Some people are drawn to birding over gardening because ‘birds move, plants don’t.’ Au contraire. I am acutely aware of motion in the garden, and enjoy many plants for the mere fact that they start quivering in the slightest breeze.
For example, I’ve heard folks disparage Calamagrostis because most of the time it just looks like dead grass. But it’s the first plant that starts in motion when there’s not even enough wind to get the wind chimes playing. Here it is with a white-flowered artemisia in the foreground:
Ornamental grasses are generally the best for turning wind into motion. There are several here, with Calamagrostis (left) wavering again, Miscanthis (several, center) flying its flag, and Panicum (right) reacting en masse.
[A technical note: I’m very unhappy about the loss of quality when video files are uploaded and compressed by both GoogleVideo and YouTube. It helped to cut back to 15 fps when filming, but still the raw avi files or edited wmv files look much better viewed locally. If you squint viewing these, you’ll probably get the idea. Anyone have tips for maintaining quality when uploading to either of these sites?]
Floppers — those top-heavy plants that most people stake (I sure don’t have the time) — are fascinating in a light breeze. (All of these videos were shot on days when there were only intermittent breezes topping out at about 10 mph.) Here is Rudbeckia laciniata ‘Hortensis’ (the outhouse plant I blogged about recently) bobbing and weaving in a slight breeze.
Here’s Sanguisorba tenuifolia (also the subject of a recent post) which really gets going with just a whisper of a wind. And if you squint, you can see another great top-heavy flopper bobbing around, Joy-pye weed (Eupatorium spp) left background.
Here’s a close-up of the same Sanguisorba, which will give you a good idea of just how much this plant moves in just a very light breeze.
Big leaves are also good at catching a breeze. Tropical plants like elephant ears (left) and bananas (right) start quivering with the slightest breeze.
Mixed plantings give interesting effects. (Hey, you choose plant combinations based on color. Why not on how they move?) There are tall, top-heavy ironweed (Vernonia) in the center of this planting and goldenrod to the left. More Calamagrostis waving down low, left-center with a bluish Panicum behind it. Various shrubs, trees and weeds add to the effects.
Dappled shade can heighten the effects of motion as the overstory moves along with (or counter to) the plants below, which move in and out of light and shade, like these coneflowers.
