Thrilling Thursday Discovery…

April 30, 2009

There is nothing more satisfying for a gardener (parent) than to discover that one of their children has decided that it is time to fore go the shyness and wow Teza with a display of it’s true beauty! Without being at ground level, you would miss the unmistakably beautiful flowers of Disporum maculatum. It was a chore trying to get these three photos as it is a somewhat breezy day in the garden, and I noticed that the camera decided that this was the perfect time to let me know that the batteries need charging! If you click on the top photo, you will be able to see the wonderful brownish-purple spots that coat the inside of the petals. You can also see how the stems, a rich purple as well, are slightly downy with tiny hairs. Every part of this diminutive charmer brings a smile to this gardener’s face!

Garden Friends: Letters Across the Miles

April 29, 2009

Garden Friends: Letters Across the Miles

I am thrilled to announce that May 1st marks the first in a continuing series of garden letters between myself and Anna from greentapestry! I thoroughly enjoyed ‘Dear Friend and Gardener,’ the wonderful book of garden letters between Beth Chatto and Christopher Lloyd, and have watched as many other bloggers have embarked upon similar garden journeys! What a wonderful way to expand your garden knowledge, while at the same time nurturing and developing what will hopefully be life-long friendships.

Mark the 1st of every month on your calendar and come back to follow along with our garden correspondence! Interspersed among the garden talk will be glimpses into our lives – outside of the garden, if such a thing exists – the books we are reading, what cultural events we have enjoyed and other such tidbits that give us fully dimensional lives! Anna and I would like to extend a personal invitation to join us! Stay tuned for the first letter in the series.

Six Plants I Cannot Live Without.

April 29, 2009

Trillium catesbyi
(far too hard to photograph, photo courtesy of web)

Thalictrum chelidonii

Saruma henryi

Disporum maculatum

Diphylleia cymosa

Corydalis elata

Dee at Red Dirt Ramblings had a recent post on six plants that she could not live without in the garden! I am slightly leery about listing only six, as I recently noticed a post that I did not author! It would appear that the children have been doing more than playing in the garden.

Regardless I decided that I would take up the challenge, although I am the first to admit that I would be amiss to say that I could live without any of my ‘children.’ I admit to having a strong adoration towards the six following plants:

Trillium catesbyi is a small plant, with gorgeous light pink flowers that gracefully face downwards, making it next to impossible to truly appreciate their stunning beauty! It truly is a ‘on your hands and knees’ experience!

Thalictrum chelidonii possesses one of the largest flowers within the genus, and differs from many within the genus in that each flower truly possesses petals and sepals. It is a smaller, more diminutive species that is somewhat cantankerous to nursery pot culture, like its compatriot, Thalictrum diffusiflorum.

Saruma henryi is a distant relative of Asarum, and a taxonomist with a sense of humour switched a few letters around to create a genus of it’s own. It’s velvety somewhat wavy leaves, and brilliant yellow flowers make it a wonderful addition to the woodland garden. When sited happily, it forms wonderful sweeps of dramatically soft foliage

Disporum maculatum boasts perhaps the largest flowers within the genus! It’s wonderful star like white flowers are a conversation piece during it’s bloom period in the shaded garden. True to it’s nature, it is a quick clumper with somewhat downy new growth. I am thrilled to see that mine has clumped significantly in one growing season.

Diphylleia cymosa captured my heart upon first stumbling across this giant leaved umbellifer. Large palmate leaves that rise on stems to four feet in height, this plant also boasts wonderful white flowers in spring, followed later in the grow season by marvellous blue fruit held atop startling red petioles! It does require patience in order for the gardener to fully appreciate its magnificence!

Corydalis elata truly is the one plant that started the entire shade garden obsession. As a novice gardener, I went on a quest for a ‘true blue’ flowering plant that would thrive in a shaded garden. Two years, many nursery trips later, I purchased my first plant from a specialist nursery an hour from my home. The relationship between the nursery and my growing fascination for all plants ’shady’ has resulted in a hobby that has quickly morphed into an obsession!

Of course, if you were to ask me next week, I am sure there would be an additional six plants that I would be able to post about.

I’m more than curious to know what your top six plants are! Leave me a message and details!

