Get involved to get the garden you want

If you leave everything to the landscaper, you'll get the same plants and flowers everybody else does. Contractors, and even many designers, don't like to take risks with plant selection. Plus, they don't want to spend any more time than is necessary to get your lawn planted. They'll reuse the same palette of widely available plants for every job, leaving an unsettling mark of similarity on everyone.

When you pay thousands of dollars to have your garden redone or to have a new one created from scratch, you want it to be unique. You want it to reflect the colors and plants you love. So, even though you didn't install it, you'll want your fingerprints on every nook and cranny. And, if you've gardened in the past, chances are you have some strong opinions on what you want to see for the next decade.

Plants make the garden, so be prepared before you start the project. Collect a list or pictures of plants from magazines that you find particularly noteworthy. Include trees, both evergreen and deciduous, shrubs that flower or offer other seasonal changes, vines that drape and cling and perennials for bold color year in and year out. And know what ornamental grasses you find unappealing.

This isn't just a standard list, it should have specific varieties. So many fabulous improvements have been made on the old standbys that you will want the best choice of what's available today, not just what's easy to get for the landscaper. On your part, that means doing some research and creating a careful list. For example, rather than accepting a standard saucer magnolia, you can specify a Black Tulip magnolia with fabulous burgundy red blossoms that bring truly unique interest to the early spring garden.

Due to tissue culture, the plant world's term for cloning, genetic variations have produced some truly interesting colored foliage plants. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Heuchera world of coral bells. The first unique leaf colors to hit a decade ago were largely in the purple color range. More recently, varieties such as Amber Waves and Marmalade have emerged to produce golden orange foliage tints that bring fire to your garden during three seasons. Leave it up to the landscaper, and you'll get an ordinary purple or perhaps just the old green leaf coral bells.

If you are looking forward to the ease of a native or wild garden, creating a listing of desirable native species is even more important. The vast majority of landscapers are unfamiliar with a large percentage of the natives suitable for gardens. And these plants may not be widely carried by wholesale growers. You'll have to hunt down sources, too, but it's well worth the effort.

One of our most outstanding natives are the redbud trees, and yet few know about the incredible Forest Pansy. Ditto for western fremontias and ceanothus with cultivars much improved over the species. Don't expect your landscaper to do the research -- he or she likely is too busy. This leaves you to make the lists and call specialty growers for availability in your area.

Creating a plant list for your landscaper is a fun shopping effort. You get to hunt down plants that are well above the ordinary from local sources or online and from catalogs. Sometimes you can even shop rare species yourself at botanical garden plant sales. It pays off because you'll have the various sources all ready to go when your landscaper starts rounding up the plants.

Hiring a landscaper yields a finished garden in no time without backbreaking labor. But, in doing so, we become separated from the act of garden making itself. Keep your fingers in the figurative dirt through research, so when the garden is finally in the ground, it will reflect your own refined choices and cultivated good taste.

Maureen Gilmer is a horticulturist and host of "Weekend Gardening" on DIY Network. Contact her at www.moplants.com.