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. 

WHEN THERE ARE NO WOODLANDS TO PUT A GARDEN UNDER

The idea of a shade house to grow plants that require filtered light is not a new one and structures for this specialized purpose have come in all sizes and sorts. From arbors, open screened roofs on poles to the more practical lath house the choices and designs are endless. Above is the marvelous pergola/arbor at Fearrington Village in Pittsboro, NC,

AND See a previous post about this subject: "STRETCHING THE DEFINITION OF CANOPY"

 If you are ever in Raleigh, NC,  you will have the privilege of walking through a most unusual open shade house.  About 40 years ago the grounds that would become the JC Raulston Arboretum at NC State University in Raleigh, NC was wide open. It was a place for professors of horticulture to field trial all manner of plants that could not thrive in full sun. There were few mature trees and no design yet in place that would make up the eventual 10 acres of the JCRA. It is now a world renowned teaching facility, research garden and pleasure grounds that thousands of visitors enjoy throughout the year. 

JC Raulston's vision of a place to test the hardiness and viability of plants from the world over began on a "shoestring budget".  This meant that many of the plants he acquired were small and initially required a specific outdoor growing situation for optimum observation and evaluation.  Partial shade from the hot, bright, humid summer days of central NC was essential to the survival of the new plants. 

                       East Entrance

A 20 year old specimen greets visitors at the East Entrance

If you are exiting the Lath House at the East side you can peer through 70+ year old Dwarf Loblolly Pines into the Elipse Lawn. 

And so was born, The Lath House. The early structure was quite simple with sturdy round poles holding up snow (or dune) fencing to create the correct amount of sun and shade. The slats of the fencing were oriented north to south providing  moving shade as the sun passed overhead from east to west. 

Over the years the Lath House became an iconic feature of the arboretum experience with winding paths and cinderblock raised beds. Now, replacing the original structure, is a state of the art and award winning sleek wood and steel LATH HOUSE designed by Architect Frank Harmon and dedicated in 2012.  

From 2008 to 2010 the Master Planning Committee worked on designing the contiguous walk through the Asian Valley, The Japanese Garden and into the Lath House. Not shown are myself, Judy Harmon and Bobby Mottern. 

Exiting the Lath House on the West side into the Japanese Garden. 

A stimulating yet practical  arrangement of raised bed gardens designed by the JCRA Master Plan Committee grace the floor plan. Still entering from east or west, the flow for visitors is two fold. Large tour groups can pass through the middle quickly while singular guests wanting to study plants in more detail can stay to the sides winding in an out of several path choices. There is seating on the bed walls throughout the raised gardens. 

Growing in a mix of compost and Stalite, traditional  research continues on plants from all over the world in this beautiful space that simulates a garden in the dappled shade of a woodland.  Beds were filled with a mixture of compost and Stalite better known as Permatil in retail establishments.  And so the plants grow!!!! 

Visit the JC Raulston Arboretum, in Raleigh, NC to travel the world by seeing plants that started their evaluation in the Lath House. 

BARK AND BUDS ABOUND IN THE WINTER GARDEN

For year round interest in gardens in woodlands, look for every detail offered up by the trees and shrubs. The bark of my magnificent trees are doubly enhanced when an interesting branch of a flowering shrub full of next springs buds crosses in front. Above is an almost perfectly horizontal budded branch of 'Shasta' Viburnum in front of an impressive Loblolly Pine.  The evergreen behind is Canadian Hemlock. 

Two smoothed barked trees with pointed buds from their own branches are: Stewartia monodelpha, left, and native Magnolia tripetala, right. 

Tulip Magnolia Buds in the Coker Arboretum at UNC Chappell Hill NC. 

I grow my gardens under native Dogwood, left, and Loblolly Pine with sprinklings of Sweet Gum trees shown on the right.

Winter flower buds of Mahonia bealei, left, are breaking out in upright yellow clusters of tiny fragrant bells while a dwarf 'Temple Bell' Pieris , right, holds tightly on to decorative buds until early spring.  These two shrubs also keep their leaves through the coldest temperatures. 

On the left, snowy dots of a Corylopsis shrub add a textural depth to this part of the border along the driveway. On the right is an all time favorite.  A show stopping display of twin pairs of silvery satan buds are seemingly adrift on the tips of Edgeworthia 'Cream Ball'. The buds will open in March and flower for a month perfuming the front courtyard. 

Did you guess that these are both Tulip Poplars? On the left is our native Liriodendron tulipifera and on the right, from China, Liriodendron chinense.  The difference in the bark is striking as are the size and shape of the leaves. I consider them sister trees uniting from around the world.  In my garden they grow almost side by side. 

I was introduced to this green barked Maple seedling at Camellia Forest Nursery and had to try it.  It is flourishing in fairly deep shade on 4.9 pH soil.  On the right is the sensuous bark of Magnolia x loebneri 'Merrill'.  It is an upright tulip type Magnolia with reliably hardy buds that casts its flowery fragrance 300 yards away.   

Rhododendrons hold their buds in the center of wonderful splashes of leaves.  R. catawbiense, on the left, is evergreen while R. australis, on the right, will drop its leaves as the weather cools to winter temperatures. 

 Showy buds of two other evergreen shrubs are on Winter Honeysuckle, left, where single buds sit in each  leaf axil along the stems blooming off and on through the warm spells of winter. The plant on the right is an Agarista, previously known as Leucothoe, showing sprays of buds nestled in the leaf axils and the very tip of arching stems.  The buds wait all winter to expand in the spring. 

Chunky or flakey bark on two very different trees always catch my eye in winter. On the left is the stately single trunked native Persimmon and on the right, hailing from Europe, is the flaking bark of multi trunked Cornus mas. If you love the bark of a River Birch but haven't the room and want a shorter tree this is one to consider for smaller spaces. 

The left hand picture shows our native Red Cedar which is actually a Juniper. The peeling bark is prized by birds for nest making. On the right is a fantastic ornamental shrub/tree that can be pruned and managed as more upright to be able to better appreciate its mystical white exfoliating bark in the winter. Hepticodiym miconoides is hardy from USDA zones 5-8 and is a wonderful pollinator that blooms in late summer. Google:  Chicago Botanic Garden and Seven-Son-Flower in the same line for more information on the reintroduction of this unusual plant into our western gardens. 

Above is a distant early spring view of Hepticodium on the left and Cornus mas on the right in a south facing border at the edge of the woods.

Finally, the bark of two of my finest trees. On the left, looking for all the world like a giraffe, is Lagerstromea fauriei, the Japanese Crape Myrtle. Standing 25' tall, exfoliating cinnamon bark envelopes the trunk to the uppermost branches. Summer blooms are fragrant white. I love the carpet of tiny falling petals without any messy seed capsules later. You must have lots of room in your garden to grow this tree. On the right see how rough and almost charred looking the trunk of Prunus mume 'Peggy Clark' is. 

  

Above, buds along the stems of Prunus mume 'Peggy Clark' fatten and burst reliably in December with a delicious spicy scent.  It will flower for a month and produce a summer fruit that the Japanese love to pickle and eat daily.  Thus, it's common name, Japanese Flowering Apricot. 

Let us end this conversation with the showy yellow of autumn leaves carpeting the ground beneath, from left to right, Magnolia x loebneri 'Merrill', Lagerstroemia fauriei and Cornus mas. Planted 18-20 years ago, their arching branches have made a small woodland garden space all their own where they continue to delight on winter walks with their very own unique characteristics of unusual barks.