Teza’s Children Have Come Out to Play… " Won’t You Join Us? "

April 26, 2009

Hi, my name is Baptisia ‘Twilite Prairieblues‘
(above and below)

I’m known as Euphorbia dulcis ‘Chameleon’
(above and below)

You may know me as Mukdenia rossii ‘Karasuba‘ (Crimson Fans)

Teza’s absolute favourite spring growth…..

belongs to me… Thalictrum aquiligifolium ‘Black Stockings’

We’re the wonderful flowers of Chionodoxa foresbii

I’m known as Gentiana septemfida ‘Blauer Harrold‘

… and I’m Polemonium caerulea ‘Touch of Class’

I’d be happy to be known as Anemonella thalictroides ‘Cameo’

My dark side is known as Saxifraga fortunei ‘Silver Velvet’

Teza still hasn’t given us a name yet but we’re playing with Scilla

… and I’m most anxiously awaited Thalictrum chelidonii

… or am I Thalictrum diffusiflorum?
( too soon to tell which is which is which!)

but we all know that Teza loves us the most-est!

Disporum maculatum

Don’t speak too quickly…. Teza has coveted me from afar for years!

(and he’s been petting me everytime he walks past!)

. Cercidiphyllum japonica ‘Red Fox’

…’yeah, well he kept me inside the warm garage all winter, and besides I smell like sugar!’

Cornus alternifolia ‘Golden Shadows’

Guess who came home with Teza today?
In the excitement he even downloaded the photo sideways!

You’ve all heard of green thumbs, but green fingers??

‘I’m Syneilesis palmata!’

‘ I’m the Drama Queen of the Shaded Garden

Miss Veratrum nigrum if you please!

…just don’t refer to me as ‘False Hellebore’ I am 100% DIVA!
There is NOTHING fake about me! Don’t you LOVE my

gorgeous pleated skirt?’

and sometimes we have to present Teza with a challenge!

Teza thinks we’re Polygonatum odoratum ‘Variegatum’ Do you think he’s correct?

I’m the new foliage of Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Dart’s Gold’

…but he really must be fond of us, there are so many Epimedium the garden!

Call me Anemonopsis macrophylla… and I know he LOVES me!

‘ We’ve got to keep Teza on his toes! How long will it take?’

Trillium …. but methinks a case of mis-labelled pot, I don’t feel pink!

We’re going to take over the garden… Epimedium unite!

I’m Deinanthe bifida. A distant cousin to Hydrangea

William Helleborus ‘Ivory Prince’
(My brother Harry is under House arrest again!… too much partying!)

**Collective voices:

‘You know, this blogging is actually quite fun! Of course when he finds out we know his password…. Harry Helleborus, you keep quiet about this. He’s so busy at LittleTree it will be weeks before he notices!’

‘Yes, but sometimes other gardeners leave messages….. maybe they can direct them to us collectively! That way we’ll all stand united…. and you know how quickly we can wear him down….. a flash of blue here, a pleated skirt there!’

The Perils of working in the Industry…..

April 25, 2009

Mukdenia rossii ‘Crimson Fans’

Hydrangea serrata ‘Blue Bird’

Enkianthus campanulatus ‘Showy Lanterns’

Cornus alternifolia ‘Golden Shadows’

Sorbaria sorbifolia ‘Sem‘

… and to think the garden season has just begun and already these fine plants have weakened my resolve of only buying one plant per week! Of course, this is like giving me a bag of peanut M&M’s and telling me that I can only eat one colour! (In that case it had better be a bag of the Easter pastels series…. they’re all pink!)

In my defence, the Mukdenia rossii ‘Crimson Fans’ is the largest specimen plants I have come across in years – the two in the shaded walk are very small in comparison – so in my mind this is a totally justified purchase. The Cornus alternifolia ‘Golden Shadows’ is a wonderful specimen, well on it’s way to pagoda majesty, and besides, it’s foliage with a under planting of the burgundy new foliage of Paeonia daurica ‘Mlokesewitchii‘ is a companion planting for the textbooks!

Enkianthus campanulatus ‘Showy Lanterns,’ is part of a foil to cover a large and cumbersome central heat/air conditioning unit. I am going to combine it with Sorbaria sorbifolia ‘Sem‘ in hopes that people driving by will be presented with a vision of beauty as opposed to the latter. It seems that everything that brings comfort has to be out loud and in your face anymore!

Oh, and the Hydrangea serrata ‘Blue Bird?’ One guess as to why this came home with me?

…until next week’s new additions! What do you mean a nice bottle of Chardonnay isn’t appropriate with Kraft Dinner?

