BUDS BERRIES AND A FEW WIERD SEED CAPSULES ARE SHOWING OFF

Tulip poplar leaves are beginning to shed their leaves right in step with the migration of Monarch butterflies. The leaves flutter down in the wind alongside the butterflies of August making their way to cover the dry (at this time if year) soil in an effort to protect the tree's roots. And now as we are rewarded with a few cooler mornings to amble along garden paths in the woodland I am observing some decorative and some not so decorative plants that are showing next Spring's leaf and flower buds.  

An unusual evergreen Rhododendron with narrow blue rippled foliage has crumpled chartreuse buds. R. linearifoiium is called Spider Azalea because the bright lipstick pink flowers have many narrow petals. 

Rhododendron australis leaves will fall off for the winter but the buds you see here are still expanding and will decorate the tree for the cold months of winter. 

Rhododendron maximum below will sometimes hold flower parts through the summer looking for all the world like a big green spider taking a tour of it's territory. 

Rhododendrons always reward us with sentinel buds nestled into a whirl of leaves that remain on the plant through frosty temperatures.  Many of you may know that R. Maximum is a great visual weather gauge. The leaves droop down when the temperature drops below freezing. Below is another plant whose leaves do the same. My mother planted Viburnum rhytidophyllum outside the kitchen sink window as a quick reminder of weather conditions in the morning so she would know to tell us how to dress for our mile long walk to school. I like the unusual furry brain shaped buds siting in a cluster of future leaf buds. 

Below, buds along the zig zag stems of Corylopsis stand out especially when the leaves have all fallen away for the winter

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Most of us associate the summer into fall season with a fine berry crop or the odd seed capsule on those plants we plan to cut and bring in for the coming holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

Shown below are some of the not yet ripe fruiting bodies of shrubs and trees that are thriving in my gardens in the forest. 

 Above, the berries of Viburnum dilitatum 'Asian Beauty' will turn a bright red. Watch out for random seedlings of this plant throughout your garden if you add it  into your woodland. Native plant aficionados have given fair warning about it's sometimes pernicious self seeding. 

Sitting behind a Paw Paw tree sucker the berries of Lindera aggregata or L. strichnifoila (Japanese Evergreen Spicebush) will become a lustrous blue/black. You may find the healthful properties of this plant as fascinating as I have.... Give it a Google. Woodlanders Nursery in Aiken, SC USA is a good mail order source for this beautiful plant. 

Another great evergreen shrub in a Genus with many cultivars to choose from for leaf form, texture and variegation is Aucuba. Above see the cluster of olive sized green berries on this female plant. They will grace your garden through the winter with a touch of bright red as the berries mature. 

Fun Fall purple berries which these green balls along the stems will become are on the shrub American Beautyberry, Callicarpa americana.  Coming upon them when ripe always stimulates conversation. Birds love this treat and if discovered before you when ripe by a feathered friend the fruit will be stripped in a matter of days. 

Ripening sculptural seed structures add interest this time of year. Below are olive green seed capsules of Stewartia monodelpha floating above a stand of 'Snowflake' Oakleaf Hydrangea. 

Knobby velvety clusters alternating on Arnold's Promise Witch hazel' horizontal branches really are seed capsules!

And of course it's impossible to miss the beautiful 'Faberge' egg like seed head of our Southern Magnolias. These are smallish compared to ones on full sized cultivars available on Little Gem Magnolia. 

Time to get out and discover the fruits of natures bounty in your gardens in woodlands. Above, on the same shrub, Pieris 'Valley Valentine' displays the drooping brown remains of past spring flowers and at the top of the plant cascading buds to grace this loveliest of plants through winter. 

 

LITTLE BITS OF COLOR OTHER THAN AUGUST'S 100'S OF GREENS

Annabelle Hydrangea flowers take a mid summer turn to pale green from purest spring white. 

August greens press in as we Southern gardeners endure the last month of summer.  The odd pops of color or stand alone white flower stalks and leaf shapes here and there along the garden paths really make a difference in the woodland garden experience.  Above,  the last of a pink flowering phlox droops over Holly Fern, Oxalis, Sedum and Tricyrtis. All these plants seeded here on their own making a lovely natural grouping near the house foundation. 

Spring hydrangea flowers don't drop off their growing tips but dry on the shrubs. They turn different colors on different species. Above, Hydrangea serrata 'Presiosa' turns a luscious dusty rose. Below, the dripping panicles of an  Oak leaf Hydrangea cultivar, H.  quercifolia 'Snowflake' turn a beautiful buff brown from the stem up. 

Two other summer blooming Hydrangeas are H. paniculata 'Tardiva' (above) standing 10' tall in a side garden in a mixed planting of conifers and ground covers. And below, see a close up of the panicles H.'Limelight'. The species (2nd)  name of these hydrangeas is paniculata and directly translates to describe the shape and type of the blooming structure. The mostly upright flowering panicles stand out against the crisp blue green foliage of these two cultivars. 

Below, tiny tubular flower clusters on the ends of Abelia chinensis appear just in time to provide nectar to Black  Swallowtail and Monarch butterflies. 

(Above) It's impossible to miss the lavender tinted white trumpets of bloom on 'Honey Pie' Hosta, shown on the left, at this time of year and the 4" long pure white fringed flowers of Hosta 'Guacomole' on the right.  I have them both elevated to be able to better enjoy the display. If the leaves aren't enough to satisfy then the exploding flower stalks surely will please the most disinterested visitor passing by. 

This year I planted green edged White  Caladium in two places that I pass everyday. The huge leaves are a beacon in the garden on moonlit nights. 

On the other end of the size spectrum, 

dripping out of a chair planter is a delicate snow dusting of Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost' that gets 1/2 sun with ambient reflected light from a concrete driveway. 

