VARIATIONS ON A PINK THEME

I have to begin with this shrub's Genus, species and cultivar name. Hydrangea serrata 'Preziosa' belies it's name as mysterious and magical just as the variations of pink are that show up on the hundreds of florets that make up the 6" -8" diameter floral umbels.  

I first saw a young plant in bloom at a friend's house while touring her garden.  On request, she kindly rooted a cutting. Four years into growing this beauty on the north east corner of my house it is spectacular. 

Here in the Piedmont of North Carolina the weather this spring hasencouraged unprecedented  growth.  Cool nights coupled with lots of rain has made it feel like the Pacific NW. Landscape plants are catching up with the predictions of mega Poison Ivy leaves. I have never seen such abundant growth with large leaves on many plants growing in my garden in a woodland. 

This Hydrangea has never bloomed so prolifically. Well, maybe because of its youth.  In any case I luckily placed it well for thriving growth and don't you like the pink against the gray house?  The color combo reminds me of a 'Poodle' skirt my sister wore in the 1950's.  HA

SEARCHING FOR BLUE

Blue is a rare color in any garden. Those who love the hue often have to supplement their gardens with objects of that coloring. I have a few strong cobalt blue objects including a ceramic disk, largish mushroom, glass ball, whimsical Eye sculpture and the preverbal blue bottle tree to catch the 'haints" before they reach the house. Cobalt blue is an intense color and I like it in small doses.

Blue ceramic disk with an unusual selaginella nestled in the corner of a trough garden. 

Blue mushroom in a sea of Periwinkle

Glass bowl in a concrete container by Lasting Impressions in Raleigh, NC. Nearby a Cypress knee and Cephalotaxus harringtonia cultivar hover overhead

Blue Eye sculpture by Cam McCamy of Wake Forest, NC and a lone Tradescantia seedling

In the first photo of this blog you may have noticed something blooming on the bottle tree. It is a cut stem of Tradescantia virginiana (Native Spiderwort) tucked into a branch of the tree.  As you see, the color more violet than true blue, but, i happen to think that  times in the garden it makes a darned good substitute for the color blue. 

Below are images taken this morning while blossoms were fresh before  melting away in the heat of the day. The bluish purple color of each seedling is subtle.   Even so, the range of blue violet color comes through as a strong visual element.

With Iris Sultan which , by the way, looks spectacular with any red Loropetalum. 

In the same planting bed as above but looking through a metal leaf sculpture and across the drive to the compost bin. 

A large old clump in the new rock garden

Wrestling with Woodwardia and Holly Ferns 

Using a huge Hosta as a backdrop. 

Looking like bits of midnight blue sky dropped into the garden. 

This native scatters its seeds around my garden freely and where I don't want it I cut it to the ground or dig it out.  Once the stems become top-heavy with spent blossoms they tend to flop over.  It is easy to just snap off the stems near ground level to tidy up.  

I wonder if John Tradescant, the elder who brought back this native plant from the colonies to King George III of England and who's name was given the plant by Linnaeus had blue eyes matching the color of the flowers. I love thinking that a piece of history resides here naturally. It's discovery for garden use in the mid 1600's adds intense color and interest fitting in anywhere and thankfully enjoys the acid soils of my garden in a woodland. 

Suzanne Edney, president
Custom Landscapes
1004 Kelly Road
Apex, NC 27523
919-387-1479
www.customlandscapesnc.com

https://edneysuzanne.blogspot.com/

"Welcome to the beautiful world of gardening where creativity and healthy activity meet!"

LOTS OF SPRING RAINS BRINGS A SNOWY REWARD AND A RIVER OF PURPLE

It's the beginning of May and Mother's Day has been heralded with clouds of Saxifraga stolonifera along the drive and pathway edges where it has been allowed to spread with unbridled shame.  Hundreds of blossoms, as if in flight, crowd around the rain gauge. Further up the path streaks of the Strawberry Begonia lead your eye up to a Hydrangea beginning to bloom. 

Hydrangea serrata 'Preziosa' becomes a backdrop with snail pipe sculpture. 

Selaginella and Tradescantia grapple for space as the airy "butterfly" blossoms of the Begonia fly toward a metal butterfly in this garden vignette.  

Nearby purple and lilac are opposite each other along the broken concrete path to the front door. 

A river of Oxalis regnellii swirls along and mimics french curlicues on a welcoming bench. The pale lilac Iris virginiana 'Contraband Girl' is in the background. 

A single Saxifraga is tucked in under watchful eyes with Iris 'Eco Easter' , Asarum canadensis and Hosta yingeri.  

Behind the waterfall of Strawberry Begonia blossoms (below) is a stacked stone wall. I planted on top of the wall and this plant found it's comfort zone between the crevices. 

Even though Saxifrages' natural habitat is among rocky cliffs with perpetually seeping water you can successfully grow this one if you have the space and conditions of cool moist well drained shade. This wonderful wandering ground cover may be the plant for you. 

