriotic Gardens: How to Plant a Red, White and Blue Garden,” illustrates two garden designs for full sun: a 30-inch wide container garden using annuals and an 8-foot-by-10-foot garden bed using a small tree, shrubs, perennials, and annuals. Besides suggesting plant selections, it provides tips on soil preparation, planting, and watering and mulching .

A second publication (426-211 (SPES-767P)), “Patriotic Gardens: Developing A Statewide Corridor and Entrance Enhancement Program,” focuses on public corridor and entrance gardens. Although the three designs offered may be too large for some private residences, they suggest groupings of easy-to-maintain annuals, perennials, shrubs, and small trees, which could be used as starting points.

The third publication (426-220 (SPES-765P)), “Patriotic Gardens: Bulbs for a Red, White, and Blue Spring Garden,” provides suggestions on garden design, soil preparation, planting (including raised berms for heavy clay soil), and maintenance for bulbs. Of course, spring-flowering bulbs are planted in fall—October through early December—when local nurseries display a wide assortment of alliums, anemones, crocuses, daffodils, hyacinths, reticulated irises, snowdrops, squills, and tulips. Gardening companies used to deluge mailboxes with catalogues during that time, but now most have websites for those who wish to peruse and order online.

Although bulbs dot the demonstration Quarry Shade Garden in spring, some Master Gardeners, who have tended the plants there and in some of the other MGNV demonstration gardens, are partial to blue-flowered native perennials like Amsonia tabernaemontana (eastern blue-star),  Iris cristata (dwarf iris), Mertensia virginica (Virginia bluebell), Polemonium reptans (Jacob’s ladder), and Phlox divaricata (woodland phlox) as well as non-natives Omphalodes verna (blue-eyed Mary) and Pulmonaria species (lungwort). Shade-loving, white, spring-flowering, native perennials include Sedum ternatum (wild stonecrop) and Tiarella cordifolia (foamflower) as well as non-native hellebores. For red spring accents, try native perennial Aquilegia canadensis (wild columbine), which attracts hummingbirds, the non-native perennial Epimedium x rubrum (red barrenwort), whose crimson flowers are complemented by young red-tinged green leaves, or red-flowered Heuchera cultivars/hybrids (coral bells), which may have variegated leaves with red, silver, or bluish tones.

Nothing shouts spring, though, like flowering native ornamental trees and shrubs. For white-flowering trees consider Amelanchier arborea (downy serviceberry, whose ripe pomes are bright red) and Chionanthus virginicus (fringetree that produces blue drupes), which can be seen either in/near the Quarry Shade or Sunny Gardens at Bon Air Park or at the Small Space Garden and the Fairlington Community Center (FCC). The diminutive flowers of Benthamidia florida, formerly Cornus florida (flowering dogwood), subtended by showy white bracts, become bright red drupes; autumnal leaves turn shades of red. Magnolia virginiana (sweetbay magnolia), whose creamy flowers give way to cone-like fruits with red aril-covered seeds, can be viewed at Simpson Park Demonstration Garden in Alexandria, Virginia. The branch-hugging, fuchsia (reddish) flower clusters of Cercis canadensis (eastern redbud) also are stunning in early to mid-spring at the Quarry Shade Garden and the FCC.

White-flowering native shrubs include Aronia arbutifolia (red chokeberry) with persistent, bright red pomes and Fothergilla gardenii (dwarf fothergilla) on display at the Glencarlyn Library Community Garden, the Master Gardener Tribute Garden at the FCC, or Simpson Park Demonstration Garden; Itea virginica (Virginia sweetspire) located at the Quarry Shade Garden and the FCC; and Viburnum nudum (possum-haw) with its colorful pink-to-purple-to-blue drupes. As an added bonus, all of these shrubs have brilliant fall foliage in varying shades of red. 

A fourth Virginia Cooperative Extension publication (426-223 (SPES-768P)), “Patriotic Gardens: Native Plants,” touches on the importance of native plants as a way of respecting our natural heritage and providing support to native wildlife as well as tips on where to find native plants; site assessment, planning, and design; soil preparation; and care and maintenance.

The fifth and final publication (426-228 (SPES-769P)), “Patriotic Gardens: Red, White, and Blue in Fall and Winter Gardens,” addresses the challenges of finding plants that will display red, white, or blue colors, especially in late fall and winter. This is where creativity comes into play and we look beyond flowers to foliage, fruit, and bark to enhance a garden’s design and impact. This publication provides excellent suggestions on annual, perennial, and woody species that brighten your landscape with leaves, fruits, and bark in patriotic colors during different seasons. It also discusses how to arrange for a progression of color as well as tips to transition your garden from one season to another.

