mid-spring in the woods

I wanted to post a few pictures of what's going on in my woods.
Would love to see ideas of others' woodland gardens.
#1 Arisaema ringens.
#2 Hellebore Janet Starnes. For me, entirely a foliage plant. I've never seen it flower.
Gets ragged & mildewy in our humid summer, but looks nice in spring.
#3 A wild stand of hesperis matrionalis. It will take over if you're not vigilant.
But makes a nice splash of color with no work.
#4 Hakonechloa macra All Gold makes a bright splash at the edge of the woods.
#5 Melittis melissophyllum Royal Velvet Distinction

#1 Pinella Polly Spouts. A bright green woodland curiosity. Noninvasive.
#2 Dodecathon meadia
#3 Epimedium Pink Champagne
#4 Another curiosity for the microgardener. You'll need knee pads and a magnifying glass to appreciate Mitella diphylla. This picture is as magnified as my macro lens can get. Tiny, tiny flowers. It's quite a rush, as you can see.

Anyone else have any woodland treasures to share?

I can always count on you to post beautiful photos of new plants to covet. :)
The Melittis is gorgeous. And glad to see the Mitella in a real garden as I would never have known how tiny it is. The Pinella looks like floral arranger's dream - the variety of foliage shapes. Is the 'Pink Champagne' a late bloomer? We've had some warm days that brought on a rush of foliage that's covered so many of the Epi flowers already. E sulphureus seems to bloom a little later though and isn't obscured by foliage yet. 'Niveum' is nice because the flowers are held up above the foliage. 'Orange Queen' has been a favorite of mine this spring because of the beautiful color and shape of the flowers. I did plant some ramps last fall and they survived our winter and emerged a month ago. Haven't harvested any since I want the clumps to get larger. DH shot some pics Sunday with his new camera but I'll have to see about uploading them.

Tellima grandiflora 'Forest Frost' (The last is a volunteer seedling so cannot technically be called this)

Tiarella trifoliata, a native here, blooms spring to fall
Got a bit smashed in the massive hailstorm yesterday

Boy, that tiarella trifoliata has flowers about as small as the mitella I showed above. A plant I could love! I've tried the tellima, but can't seem to get it established.
And Cindy, I don't think Pink Champagne blooms any later than others, at least I haven't noticed. It's very floriferous and the flowers really stand out. I actually prefer the straight e. x warleyense rather than it's cultivar Orange Queen since I think the orange of the species is a deeper color than the cultivar. But either one of them is a nice foil for the pinks/whites/lavenders of most of my other spring flowers. And get those pictures downloaded so we can see what's going on in the frosty north!

"Frosty north"? It's supposed to be 85 today. :) I'll try to get to photo d/l over the weekend. It'll be another exhausting day outside today before the rain comes.
Have made a note to check out the warleyense. You made a good point about the orange being different from all of the pinks, blues and whites in the spring shade garden. My wild garden is currently enveloped in blue - brunnera, phlox, Virginia bluebells, periwinkle, etc.

Gorgeous stuff, Weerobin. Wish I could see your garden in person. I'm always amazed at your huge variety of fabulous plants!

Cindy, I sent you a d-mail. Can also include a bit of e.warleyense if you want to try it.

I really should take pics of my epimediums while most of them are blooming, but I have to re-charge my camera battery and have a lot to do and feeling so lazy...

Some years ago I planted some Scilla peruviana as an experiment. They are borderline hardy here. The ones on top of a rock wall in the sun, exposed to cold winds in winter, died a few years ago, but the ones that get shade and protection from the rock wall on the west just keep going. They are early this year.

Wow, they look great!

Pistil - those Scilla are beautiful!

Here's an update of spring's progression in my wooded garden.
#1 Podophyllum pleianthum. Look at the size of those leaves (compare with the Canadian ginger adjacent).
#2 Bletilla striata Kuchibeni. Bletillas do really well for me.
#3 Anemone coronaria. A nice deep blue.
#4 Self-seeded aquilegias. Scattered about.
#5 NOID yellow flowered epimedium w/ nice mottled foliage. It's been blooming for more than a month.

#6 Calceolaria John Innes. Bright bright yellow.
#7 NOID digitalis happy fighting for elbow room in the shady jungle
#8 Forever Susan Asiatic Lily. Doing fine with mottled sun at best.
#9 Nectaroscordum - a late-spring blooming bulb.

The busy spring flush of blooming woodland plants is coming to an end. Now the weeds are beginning to take over. Rained last night, so a good day to try to rescue some of my guys from the relentless weeds!

Edited to correct spelling...

This message was edited Jun 1, 2015 6:41 AM

Oops, I forgot the last one.
This is a pretty but definitely odd-looking flower phyteuma scheuchzeri.
It's a low growing plant I grow along the border of the shady driveway.
Blooms look sort of like purple sweeetgum seed pods.
If you look closely the individual spiky petals separate in the middle into a sort of spiral configuration. Very strange.

Beautiful and some unusual. Is the Nectatoscordum related to fritillaria? The Phyteuma is nice. How tall does it get? And the Calceolaria is gorgeous!

I see I mis-spelled nectaroscordum - oops. I edited to correct it.
It's related to alliums - in fact, I think it's still sometimes listed as a ssp of allium.
The phyteuma sprawls on the ground pretty much.
I just planted it last spring, so not sure if it will get much bigger.
This is the first year it bloomed and I really like the spiky balls of purple - lots of them.
It poured down rain last day or two, so it's pretty flattened now.
I'm not sure how long it will bloom - we'll see.
The calceolaria really stands out with its striking color,
but I was disappointed it only was in bloom for about a week, it seems.
Maybe I didn't notice it 'til when it started blooming, not sure. We'll see next year.

Weerobin, you should open a rare shade plant nursery. I'd be your first customer. What fabulous plants you have!

The phyteuma looks like it would be somewhat fragile or tender. Is it a bulb or rhizome?

Supposedly zone 5. I can't say much about how fragile it is yet - so far, so good. Some sources say it needs rich moist soil, others indicate needs excellent drainage; we'll see how it likes it's current spot which is pretty moist, 1/2 sun (about as sunny as my yard gets) on a slope, so hopefully drainage will be adequate.

Weerobin, you have a very nice shady garden. I am in the process of filling in a wooded area at the edge of my yard. My son and I went into the woods across the road the other evening and dug up a small fern and replanted it, so far so good and the rain that we are having right now will be sure to help it also.

Kathy

Thanks, Kathy. I think you'll find lots of things will thrive in your wooded areas, from shrubs to perennials to woodland spring ephemerals. Ferns of course are always nice. Your guy should spread to make a nice drift if he's happy. There are several other types of ferns which could add some textures. And of course, we always like to see pictures, so don't be shy! Everybody gets ideas from everybody else.

I have 3 large patches of ferns - maybe woods fern? - from a couple of plants from a neighbor years ago. They do spread quite easily and sometimes need corralling so that they don't overrun other plants. The fiddleheads in the spring are edible. Although they're in shade, they can get pretty ragged-looking if we have a hot, dry summer as I don't give them supplemental water.

I started with 3 plants, probably about 10 yrs ago. I found an old picture from '08. I think they fill in pretty quickly, too. Faster than 'Aureola' for sure. I added a picture of Aureola along my driveway - I of course envisioned an entire driveway bordered by Aureola. But I must have planted dozens of plants to end up with the spotty results shown. I still like it, though. To be fair, the Aureola is planted in a much shadier and dryer position, so I'm sure the conditions impact it's growth rate. I really love the variegation of Aureola.