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. 

STRETCHING THE DEFINITION OF 'CANOPY'

After much of the southern forests were cleared to grow cotton and tobacco many grand houses were constructed with deep porches that provided much needed shade from the relentless summer sun. The porches were oriented to catch the south eastern breezes. 

I am fortunate to live near many of these homes built around the turn of the last century and have been able to experience a lazy midday sitting with the owners who have lovingly taken up the gauntlet of restoring and maintaining the old beauties. 

Notice the dark green shutters on the house as they are repeated in a landscape feature to come. 

I visited this local home all dolled up for the holidays and as I walked around it's porch I reveled  in the charming spaciousness of the floors and ceilings that rambled around the front and sides of the main house. 

I entered at the side where the original porte cochere had been given a floor and gracious side steps up. 

Through the columns facing the road the owner had cleverly repurposed the driveway into a semi-secluded terrace under a pair of mature Hollies and an Eastern Red Cedar. 

The real treat that day was to reveal itself at the other side of the house. 

Backed by an enormous Southern Magnolia was a raised open dining arbor.  

Moving off the main porch and into the open boxed arbor closed in on two sides with the same dark green shutters on the house I was at first enchanted by dreaming of past afternoon teas and intimate evening dinners at the simple but elegant table and chairs. 

Then stepping off the other side of the arbor onto a beautifully crafted pea gravel path I was completely enveloped by the Magnolia. In the dining arbor I felt in control with the human scale structure around me, but within seconds, only two feet away standing on the path, the huge Magnolia took charge. 12' long branches dipped to the ground from the massive trunk reaching out to make It's presence felt. 

The owner had enlisted this magnificent specimen to make a spectacular garden experience. First the arbor had replaced the canopy of the porch and second, the Magnolia had replaced the canopy of the arbor.  What a masterful transition from house to garden it was. 

The owner had enlisted one tree to make a spectacular garden experience. I knew then that even one tree can help you feel like you are in a garden in a woodland. 

EXPERIENCING A CANOPY OF WORLDWIDE NATIVES

On a crisp fall day I found myself walking through the JC Raulston Arboretum's Mixed Border in Raleigh, NC.  It's always so exciting to revisit trees planted over 20 years ago that are still thriving.

The old trees are now mingled with a few of our own North America native species and newer specimens of cultivars and varieties ranging in origins from eastern Russia, Europe,Turkey, many Asian countries including: Japan, China, Taiwan,  Vietnam,  Korea. Look for the complete name tags (below) that identify the plants and the parts of the world where they grow naturally. 

Euonymous europeaus 'Red Cascade' (above) is naturally found in the infamous hedge rows of England but underused in our landscapes. 

Let me take you on a ramble over the a rustic stone path, through a central arbor and under this unique collection of trees with a series of images that I took a few weeks ago. 

The specimens are old enough now to enjoy the unusual bark on limbed up trees planted close to the path edge. 

I planted this Lagerstroemia limii (above) when The Mixed Border was first established in 1994-5. The seeds of this species of Crape Myrtle coming to the National Arboretum in 1981 from the Shanghai Botanical Garden , people's Republic of China were the beginnings of a breakthrough breeding program that brought the colorful mildew resistant Crape Myrtles we know today by American Indian cultivar names. The first to be introduced was the vibrant deep red flowering L. 'Arapaho'. 

Pinus wallichiana 'Zebrina' is a touch of the Himalayas in Central NC. It was another of the first trees to go in.

Below, see it on the right side of the path.

Pinus wallichiana 'Zebrinus' sprays of soft looking variegated needles hoover over the path as we continue to the central arbor. 

The central arbor seen from the east and west sides. 

The arbor is a central feature of the Mixed Border where you can sit for awhile and contemplate the framed living pictures of plants. There are many shrubs and perennials under the larger trees. Two familiar plants that grow contentedly in the shade and root competition of these trees are Gardenia and Spirea. 

Gardenias are considered an  'old timey' Southern standard. This unusual variegated Gardenia (above) surely had it's evergreen origins in China. In my limited research I found out that the pure green leaved type was first grown in Charleston, SC in 1762.  

Below, you can see a successful combination of a few of the woody plants at the west entrance to the Mixed Border. From the top down is Chinese Tulip Poplar tree and to the right of the Tulip Poplar the Nellie R. Stevens hedge with an arched passageway cut through. Progressing down see evergreen Daphniphyllum macropodum, Illicium, and closest to the ground, Spirea thunbergii 'Ogon'. 

Fine golden leaves of Ogon Spirea can be a great textural change in a mixed border of shrubs and trees. Look up this plant to understand its origins and find out how Carl Peter Thunberg traveled from Sweden to Japan to bring back  then unknown plants to European gardens. In 1775 Thunberg used the term 'Japonica' as an epithet for 254 species collected from Japan that had been introduced by the Japanese into their own country from China. How many times have you heard someone say "I have a Japonica."? 

The Mixed Border is situated opposite The JC Raulston Arboretum's renowned Perennial Border. Thus it is a stellar example of how plants perform on the north side of a Nellie R. Stevens hedge that casts a 15' to 30' shadow over the entire 200' of garden.  Homeowners can walk this border and take away ideas to implement in their own gardens that may have similar shady growing situations. 

Visit The JC Raulston Arboretum any day of the year to experience this long narrow woodland garden walk in the presence of trees from all over the world. 

Ps,  The Mixed Border garden is cared for by Garden Leader Amelia Lane and "The Border Babes".... A dedicated group of talented gardeners in their own right. Staff support ranges from interpretive signage to propagation of new plants to trial. Additional vibrant volunteer groups of labelers, mappers and construction crew and others are vital to the overall success of this garden experience.