Northeast Gardening: Plant collector or garden designer? , 1 by Noreaster

Noreaster wrote:
Yes, that's white astilbe. I planted some red ones on the other side of the yard last summer, so I'm excited to see what those do next season. Also have the dwarf astilbe "Sprite" in another section. I do have many different hostas in that section, as well as on the other side of the yard...I feel that other section is more haphazard right now and needs some "designing". I'm curious to see how it looks this coming season, since some of my hostas should start getting a bit bigger. The fact that there are so many different shapes, sizes and colors with hostas is what makes me keep buying them, despite the fact that I really don't have room for all of them to reach their full sizes.

I've avoided Hellebores because the toxicity concerns me with my dogs...they probably would eat them but I understand those are particularly bad if they do. Unfortunately, so many of the woodland shade plants are considered pretty poisonous. I think Daphne, Mountain Laurel, and Azaleas and Rhodies are all pretty bad in that department. Of course, so is Lily of the Valley, which I have tons of.

I've never heard of crocosmia, Laurie, so I'll have to look that one up. And I had no idea peonies could grow in the shade. We have one on the side of the house that was there when we moved in. Maybe I could move that to the back somewhere so that I could actually enjoy it.
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