Pacific Northwest Gardening: My garden under a big pine, 3 by Pistil

Pistil wrote:
I read a lot (It gets dark by 4 pm here in winter).
Favorites:
Making the Most of Shade by Larry Hodgson
The Complete Shade Gardener by George Schenk
Planting the Dry Shade Garden by Graham Rice

I also scoured the internet PNW mail order nurseries, for advice on dry shade plants.

What I planted:
Dryopteris tokyoensis (Tokyo Wood Fern)
Tellima grandiflora 'Forest Flame'
Iris foetidissima var. lutes
Hosta 'Great Expectations'
Iris cristata 'Abbey's Violet'
Epimedium pinnatum ssp colchicum
Hemerocallis fulva 'Flore pleno'
Heuchera villosa 'Autumn Bride'
Geranium phaeum 'Samobor'
Geranium phaeum 'Lily Lovell'
Polypodium scouleri
Digitalis lutea
Digitalis trojana
Hellebore Winter Jewels strain, 'Golden Sunrise'
Alstroemeria 'The Third Harmonic'
Intermediate Bearded Iris 'Midsummer Nights Dream
Bergenia 'Winterglow' added 2014


Most were planted April/May.
The iris were added in late summer when I got them by mail order.
The Bergenia were added 2014

I watered at least weekly the first summer, but things hardly grew at all. I finally decided to fertilize in August, then growth began. Possibly this was a mistake, to cause soft growth late in the year. I should have fertilized right away, maybe with Osmocote slow release fertilizer.

Fall 2013 I put some limestone chips around some of the Hellebores, as I had read they like lime. I will watch snd see if those plants do better. I had bought the Hellebores in January befor I make the garden, so I could see them in blood at the nursery. They lived in pots in my pot ghetto until planting time.

#1 planted in April
#2 Iris cristata bloomed in May
#3 June
#4 Bindweed leaves mimic Epimedium leaves.Could be long-term problem.
#5 August, still looks sparse