Picket Fence Plants
A picket fence is just one key component of a cottage-style garden featured in ancient American landscapes. The main role of this manner of fence comprised keeping kids and farm animals either in or out of the yard and off the fence. Picket fence crops typically incorporate a combination of flowers, kitchen shrubs and herbs. This manner of planting lacks hard rules. Just use the plants using the scents and colors you love.
Flowers
Flowers bring colors to the area and match the picket fence. 1 perennial flower is “Strawberry Candy” daylily (Hemerocallis “Strawberry Candy”), which grows best in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 4 through 10, staying evergreen unless exposed to freezing temperatures. This 3-foot-tall daylily creates clusters of small rose-pink flowers with yellow throats. The flowers close at night and re-open each morning. “The Fairy” sweetheart rose (Rosa “The Fairy”) creates sprays of pink blooms from June until the first fall frost at USDA zones 5 through 9. All these non-fragrant roses reach 1 to 3 feet tall, and attract birds and butterflies.
Herbs
Various types of herbs are commonly planted along a picket fence close to the kitchen. Sweet bay (Laurus nobilis) reaches 12 to 15 feet tall and wide in USDA plant hardiness zones 8 through 11. This culinary herb can grow to a tree shape, reaching 20 to 35 feet tall. Slow-growing, aromatic green leaves cover the plant year-round with yellow flowers appearing in the spring. “Tuscan Blue” rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis “Tuscan Blue”) grows as an erect aromatic tree with needle-like leaves and tiny blue flowers in the summer. At USDA zones 8 through 10, this evergreen herb reaches 6 feet tall and 2 to 4 feet wide.
Shrubs
Shrubs planted along a picket fence create a peek-a-boo look to the border. An aromatic tree is actually the Oriental lilac (Syringa x chinensis) using spring spikes composed of light purple flowers on spreading branches reaching 10 to 12 feet wide. This deciduous bush grows well in USDA zones 3 through 8, attracting butterflies and hummingbirds. Dwarf pomegranate shrubs (Punica granatum “Nana”) produce a dense coverage of thin green leaves and orange-red single flowers on the summer. This fruiting bush reaches 36 inches tall and wide in USDA zones 7 to 11.
Trees
Small trees make the most of vertical growing distance along the picket fence. A tropical deciduous tree, Black Tulip magnolia (Magnolia x soulangiana “Jurmag1”) creates 6-inch-wide purplish-pink flowers, which look like tulips. These blossoms appear prior to the green leathery leaves in the first spring. At USDA zones 5 through 9, this shrub reaches 15 to 20 feet tall and spreads 6 to 10 feet wide. “Dwarf Bearss Seedless” lime trees (Citrus aurantifolia “Dwarf Bearss Seedless”) hit 6 to 8 feet tall in USDA plant hardiness zones 9 and 10. This round-shaped evergreen citrus tree creates juicy lemon-sized fruit in the winter and white blooms in the spring.