Scifers honored with Yard of the Month award

The August Yard of the Month was awarded by the Ramblewood Garden Club to Susan Scifers.

Scifers lives in the Midtown area of Cape Girardeau on Price Drive. She has lived in her house for eight years and has planted a colorful and interesting front garden with several unusual plants. Her front yard has a pink flowered crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia) that is currently blooming. Making a showy statement at the yard entry area, a lime green pot hosts the tropical Duranta erecta, known as Golden dewdrop, which is covered with tiny purple flowers edged in white. A purple, orange and yellow color palette creates a bright and inviting garden at the front of her house. A large banana plant (Musa acuminate) provides a green background for the Japanese maple "Bloodgood" (Acer palmatum), Canna and castor bean (Ricinus communis) plants, all sporting purple foliage. The castor bean plant has star-shaped leaves and spiny seed pods providing interesting texture in the garden. Orange flowered Cosmos and yellow black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta) and daylilies (Hemerocallis flava) share the space with large leafed elephant ears (Colocasia esculenta).

Also growing in the front bed is a tropical Cardiospermum halicacabum, commonly known as balloon vine or "love in a puff" because inside its papery balloon pod is a shaped heart on each of its three seeds. The local deer population has enjoyed eating many of the cosmos, the hosta plants and the Chamaecyparis or false cypress planted in front of her fence. Burgundy leafed coleus and white blooming annual vinca or periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) share pots placed on either side of the front door. The perennial Miscanthus grass 'Morning light" grows in a front bed edged by brick pavers and along the yard's edge. Scifers waits until spring to cut back the previous year's growth as the foliage makes a beautiful winter statement.

The private backyard is surrounded by a wooden fence and the terraced wall is planted with a variety of plants which show different leaf textures and color for the garden. Among them are Blue Rug juniper (Wiltonii juniper), purple blooming butterfly bush (Buddleja Davidii), white flowered Iris, miniature Allium, Russian sage (Salvia yangii), lamb's-ear (Stachys byzantina), oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia), white blooming coneflower (Echinacea) and the tall, yellow flowered prairie dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum). An interesting shrub is the deciduous native ninebark (Physocarpus) which grows clusters of spring flowers that turn into decorative reddish seedheads, while the peeling bark is attractive in the winter.

The Ramblewood Garden Club congratulates Susan Scifirs for planting and caring for her colorful and interesting garden, thereby making Cape Girardeau a more beautiful place to live.