A WALK IN THE SPRING GARDEN IN MY WOODLAND

Pictures are worth a thousand words and at this moment, needs other than my garden are taking precedence in my life. Luckily, my garden has been planted and orchestrated to largely take care of itself.  It is now a haven of peace and joy with little necessary management . 

One of the best Viburnums for deep shade that tolerates my very acidic soil is Viburnum burkwoodii perfumes the air at the entrance of a moss garden with a stone meditation bench watched over by Buddha. 

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Details to watch for on the dry woodland floor are many types of colorful Epimediums AKA Fairy Wings. 

.......and emerging whirls of Japanese Roof Iris, Iris tectorum. Be sure to protect from voles with Permatil in the planting medium.  Light hand weeding around the clump will take a few seconds before the annual interlopers set seed.  I never got the pre-emergence in place in January. 

Below are two striking spring foliage juxtapositions.  First is a chartreuse Abelia below the huge drooping blue, black, green leaves if Viburnum rhytidophyllum. 

And second a combination growing through each other of Loropetalum and a special Ligustrum purchased years ago at Montrose in Hillsborough, NC. 

My main moss path is full of Bluets. 

Kerria japonica is in full bloom. 

Finishing the brief afternoon walk on a gray day I see Magnolia 'Susan' blossoms fluttering over a Joel Hass butterfly sculpture. 

Don't let a gray day keep you from enjoying the intensified color in your spring woodland. 

Open your eyes to plant communities (Managing vs. Maintaining)

Homeowners with busy lives ask me all the time for 'Low Maintenance' gardens.  I am now learning through my own gardening experience in a woodland that I have naturally and unknowingly shifted my thinking to 'Managing' my garden not merely maintaining. The  plant communities have become dynamic in their ability to maintain themselves. I have put together a lovely natural looking woodland garden where plants mingle and propagate on their own with little assistance from me. I have allowed the plants I have added, in essence,  'to find their own way'.  Now, my job is as editor, in a design sense, to keep the garden as I would wish it to look with texture, flow and punctuation in the right places. 

Ferns have found a home near the foundation in the front garden. 

Plants are happily free to spread by runners or seeds by themselves. The roots and seeds find a place to thrive in the conditions where they feel best suited to grow on their own. I have an ornamental 'Matrix' of Vinca minor (Periwinkle) whose root system in my moist sandy soil stays in the top 2-4" of the soil. I could also use Ajuga and Carex species for this lower layer that is essential for keeping soil erosion at bay by covering the ground plane. Other taller plants in the next layer hovering above the ground covers are native as well as ornamental taking advantage of the deeper soil layers for their roots to grow. Plants like native Mayapple and imported Lenten Rose push through the Periwinkle matrix to make an interesting and self sustaining garden.  Managing the design only takes a bit of editing out of seedlings and runners from time to time.

 

Gardening this way is so much more relaxed. I allow the leaves to stay where they fall (except on paths that I have chosen to mulch with wood chips.) The leaves are the woodlands natural mulch and food for the canopy tree roots and also happen to feed the perennials under them as well. 

In winter the native fern Woodwardia virginica goes dormant but is circled by evergreen Fatshedera and Holly Fern. 

Saxifraga stolonoifera, originally planted in the bed on top of the wall now has migrated on it's own preferring the stone face  of the wall. In it's natural habitat Saxifrages grow on rock faces that are consistently wet. 

A couple of years ago this concept of a viable 'Plant Community' growing in my gardens was reinforced to me after watching a program on plant collecting in the Balkans by Tony Avent of Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh, NC. 

His description of plants growing naturally at a woodland edge in Slovenia was very close to the same group of plants that I had unknowingly experimented with and implemented in one portion of my gardens. It was as if a thunderbolt of understanding had struck me sitting in the audience that evening. The plants that thrive together in my case with little intervention from me are: Bracken Fern, Helleborus orientalis, Epimediums, Carex species, Camassia, Rohdea, Solomon Seal and Arum italicum with a matrix base of Violas and Vinca minor. This is a mix of plants from various parts of the world that have found common growing conditions and are happily living together in a plant community that is self sustaining. 

A seedling Helleborus x hybridus

A seedling Arum italicum found a home near a planted Camassia scilloides. 

Carex and Helleborus nestling together

In the upper layer of this garden Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle' grows and kept in it's winter state of dried umbels on 3' stems is quite attractive for many months. It is left in this state until a cut back in late February. 

The term 'community' means "a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common". This meaning does apply to plants as well.  

In fact, the now considered wild places left in the world are populated with plants that live and survive together in growing conditions that make them thrive where they are. After all, plants aren't able to walk around and move to another place on their own. 

PS.

This blog was inspired by a book that Helen Yoest of 'Gardening With Confidence' recently introduced to me.

'Planting in a Post-Wild World ' by:

Thomas Rainer and Claudia West. 

Check out the book and Helen's Blog if you have a moment.