We came from here:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1356682/#post_9824586
Well I don't think we'll have to worry about frost any more so that's good. Here are a few new blooms from our yard. The first is Geranium daff, second one is Thalia and Geranium daffs and they smell lovely!! Third pic is Little Leo Leopard's Bane just emerging with blooms.
Thank you David, I didn't think they belonged there. Too lazy to look them up when I have an expert right at my finger tips. LOL
Lovely pictures everyone! So nice to see! Holly, if that arum is indeed non-native, I would consider relocating it in my own yard! It is gorgeous! But I don't really have a suitable garden for woodland plants, and must resist their siren song....
I have several of them and just love them. It was a huge clump and a bit of it did follow me home.
Gita, why not try some of the blue bells in your YUK bed? They must be used to competing with tree roots to grow since they are usually found on the forest floor.
Typ: I would definitely urge you to find or create a place for woodland plants. There are so many cool woodland plants available it's mind blowing. I know I'm only scratching the tip of the iceberg but I have to wait another decade or so before getting more so I have more shade by then.
I was thinking the same thing Typwc, that it should find a new home in Holly's yard. Hehehe
I am loving all the pics!!!! I love spring! Have been deadheading some of the daffs already. Lilacs are starting to open. Glad to see blossoms on the crabapples. Thankful the one is still alive. Last year Some yellow jackets had made a nest down in the roots of it and it was leaning. After finding it(the hard way) DH eradicated them and pushed the tree back upright. This is the third year for them.
Seq, I would definitely have a woodland garden if I could, but my yard is too urban, too arid, too "well-draining", waaaaay too hot and sunny for these things. My husband likes having a lawn, and that complicates things too. I have planted trees but they are still too small for appreciative shade. The soil ecology is totally off balance here, and won't ever be fixed while I'm living here (probably not much longer).
In some places, the ground is compacted to the point where it is literally 6 inches of dust over the subsoil which is clay. I have pretty much resigned myself to plants that don't need shade, rich soil or moist ground. :(
I grew up appreciating the Gunpowder River State Park system which was near my childhood home, and I pine for a woodland garden!
Here's the google street view of my front and back yards, hopefully this helps. My home is in a 60 year old neighborhood. 60 years of lawn, privet, rats, starlings, silver maples, and benign neglect. :/
60 years of lawn, privet, rats, starlings, silver maples, and benign neglect. :/
Well, ya gotta start somewhere...
I hear you typ and I'm sure that's accurate but it made me chuckle (ruefully) - too true
typwc, I didn't have much shade space either. But I just love shape plants so I carved out a few spots over the years. A bit of shape created by the house, potting shed and large bush. Limbed up the junipers at the entrance to the parking area. I "had" to do some limbing up in the evergreen group so I am taking advantage of that space under the trees to create a new shade bed. Here is one of the beds under the Juniper hedge.
There are 3 Hellebore, Forget me knot, newly planted Arum & Va Blue bells, Columbine, Trillium, Hosta, Dutchmans Britches, Fern, lily of the Valley, Heuchera.
l
Yikes Typ! I guess there's not much you can do in that situation :( I hope that if you are moving soon you'll be able to get a place more conducive to gardening. Don't get discouraged though, our soil is fairly poor too as we are near where a barn was located on the farm where our development now is. I go through a lot of compost :)
I love that little shade garden cut-out under that Juniper Holly, very nice!
Thanks for starting the new thread Seq. I have Thalia daffodils, and really like them too - they were the first daffodils I ever planted. In my woodland they are still there and alive after two decades, but they don't bloom much. Greenthumb just dug some up to see if he and ecnalg have better luck with them blooming on the other side of Lucketts.
Typ, there are so many nice things about those old established neighborhoods. I think I read between the lines that you may be moving on at some point though, so maybe in your next place you can make a spot for a woodland garden. I've adapted to them because those are the conditions I have, and I've come to love the subdued colors, foliage textures and SHADE, especially when it is scorching hot outside :)
Holly, we cross posted - love what you've done with that shade bed.
Typwc, I was at a Garden Tour in Carlise City, They built up woodland like soil by doing a lasagna bed. Layers of cardboard, news paper and leaves. Maybe some compost, too. Lots of layers on top of layers till they had some really nice ground. Their project took a couple of years to complete and they did have shade trees. Not quite like your yard but maybe you could work on a small spot.
I am planing on adding a few more ferns, bleeding heat, astilbe, Corydalis lutea, and that new plant I got from Happy.
Happy what was the name of that plant Eph????
I have two of these beds on either side of the parking area, haven't cleaned the other side yet. It is a really mess thanks to Ric and his snow plowing, there are driveway stones just piled into it. He did say that he would clean that bed, going to take a bit of time down on his knees to do it right so I might just step in and find something else for him to do. LOL
Yeah Terri, the Thalia mixed with the Geranium makes for a delightful fragrance. Both of them have different smells and they are great!