Additionally, if you missed these articles when they were first posted on this website, then you might want to read “Seeing in the Winter Garden,” “Native Plants for Winter Interest,” and “The Long View—Meditations on Gardening: Color and Texture Sustain the Winter Garden,” which recommend plants with winter attraction, including some with red, white, or blue features. Also of interest is the presentation, Beautiful Winter Gardens, in the Smithsonian Institution Let’s Talk Gardens Video Library. After exploring these resources, you may view the ways in which plants color our landscapes in an entirely new light.

Foliage for summer color

With this in mind, we suggest that to augment the red, white, and blue blooms of Independence Day, listed in Part 2, that you also consider foliage, bark, and fruit. For foliage exhibiting bluish tendencies, consider specific varieties of ornamental grasses like native Schizachyrium scoparium (little bluestem), native perennial Eryngium yuccifolium (northern rattlesnake-master), hostas (e.g., Hosta ‘Blue Mammoth,’ Hosta ‘Blue Moon’), or stonecrops (e.g., Sedum ‘Blue Spruce’). For year-round blue foliage, consider an ornamental conifer, like dwarf cultivars of Colorado blue spruce (Picea pungens). For variegated foliage with splashes of red consider Begonia grandis (stunning red veining beneath the red-petiolate leaves), annuals Caladium and Coleus, Heuchera cultivars/hybrids, ground covers like stonecrops (e.g., Sedum spurium ‘Schorbuser Blut,’ also sold as Dragon’s Blood), or dwarf deciduous trees like Acer palmatum var. dissectum ‘Crimson Queen.’ [Note: Acer palmatum is considered invasive in Arlington County, but not in Alexandria or in the State of Virginia. Check your local government’s invasive species list.] 

Bark and fruit for summer color

If you have a fondness for bark, then Swida sericea, formerly Cornus sericea aka C. stolonifera (red-osier dogwood, historically native along the Potomac River in Fairfax County), will not disappoint. Its red bark is striking in a snow-covered landscape. In July, its intermittent small, white flowers give way to clusters of whitish (blue-tinged) drupes, which are particularly attractive to birds once they ripen in late summer into fall. By July 4, the blue flowers of native Baptisia australis (blue wild indigo) will have given way to 2.5-inch long, blue-black seed pods (legumes) that rise above bluish-green leaves—lovely in dried arrangements. If you are looking for a fruit you can eat, then the red fruits of Rubus fruticosus ‘Chester’ (thornless blackberry) will soon turn black for the picking if birds don’t devour them first. (This tasty blackberry is usually used as a food crop rather than for ornamentation, but if you are interested, then check with your local extension office first to make sure that it is not invasive in your area. Master Gardeners have been pleased with its performance in the Glencarlyn Library Community Garden and have never had any problem with it migrating.)

When choosing plants for your gardens, consider all of their attributes. Be creative! Have fun!

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Sources (in order of appearance)

• “Patriotic Gardens: How to Plant a Red, White, and Blue Garden.” Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) Publication 426-210 (SPES-766P). https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/content/dam/pubs_ext_vt_edu/426/426-210/SPES-766.pdf
• “Patriotic Gardens: Developing A Statewide Corridor and Entrance Enhancement Program.” Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) Publication 426-211 (SPES-767P). https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/content/dam/pubs_ext_vt_edu/426/426-211/SPES-767.pdf
• “Patriotic Gardens: Bulbs for a Red, White, and Blue Spring Garden.” Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) Publication 426-220 (SPES-765P). https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/content/dam/pubs_ext_vt_edu/426/426-220/SPES-765.pdf
• “Patriotic Gardens: Native Plants.” Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) Publication 426-223 (SPES-768P). https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/content/dam/pubs_ext_vt_edu/426/426-223/SPES-768.pdf
• “Patriotic Gardens: Red, White, and Blue in Fall and Winter Gardens.” Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) Publication 426-228 (SPES-769P). https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/content/dam/pubs_ext_vt_edu/426/426-228/SPES-769.pdf
• Funderburk, Judy, Extension Certified Master Gardener. “Seeing in the Winter Garden.” https://mgnv.org/2018/12/12/seeing-in-the-winter-garden/
• Mills, Elaine, Extension Certified Master Gardener. “Native Plants for Winter Interest.” https://mgnv.org/2017/11/27/native-plants-for-winter-interest/
• Watters, Christa, Extension Certified Master Gardener. “The Long View—Meditations on Gardening: Color and Texture Sustain the Winter Garden.” https://mgnv.org/2017/02/07/the-long-view-meditations-on-gardening-5/
• Beautiful Winter Gardens presented by Supervisory Horticulturist James Gagliardi, Smithsonian Institution Let’s Talk Gardens Video Library. https://gardens.si.edu/winter-interest/