What’s a Boy to Do with a Gift Certificate from Thimble Farms??? Post # 200

April 23, 2009

Meconopsis Shelldonii ( X between betonicifolia and grandis)

Paeonia daurica subsp. mlokesewitchii

Paeonia anomala subsp. veitchii (woodwardii)

Why spend it of course! And with a catalogue such is Fraser’s Thimble Farms, it wasn’t hard to surpass the magic number and for me to find myself dipping into the monthly KD fund! I was mentioning to Grace in a discourse earlier in the day that it was my Grandmother who first introduced me to gardening. In the four years since her death, I have been trying to find a way to memorialize her memory in the garden. Unfortunately, many of the plants that I am drawn to, she would never have heard of, and even so, would not have parted with her hard earned cash for such exotic species when the average garden hardy varieties could be purchased for a quarter the price.

I have decided upon two new additions in her memory:

Paeonia anomala subsp. veitchii (’Woodwardii‘) is a low growing beauty formerly known as P. veitchii var. ‘Woodwardii,’ and is a delightful garden plant that is easy to grow in almost any garden situation. Pink, single flowers, often several per stem, with purple filaments and golden anthers

appear in June, above heavily dissected gray-green leaves. This plant forms a shrub-like appearance, but is notably much shorter than others within the anomala species – reaching a more diminutive height of 30cm instead of the usual 90cm. It is native to fairly moist sites: alpine and sub-alpine meadows, scrub and forest openings and is found in abundance in Western China. (The accompanying photo courtesy of Galen Burrell shows a plant growing in the wild in Sichuan province, China.) Introduced to the West by seed collected at Choni (now Jone) Lamasery in Gansu province in 1912 by George Fenwick-Owen, this plant is named after the person who first grew it from said seed – Robert Woodward of Arley Castle, Worcestershire, who died in action in 1915.

Paeonia daurica subsp. mlokesewitchii is the glory of the NE Caucasian Mountains, especially this, the yellow form of the subspecies, and remains very hard to come by despite it’s fame! It’s stems and leaves are a reddish burgundy when they emerge, which created quite a stir when they appeared in the display gardens of the Specialist Nursery that I am addicted to, and eventually become gray-blue green in colour. It’s flowers which may be pale or deep yellow are single to approximately 10cm in diameter, and usually open in May. Some have commented on a light lemon scent accompanying them, but I have not bore witness to this suggestion. It is native to sunny openings in deciduous woods on rocky slopes in NE Georgia, Azerbaijan, the Russian republics of Chechnya and Dagestan and Iran. It’s most famous siting is the Lagodechi Gorge in Georgia, which is also home to the pink form, P. lagodechiana. This is also a diminutive plant, attaining heights of only 1m or less. It was given the AGM award by the RHS in 1933, and has since been referred to by its growing legion of fans as ‘Molly-the-Witch.’

Lastly, Meconopsis X Shelldonii is a treat to myself on attaining 200 posts! I blame it wholly on my Gemini nature – the need to communicate on a near constant basis. In my earlier years, teachers often referred to me as the one who always has something to say! Both older and younger sisters were often approached and asked how I could be related to such quiet, demure, almost shy individuals. I can certainly empathize with Jen from Muddy Boot Dreams, another member of the horticultural industry as she tries to limit her time spent in front of the computer – hoping to find a balance between work and play. I promised myself that after The Shaded Garden Alphabet, I would cut my postings in half….. well that was what, six posts ago, so I also find myself wondering whether it’s more a case of being fearful of suffering from Blotanical withdrawal.

New Earth Day Babies

April 23, 2009

Disporum smilacina ‘Flore Pleno‘

How instinctively appropriate that my new children should arrive yesterday, Earth Day! I have been waiting like… well, like an expectant parent for an email or phone call to confirm the delivery was on it’s way, and when I didn’t hear anything on Monday I called the nursery. Whomever I spoke to must have been familiar with this type of unabashed expectation, as he laughed and said he personally packaged and sealed the package himself. He was also apologetic in conveying the news that the single bulb that I had ordered was unavailable, as the entire crop did not survive the winter, but had enclosed a gift certificate so I might possibly choose something else……. Hmmmm, a $30 gift certificate from one of Canada’s leading mail order nurseries placed firmly in the hands of a certified plant-a-holic….. let’s just say it’s already been spent on Order # 2!

Gorgeous foliage of Helleborus thibetanus
(sadly, the note mentioned it had already flowered)

Corydalis woroshillovii and Erythronium revolutum

Trillium rivale pink seedlings

Erythronium ‘Hendersonii‘

(methinks this was a picking error, as E. hendersonii is pink!)

already it’s easy to see which children will wrap Teza around their delicate stems!