Thanks for your support, guys! Yes, I am working with what I've got. I know there are those who lament that they have nothing BUT shade and woodland. Holly, those shade beds seem so serene and cool. I love it!
The upside to my place is that I can grow sunloving tropicals wherever I want. And boy do I love sunloving tropicals! :D
Holly, it was an epimedium that you got at Happy's. I have several cultivars, but have been wanting to add more. They are not usually found in local nurseries - I've found roseum and 'Lilafee', but that is about it. Almost all others need to be ordered from specialty nurseries. They thrive in shade conditions and big bonus - deer don't eat them!!!
happy., do/did you have variegated solomon's seal? I think I have a little one that came with GInkgo Craig, which by the way are doing very well.
I've been a terrible slacker in the picture posting dept, I know...Yellow is Stylophorum wood poppy the NA native Celandine.
Typ I was thinking similar to others-would be nice to look for some woodland space in the next home which I hope will continue to be somewhere in the area! :-)
Nice, Sally!
Holly -- Yes, Aspen is right -- it was a Epimedium, probably a versicolor. See http://www.chicagobotanic.org/downloads/planteval_notes/no20_barrenworts.pdf
Sally -- I do have lots of variegated solomons seal. Would you like some? They are a pain to dig up -- they form subterranean forests of thick and very woody roots -- so it is hard to bring a neat potted plant of them, but I am going to transplant some in my yard this season anyway so I'll be hacking at them and would be happy to bring you some -- might be wrapped in a newspaper though, since (as I said) they don't lend themselves to being neatly potted up.
I do need to figure out my "haves" for Aspenhill's swap -- maybe I'll attend to that this weekend. Probably the same-old same-old list, though some of the plants on my awful front hill seem to be doing well and might be divisible.
Nice Sally! I just got the Stylophorum from Lazy S&S. I can't wait to see it in bloom next year :)
Thanks guys for the name. I just couldn't quite pin it down.
Can anyone ID this for me. I got it from one of the swaps a few years ago, for some reason I keep thinking ginger but I can't find a ginger that looks anything like it. Little round leaf plant in the middle.
violet of some kind maybe?
Asarum splendens (Chinese wild ginger) or Asarum europaeum (European wild ginger)?
Thanks happy, I think I have both.
Sally, I really like your white bleeding heart. What are the plants in photos 2 and 3 (besides the Muscari)?
From this mornings walk, dogwoods. My favorite dogwood is the pink one. I love the structure of the trees too.
Beautiful Terp! The dogwood pinks seem especially vivid this year.
And azaleas are opening too--so pretty with the dogwood.
My dogwood and azaleas this morning:
If I had to have a dogwood, I like the red ones, those are gorgeous. I'm more a fan of Magnolias though. There's a yellow blooming Mag that I'm nuts for but I don't think it could find a home in our yard due to my wife's 'no more trees' restriction : /
Paul, they sure are beautiful and you sure are right about the lovely structure. We don't have any in the yard right now, but I think we are adding one to the Evergreen group since we needed to remove a couple of the evergreens the last few years. I have a Red Bud and some Japanese Maples out there I think a white dogwood would go great with them.
Yay! Dogwoods! Azeleas! Despite this weather, they all make me happy happy happy! More please! :)
Yes a white dogwood sounds like it would be lovely! :-)
http://www.montgomeryplanning.org/events/leaves/documents/leaves_for_neighborhoods_flyer.pdf
For those of you interested in buying a tree and know a resident of Montgomery county that would help you out, a $25 discount!
As a MontCo resident I would be happy to help, but unfortunately it looks like the deal was for last spring! :-(
Muddy- pic 2 a seedling of red Acer palmatum is the backdrop to the Muscari, and there is ginger showing- this ? David keeps telling me and I keep forgetting...I got it from Terp and for me it's almost evergreen and has shiny leaves.
Pic 3 is a volunteer peach that has a very showy flower. It is the first bloom ever but seems to me that flower petal size does not change for any reason so I am thinking/hoping it always blooms that big.
This message was edited Apr 30, 2014 6:44 PM
Oh my! How did I miss that
Sally, I never would have guessed that pic 3 was a peach. What a nice kind of volunteer to have!
My 'Yankee Doodle' lilac is beginning to bloom! Everything seems very happy to have had the rain--and glad it's over now. ;-)
Catmint, that is such a beautiful color of lilac!!!!
thanks, Typ! :-) I liked this one and got it last spring because it was such a luscious color, more vivid than the preexisting lilac in my yard, which is more of a lavender color.
My new, deciduous Azalea blooms are slowly opening up and turning
more orange... It is also growing leaves....
This is now the new resident of my "Stump Bed"....
G.