Two Begonias, one hardy and the other a annual provide pink spots floating above their foliage. The hardy begonia with the large leaf on the right is fertile and will multiply by seed. 

Pink is also picked up in Coleus foliage. I let some of the flower spikes stay on for the Hummingbirds. 

Deep purple leaves of Oxalis triangularis regnellii and an almost black Heuchera (below) create a visual depth when placed next to brighter leaves with interesting textures. 

A singular stem of a variegated Canna pushes out the first of many orange glazed flowers.  I can watch them expand from my kitchen window. 

When all seems only green there are other ways to brighten up the garden scene.  Above, a metal sculptural flower and below, a patterned platter brighten up dull shady areas. 

However, the most interesting piece of color in my garden is set in a screen behind a destination swing. It is one of 8 identical triangles that made up part of a stained glass conservatory roof. 

Get creative and get some color in your August Gardens in Woodlands. 

CREATING A GARDEN IN A SUNNY WOODLAND CLEARING

In 1992 I made a sunny woodland opening in front of our ranch house larger.  Two Loblolly Pine trees were no more than 20 feet from the house facade and felt a bit threatening.  So, down they came.  Below....before the Pines were gone, the sun configuration on the right. 

The trees didn't fall from natural causes the way they might have in the typical sequence of natural forest succession, but, the loss of their mass and the shade they provided created a much more open clearing where the sun shone for the first time in many years.  Below (right drawing) shows the sun configuration with the pines gone.

In nature without man's interference the catastrophe of a fallen tree would set into motion a rejuvenation of plant growth adapted to a sunnier micro climate with the seeds of such plants wait for generations in the soil in preparation for just such an opportunity when the sunshine returns stimulating their germination and growth. 

    

   (Above) The courtyard now with a new shadow edge on the east side and entrance arbor on the north side. By removing the pine trees, in my situation, I created a more challenging space than I realized. Intense sun in summer for half the year and full shade during the other six months meant that plants chosen would have to deal with this one very important aspect of the microclimate in the woodland.

               Then.                          Now

The front courtyard begins heating up in late May when the sun clears the tops of the trees on the south side of the woodland. There are now three extremely different planting situations at the edges of the pool of light 18' wide and 36' long. 

            Further inside the courtyard

                          Looking South

First things first......give the space a more natural look, one that blended into the surrounding woodland. I removed the straight concrete 'builders walkway', had it broken up into irregular pieces and laid it back down in a more organic configuration.  

(Above) There are  1 to 2 inch spaces between the large concrete pieces. I   had a garden in mind that I had seen at the Strybing  Arboretum in San Francisco.  That garden had an ancient look about it. The stones used there were very large,  gray and primeval looking. 

This view is from an upper deck porch entrance added in 1995. Sitting here, overlooking the north facing garden, I can see all edges of the garden right through to the simple four post arbor that encloses the courtyard at the other end. Below, you can see the chair on the deck porch where I am sitting. 

 When I look straight ahead and East from the chair there is a Japanesque feeling framing the woodland garden. 

I can sit on the original front porch that also faces east (above).  To the right, looking south from the same porch, I see the porch deck on the addition added in 1995.

        View from original front porch

The original paving design came right up to the porch deck wall with the exception of a pocket garden planted with a Variegated Hinoki Cypress, Pieris 'Temple Bells' , Fatshedera lizei, and Agarista 'Rainbow'.   Over the years a native spreading fern, Woodwardia, took hold in the cracks and spread northward about 8 feet.  I've been letting it do it's thing and have added Hardy Beginia,  Acorus 'Ogon', Holly fern, Purple Oxalis, a few more Hosta and containers that give height to it's  natural character.

 A few containers off the original front porch are getting more sun. Their positions can be changed as well as their contents to give pops of color in the green toned mixture of the more permanent planting scheme. 

Across a ramped stone access walk  from the deck porch on the eastern edge is a short embankment garden. there is an azalea hedge as backdrop at the top of the hill.   Nandina and Cryptomeria 'Globosa Nana' are at the 'head waters' of the cascade of Hosta ending in a splash of Lonicera nitida along the walk. 

It's 11:30 in the morning at the beginning of August and you can see the sunspot on the west side of the courtyard.  The house is 10' tall giving this bed of Edgeworthia, Mondo Grass, Geranium macrorrhizum, Iris virginica, Eucomis, Cephalotaxus, Pieris, Nandina, Symphorocarpus, Hinoki Cypress, Camellia, containers of Heuchera and Caladiums a much-needed rest from intense sun as heavy afternoon shade creeps in around 3-4pm. 

In the five minutes i have been writing I took this photo.  Notice that the sun is now caressing a thread leaved Thuja occidentalis (above in the left middle of this image) that is on the other side of the path.  In another hour the  right side will be in full sunshine providing the minimum amount of intense daylight for healthy growth of  Coral Bark Maple, Dwarf Cryptomeria, Fothergilla, Dwarf Chamaecyparus and a low mingled planting of Lemon-balm Kalamiris, Acorus, Oxalis, Tricyrtis, Tradescantia, Ajuga, Saxifraga stolinifera, 'Jet Trail Quince and Japanese Anemone. 

At the north end where the arbor gets a wash of southern sunshine most of the day I once grew a blooming rose (removed in 2005 in favor of a softer planting of Jelsemium sempervirens and Lonicera sempervirens......see 'VINE WARS'.)

Annual Cypress Vine twining on the arbor is so pretty and attracts  hummingbirds. The arbor provides its own challenging microclimate under and around the structure. 

 

Some people despair when a tree falls in their woods and creates an intensity of sun where there has been shade. Don't be afraid.  Now you have been given an adventurous opportunity to learn how these new forest edges will welcome a vast and interesting array of plants that will further enhance your gardens in woodlands.