A Shady Progression

The past few weeks have seen the normal spring rush of planting, reworking garden beds, preparing for our garden club plant sale, and attending end-of-the-school-year events for me.  It is so great to be outside in the beautiful spring weather.  While the vegetable garden always demands and receives  some attention in spring, lately my main gardening focus and delight has been on the shade garden.

working in the shade garden - spring 2017

My shade garden is at the Northwest corner of the house.  It has an awkward corner shape and transitions from deep shade right next to the house to sun near the edges, with pockets of hot afternoon sun that sometimes poses a challenge for plantings.  It also is where all of the ugly utility boxes are mounted.  It is a work in progress (isn't it always?), but it has come a long way in the last three years, and I enjoy looking back and seeing its progression from barren nothingness.

spring 2014

This is the only 'before' photo I could find of this area, from the spring of 2014.   This corner slopes downwards and to the left. This photo is from when we put in drainage to redirect water that was leaking into our unfinished basement from the gutter spout.  A couple large boulders on the left hold up soil.

fall 2014

In the fall of 2014, Mr. Red House and I built a low retaining wall to help with the slope.  With the addition of more soil, my shade garden was born.

2015

That fall and the next spring we put in a few tiny trees - two Japanese maples, a weeping Canadian Hemlock, and a little Carolina Silverbell - and started putting in plants, including Japanese anemone.  Stepping stones were added to make a clear path to all the utility boxes.  Native ferns happily pop up by themselves near the house, which we enjoy.

2016

In 2016 we added a few more plants.  I used the sunny edges of the wall to grow Ground Cherries (which the chipmunks promptly ate for their water content during our drought).  The Japanese anemone and ferns started getting a little out of control, and there wasn't enough access to the utility boxes without wading through plants.  The shade garden really needed some work.

2017

This spring I pulled out some of the plants, moved some around, and added more much-needed stepping stones to the utility area. The shade garden now has a lovely progression of flowers throughout the spring beginning with early spring bulbs and including a number of miniature daffodils that are planted along the edge of the retaining wall.

the miniature daffodil 'Mite'

In later spring blooms the brilliant pink of the Rhododendron 'Weston's Aglo', a small-leaved rhododendron hybridized by the nearby Weston Nurseries.

The pink is mimicked throughout the garden by Old-fashioned Bleeding Heart, a favorite of mine ever since seeing it growing up in my grandmother's garden...

Old-fashioned Bleeding Heart

...and then continued by the dark pink Azaleas.

The bright pinks are softened by touches of white from Summer Snowflakes and hostas...

 ...as well as the blooms of the now much-larger Carolina Silverbell.

Carolina Silverbell tree

Another favorite of mine, the Foamflower, blooms in a little cloud of softer pink. 

birdbath with foamflower blooming on the right

Other spring blooms in the shade garden include epimediums, ajuga, lungwort, lanium, and brunnera.   Later will bloom white clematis, cotoneaster, heuchera, hostas, ligularia, iris, Japanese anemone, and grey-headed coneflowers that I have planted along the sunny edges of the garden.

purple heuchera leaves contrast with that of a weeping Japanese maple

This spring I also acquired a few special native woodland plants - trillium, bloodroot, and trout lily - that I tucked under the growing trees and look forward to seeing in bloom next year.  The shade garden is filling out!

There are still some plants to move and things to do, but I love the progress on my shade garden so far...

...and happily I'm not the only one.

Juniper Level Botanical Garden Part 2 - For the Hosta Lovers

The other weekend I had the pleasure of visiting the Juniper Level Botanical Garden and adjacent Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh.   One of the things they are known for is their hosta breeding program.  The gardens are filled with beautiful hostas tucked in among the other plantings. 

Everywhere I turned there was a medley of texture:

Top:  Silk Kimono, Moon River

Center: Alleghan Fog

Bottom:  Laura and Darrell (the leaves of this one were gigantic!),  Deep Blue Sea

There are many hostas with different and sometime unusually variegated leaves:

Row 1: Tambourine, Pineapple Upsidedown Cake

Row 2: Abby, Prestige and Promise 

Row 3: Earth Angel, Blazing Saddles

Row 4: Stitch in Time, Popcorn

 My favorite hostas were the little miniatures.  So cute!  Here are some closeups of those little gems:

 

Top: Cherry Tomato

Center: Little Treasure, Mighty Mouse, Snow Mouse

Bottom:  Holy Mouse Ears

There are also several different fields filled with new hosta seedlings that will be evaluated and possibly named and released for market.   Plant Delights Nursery has already produced quite a few new cultivars.

Hosta Seedling Evaluation field

Of course I could not come home without a couple hostas of my own. 

Two little Hosta 'Cameo' plants now reside in the Red House Garden, tucked into the shade garden among the impatiens.

They are little things and rather overshadowed by the impatiens, but every garden needs some secret treasures meant only for those who seek.

What's that smell? Fragrant Hostas?!

I am away from the Red House and visiting an artist's garden in New Jersey today.  Walking through the cool, shaded garden paths, I smell something that stops me in my tracks.  It is a waft of sweet floral perfume, rather like honeysuckle.  I look around - no honeysuckle here.  In fact the only blossoms nearby are... white blooms of hostas?  Holey slugbait, there are fragrant hostas?!

Apparently there are!  Why did I not know about these earlier?  Radhika, the owner and tender of this garden, has a whole walkway lined with these deliciously fragrant hostas, making the scent more noticeable.

One has to lean in to get a full heavenly whiff, as the smell does not seem to carry very far.

Radhika does not know what variety of hosta this is, but apparently all fragrant hosta cultivars come from the same granddaddy, Hosta plantaginea.  Often called an 'August lily', this hosta blooms later in the summer than other kinds and has large 6" long white flowers.  It can also continuously produce new leaves during summer as opposed to sending out all of its leaves in one spring flush like most other types.
The flowers of the unknown hosta in this garden are about 3" or 4" long, and the buds have lavender tips.

According to Tom Carlson with Hostas Direct, deer prefer to eat the fragrant varieties of hostas before the non-fragrant ones - apparently they are sweeter.  (Wonder who did the taste test to determine that?)
The bees seemed to love these hostas.  They are reputed to be a magnet for hummingbirds as well.

For more information on fragrant hostas and a list of available cultivars, Tony Avent of the renowned Plant Delights Nursery has a great fragrant hosta article.  There are varieties with purple flowers, as well as ones with variegated leaves.

 

And if anyone knows which specimen this is, be sure to let me know!