Northeast Gardening: Hi - another newbie, 0 by BloomsWithaView

BloomsWithaView wrote:
My long perennial bed is under two large cottonwoods. Anything that grows in there has to fight the fine roots of the treees for every drop of water.

My biggest success story for a ground cover under them that delights is the pink flowered sapponaria occymoides - aka soapwort. also grape hyacinth. A few tulips and daffys make up the rest of the first spring flowering.

Also having good luck with candytuft and geranium sanguineum - the geranium has spread nicely, the candytuft just gets bigger in place. As for annuals, the physostegia seeds itself gleefully and provides upright accents later in the summer. The physostegia returns in both the pink and white and let me know when the strip needs water... they are my canaries.

There are also artemisias that do well in there, Powis castle dies back each winter and comes on lovely soft in the spring. Another is a lavender cotton wormwood artemesia... not too sure of its proper nomenclature. This one stays a lovely grey green almost whiteish accent in the garden all year.

Picture shows the soapwort - with grape hyacinth and right in front a few of the geranium blooms.