I was new to this method of procuring plants, and was slightly taken aback when the package was no longer or wider for that matter than a wine bottle. Immediately I surmised that one of them must have gotten lost. No…. package 1/1. It wasn’t until I opened the box and realized that everything had shipped in baggies…… I didn’t remember reading on the site that it was next to bare root shipping on all plants. Why would they list the size of the pot! Looking back, I remember the bemused look on the owner of said Specialty nursery, when I commented on $60 plants being shipped in baggies! All part of the learning curve Teza!

Otherwise, they were healthy looking plants, and I couldn’t wait to examine them more closely as I transplanted them up into what will be their homes for the next month. I did discover that the proportedly pink and mauve E. hendersonii was in fact a soft butter yellow – I think this is a sign for me to expand the colour palate this coming year, but more likely a mis-labelled seedling.

The fact that the Hellebrous thibetanus had already bloomed for the season was another minor disappointment, but now I am filled with a sense of delayed anticipation for when it puts forth it’s wonderful display next Spring!

What a wonderful addition to the family, and on Earth Day…. it makes it that much more special!

… and now you know my ABC’s….. the end of The Shaded Garden Alphabet

April 22, 2009

… and I have come to the end of the line…. I know, what about W,X,Y and Z? Perhaps by the end of the current growing season, I will have additions and will be able to include these last four somewhat lonely alphabet letters. I’ve enjoyed this immensely and thank everyone who has been following along. Now it’s time for some serious slugging at the nursery, as this weekend promises to bring exceptional weather. Once the season is in full swing, I will probably have to limit my posts, but I won’t think about that until it actually occurs… which on one hand will be a very good thing, but I fear I will suffer Blog withdrawal!

The Shaded Garden Alphabet: V is for Veratrum nigrum

April 22, 2009

Every garden has it’s share of dramatists, and when you garden in the shade, you tend to look for plants that stand out because of their foliage, as rarely do you get a proliferation of flowers in a shaded location. For me, they include Arisaema, Syneilesis, Deinanthe, Dyphelleia, and this truly spectacular foliage plant, Veratrum nigrum!

It is sometimes referred to as ‘Stinking Hellebore,’ and possesses large, gracefully arching, veined and heavily pleated foliage, that clasps and climb up moderately tall stems. It is easily one of the most commented on plants in my garden, and friends are constantly asking if it has clumped up enough to divide! These plants are common in temperate North America, but are sadly missing from most garden repertoires!

I am grateful that this perennial has few distractions from its wonderfully pleated, large leaves, and was astounded to be able to witness for myself it’s ‘very interesting’ flower stalks on a specimen in a display garden. Small, star shaped flowers of a dark maroon colour are densely arranged on flower stalks to 1.2m in height – a rather dramatic sight in and of itself. Of course I was also to be told by the owner of said garden that this plant is a true Drama Queen as it takes up to eight years for the plant to be mature enough to blossom, and even then, ‘ Its all up to the Drama Queen herself.’

In the slide show at the bottom of my blog, in the photo entitled Textures, you can just make out the flower spike in the upper to middle left side of the photo. (Insert squeal of delight upon witnessing this in his own garden!) Of course, now I am filled with trepidation as to whether she will grace me with another display!

This plant is native to Central and Southern Europe, Northern China and Korea, and originate in moist semi-shaded woodlands and meadows. They do require acidic soil, and in many instances go dormant after flowering. For those gardeners who can provide these few requirements, the payback will be monumental and you too will be able to say that your shaded garden has it’s own Drama Queen.

The Shaded Garden Alphabet: U is for Uvularia

April 22, 2009

There are wonderful trails surrounding the town where I reside, cutting through relatively undisturbed tracts of woodland, and it was here that I first spied this wonderful native plant, Uvularia grandiflora. Happier still was I, when I discovered that it was readily available in hort commerce. Of course, I am always one to question it’s origin… no dirty shovels leaning against the sales tables and such! Being that we are celebrating Earth Day, I thought I would focus on one of North America’s beautiful natives!

Uvularia grandiflora is a gorgeous flowering plant that strongly resemble the genus Disporum, the noted difference being that these possess dry three lobed capsules instead of berries or fruit. While there is a handful of species available, the most common is this gem. It’s pendulous deep yellow flowers can be two inches in length, and greatly resemble pleated skirts when they are gently tossed upon the wind, upon stems that can attain heights of 2 feet! It’s tall many flowered stems make it the tallest within the genus. Happily located in a partially shaded location, rich with humus, moisture retentive soil, it will soon bulk up into glorious colonies. Upon closer examination, it is truly breath-taking to note how the foliage seems to clasp onto the stems. It makes a wonderful companion planting with Trilliums and Meconopsis betonicafolia. Help celebrate Earth Day North American style and add this plant to your shaded garden today!

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