Pacific Northwest Gardening: Taming the wild garden, 1 by PhilsFlowers

PhilsFlowers wrote:
Laurie, you have so much space! I am green with envy, and there is so much that you can do with it. Many of the ladies have give excellent suggestions about what to plant. Rhododendrons - I have five different coloured ones, several reds, one mauve and one the most brilliant orange you have ever seen. Don't forget the shorter azalias as they do very well in the dappled shade.

Ferns -- I have many ferns, including three, very tall Polystichum manitum - Western Sword Ferns. Even though these grow from Alaska right down the Pacific Coast to California, I think they will do well at the border with your grassed (meadow?) area. The ferns I love the best though are the Athyrium niponicum - Japanese Painted Ferns. I have two of these. It does look like a very good abstract artist has filled his brush and has painted on a variety of very subtle metalic colours, the main one being silver, on each leaf of this black stemmed plant. I also love the Polystichum tsus-simense - Korean Rock Fern. All ferns love cool roots. This one is a dark green and it is located behind a medium-sized honey colour rock. Eventually it will form a mound (it is just a baby) and I am hoping it will form it over the rock.

All ferns need acidic soil, which I think I remember you said you have. Amend the soil so it is rich in humus and small stone. Bet you didn't think you would ever be adding stones TO your soil but that is how they maintain cool roots on hot summer days. They don't appreciate too much heat or too much dryness. In summer they have to be kept moist and that is why you add peat-moss to which hot water has been added. This is done so it will absorb moisture once it is in the ground. good leaf compost should also be added to your soil mix for ferns. This will help them retain moisture.

I love the idea of sweet scents in winter and Sarcococca reminds me of sweet vanilla. I have seen Sarcococca hookeriana var. humilis at the University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and have attached a picture of it. It is a treat to go there in winter and just stand there and breath in the scent of this plant. I would like to get Sarcoccoca hookerana var. digyna (Purple Stem) and put it in a large urn on my front porch so that everyone who goes in or out during the winter months can enjoy its beautiful scent, when few other things are blooming. This is a low growing variety which can spread 3 to 5 feet wide. Sorry, I convert by using a small tape measure I use for sewing so can only convert the smaller numbers. You could use this plant to line a path through your wooded area as it is a shade plant.

Another fragrant plant (which I don't have yet) is Skimmia japonica. It is fragrant and blooms in late March - early April. I have not had time to look it up to see whether it is a sun or shade plant.

Viburnum is another shrub or small tree which has a beautiful scent from about February on. I have one planted in the garden in front of my house

Hostas are very popular right now and all varieties like light dappled shade to full shade. The ones I have are "Brim Cup" - green cup-shaped leaves with pale yellow to white margins; Hosta x fortunei "Francee" - deep green and white leaves; "Gold Drop" - gold with green margins; Gold Tiara - green heart-shaped leaves edged with gold; Hosta tardiana "Blue Wedgewood" - a very blue hosta with wedge-shaped leaves.

Helleborus are nice too in partial shade. I have the Helleborus orientalis with white flowers, Helleborus "Atrorubens" with purple flowers and a new one which is not on my garden list yet so I can't tell you its name but it has white speckled green leaves which are attractive all by themselves but it has a lovely flower too. Just like the Hostas, these are popular plants so you will not have any difficulty finding ones you like at your local nursery.

There are many fragrant violets that bloom in April and May and would love to spred themselves with their various coloured flowers in the shade among your trees. I had Labrador violets in a fan shaped bed fenced in by edgers in a vain attempt to keep them from spreading. These are purple violets which have been put at the end of the garden bed on the east side of my house under the golden cedar tree. There is a paler mauve variety which is the bane of my poor DH's existance as it insists it needs to grow all over the back lawn. He mows it down, he digs it up but it never disappears completely My friend Rita has lovely white violets in her "White" garden. Just think what you could do with these colourful little beauties. I haven't been looking for violets for some time but I'm sure there are even more colours now for you to choose from.

Please keep writing about your progress and pictures help to allow us to follow right along with you. You know we will offer plenty of advice as it is enjoyable to be an "armchair gardener" and not have to do any of the hard work that creating a garden takes.