WINNETKA PLANTER MINGLES PLANTS IN RIOT OF COLOR, MOVEMENT.

It never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to create an endlessly blooming, colorful landscape that requires little watering or other maintenance.

Just the other day, I encountered a full-sun planter in Winnetka that contained just three different plant species but had a dazzling effect. The planter was more than 100 feet long and about 4 feet wide. Two shrubs and a ground cover were growing together in color-coordinated glee.

The shrubs in this memorable planter were the burgundy barberry (Berberis Thunbergii Atropurpurea) and Abelia grandiflora Eduard Gaucher. Both species had reached their mature height of approximately 4 feet.

The burgundy barberry is a plant that gains in popularity from year to year. Its leaves are crimson red to burgundy, providing an excellent background in beds where annuals or ground covers are the primary subjects. New growth of the burgundy barberry has a freshly polished crimson gleam, contrasting nicely with the older growth, which eventually assumes more violet and purple tones. The barberry has an arching growth habit, a characteristic that seems to have universal appeal.

Abelia grandiflora Eduard Gaucher also has an arching growth habit; in fact, it clearly surpasses the barberry where fountainesque features are concerned. Abelia is often grown as a stand-alone plant because of its shoots' extraordinary capacity to arch and bend in every direction. Where both abelia and barberry are concerned, there needs to be a breeze in order to fully appreciate their animating influence in the garden.

Red, pink and mauve ivy geraniums are growing over the edges of the Winnetka planter and up into the shrubs. These colors highlight and enliven the color of the barberry foliage.

It would be difficult to imagine Valley gardens without ivy geraniums. You can count on ivy geraniums to provide color at those moments between seasons when annuals have lost their glow and perennials are in abeyance. Ivy geraniums can last for up to five years before they need to be replaced. They should be cut back when dead leaves build up from below or when they become leggy.

The Winnetka planter is watered with a drip system. Polyethylene drip tubing (5/8-inch) encloses invisible, factory installed in-line emitters. Customarily, drip tubing is outfitted with emitters that are snapped into place on the outside of the tubing. The problem with these exterior emitters is that they are easily clogged or broken. The beauty of in-line emitters is that they cannot be broken and are seldom clogged.

Even in summer, watering of the planter is done on a weekly basis. It is true that the system waters for over an hour during its weekly soaking, but little water is used. Consider that the typical spray sprinkler uses one or two gallons of water per minute while the typical drip emitter uses one or two gallons of water per hour. In addition, all the water that comes from a drip system goes into the soil with much less loss to evaporation and run-off as compared to a conventional spray sprinkler system.

Pruning of abelia and barberry shrubs should be done on an annual basis, at the end of February just before the weather warms. Like most shrubs, their true form is best revealed when they are kept beyond the reach of anyone's pruning shears. The barberry, incidentally, is a deciduous plant, so do not become alarmed when it loses its leaves in the winter.

TIP OF THE WEEK: If you are thinking of planting a fall garden, you would be wise to postpone this task until after the first week in October. By around Oct. 10, the days will have shortened to the point where, even if hot weather occurs, it will not have a withering effect on new plantings.