Gardening In The Shade

Planting in the shade is an opportunity for creative gardeners to mine their imagination. In this setting, we do not expect to create a colorful floral composition, although that would be welcome. Here green and white are the major players and various textured plants become flower surrogates. This is an opportunity for the artistic gardener to soar. The challenge is to create a composition based primarily on a theme of green and white. There is an unpredictable pleasure to be experienced from working successfully with such a restricted palette.

Two contrasting Hosta plants create visual chemistry that is enhanced by the lime-colored and delicate-looking Alchemilla Mollis, a beautiful shade plant that is a vigorous self seeder.The major architecture of a shade garden starts by planting gracefully arching ferns and low mounding Hosta. These two perennial plants establish the overall structure of the composition. The secondary theme is introduced by Pulmonaria whose playful visual textures and variegations offset the more disciplined lines of the Hosta. Now, add low-growing Japanese painted ferns with its feathery variegations that draw the eye further into the composition. Although it may not flower in full shade, the leaves of Geranium macrorrhizum Variegatum will add strong detail due to the generous amount of cream in its foliage.

Composition of silver Japanese ferns and Pulmonaria. This exquisite photo is the copywrite property of BelleWood-Gardens. Click on the image to visit that site. Illumination for a dark garden is supplied by the white variegations found in the leaves of some Hosta and in the silver-white decoration on the foliage of many varieties of Pulmonaria. The most cheerful addition however is found on Brunnera Jack Frost, whose green leaves, over-frosted in white, capture and reflects light.

This is Hexastylis minor Dixie Darling. This photo is the copywrite property of BelleWood-Garden. Click on the image to visit that siteEqually beautiful in the shade due to their ornamental quality, are the leaves of variegated Asarum splendens and its cousin Hexastylis minor Dixie Darling.

Primula bullesiana is colorful but hard to find.Adding color to the full-shade garden is not easy as few perennials will bloom without some sun. Those that produce flowers in full shade include specific varieties of Primula, Corydalis and Dicentra. In early spring, flowers of Primula bullesiana will supply rich colors as will Aquilegia canadensis. Various cultivars of Corydalis will bloom all summer in pink, blue and yellow. As long as the soil remains moist, Dicentra King of Hearts will bloom in pink throughout the season. It is also worth experimenting with Astilbe. This perennial needs sun or part shade to bloom but some gardeners have reported that it will flower in full shade but less intensely. 

Heuchera Purple PetticoatsAll-season color that is both muted and rich can be added to the full-shade garden by planting various cultivars of Heuchera. The foliage of these varieties supplies endless shades of purple, wine, apricot, and peach. Plant a composition incorporating purple Heuchera with silver-purple Japanese Fern and watch the magic unfold.

Thanks to Judy Glattstein of BelleWood-Gardens for permission to use some of her beautiful photos.

Plant It Where You Can See It

Anyone exiting my garage in the springtime, either on foot or by car, will see this view of my driveway garden.It’s a good idea to plant flowers where they are visible most of the time. Some of the best locations are those that can be seen through windows from inside the home. Another important spot is the one outdoors that is always noticed as one comes and goes.

When a client asked me to convert her front yard into a perennial garden, I placed the most interesting perennials at her front door. I expected her to see them several times a day. It was a mistake to have made that assumption because the client entered and exited her home by car, along a driveway situated 15 feet away from the main entrance. From that distance, she was unable to notice the flowers at the front door.

When I was made aware of the situation, I redesigned the strip of the garden that runs the length of the driveway from garage to street. This location became the new focus of the garden  Here is where I placed the most beautiful perennials, the most dramatic roses and the greatest number of spring-flowering bulbs. Now, when the client comes and goes in her car, she has a continuous flower show from spring until early winter.

Vertical Gardening

Nature lovers enjoy the network of interstate highways that spread northward out of Boston towards various points along the Canadian border. These roads run through spectacular vistas in the states of New York, Vermont and New Hampshire. I travel on many of them throughout the year and never tire of admiring the breathtaking sites that nature provides in this part of North America.

The State of Vermont has gone even further to enhance the tourist’s experience. Rest area shelters along their highways offer museum-quality displays of art, crafts and consumer items that are locally produced. On a trip through Vermont this past week, I noticed a display for an unusual garden product. It is called a Post Planter and combines the best features of a flower pot and a hanging flower box. The product is essentially a plastic flower pot that has been engineered to hug a standard size wooden vertical beam of a mail box, deck, or garden fence.

The planter will fit onto three different size posts: 2x4, 4x4 and 4x6 inches. Made of durable UV-resistant ABS plastic, it is available in two sizes and three color choices. The pots may be conveniently planted at a work table and then carried to the posts where they easily slide onto strong brackets. Later on, the pots are easily removed for seasonal changes or winter storage.

At first, I wondered why the merchant had chosen to display this product in November until I realized that such a unique item will make a great holiday gift. Even non-gardening tourists were captivated by the ingenuity of this product. Most certainly, it will be a conversation piece during the summertime. The Post Planter is marketed by Vermont Wildflower Farm and each pot comes with a free package of wild flower seeds. Click onto any of the highlighted links in this text to access their website.

Flowers Can Heal

A recurring theme to be found in this blog has been the therapeutic pleasure gardeners derive from tending their gardens and admiring their flowers. Now researchers at the Department of Horticulture, Recreation and Forestry at Kansas State University confirm what we gardeners have known all along: The power of flowers. They provide strong evidence that contact with flowering plants may be beneficial to hospital patients’ health by improving the quality of their recovery.

Patients recovering from painful surgery who had flowering plants in their rooms required fewer administrations of pain medication, had lower blood pressure, a lower heart rate and experienced less anxiety and fatigue. It was also reported that patients created their own recovery therapy when they started tending to their plants.

Hospital gift shops began selling flowering plants both as fund raisers and as convenient gifts that visitors might bring to patients. Now these products have taken on additional significance as healing tools. But as a gardener, you already knew that, right?

America's Hidden Treasure

Designed and photographed by Michelle DervissIf one were to name prominent garden designers, there’s a good chance most of them would be British or Dutch. They are well known to us because their work has been showcased in magazines and picture books. Not enough people are aware that there are world class garden designers also working on this side of the Atlantic.

The hauntingly beautiful and brilliantly executed garden shown in the photo above surpasses anything we have seen coming out of Europe. This is an example of the many extraordinary accomplishments of Michelle Derviss, a talented landscape designer who works in California. The image is that of a hillside converted into a garden that is both deer and drought tolerant. Notice how the plant compositions are enhanced by the unique perspective that sloped and terraced gardens offer the viewer.

Additional landscapes, designed and sculpted by Ms. Derviss, are extensively archived in her blog as well. After clicking on to that site, it will take the visitor no more than a nano-second to recognise that Michelle is a national treasure. We should be celebrating her genius.