Scott, looks like you've been busy! Crawling around on hands and knees with a camera that is! Lookin' good buddy. Mine is really starting to pop also.
Doug
'Spring' (?) planting ...
Your yard looks to be at about the same stage as mine.
Though my cristata irises aren't blooming yet.
I know you must have been on hands and knees for the goldenseal picture!
Unfortunately, I hear it's supposed to get cold and rainy for the entire upcoming weekend.
Bummer.
The one I didn't post of the Mayapple flower I was totally lying down!!
Hilarious.
Nice pictures Scott and Doug. I like the pale yellow Molly the Witch peony and Doug, what is the plant in your second picture? My cristata irises aren't blooming yet either.
Hydrastsis canadensis, Goldenseal's the common name. I try to use a lot of native plants in my gardens.
My 'woodland peonies' continue to strut their stuff.
As many of you know, my all-time fave is paeonia japonica, which amazes every year.
It has perfecly formed crepe-paper ivory blooms. It's hard to quit taking pictures!
Pics #1 & 2.
Then my peaonia rockii has opened perfectly the last couple days.
It has a fabulous pure white, but a little wild-looking bloom.
Again, really fabulous. Pic #3.
Partial sun, ordinary garden situation. Beautiful.
I just love your peonies!
They are wonderful.
I am on the hunt!
Swoon...swoon...swoon....MUCH prettier than my hybrids. I think they are much more suited to a woodland, natural setting. Scott, do the deer leave them alone? kim
Amazingly enough, the deer haven't bothered them.
It's supposed to rain today and my peonies are pretty much finishing up for the year.
Here's the last pix for this year (p. rockii again, yesterday).
The bad thing about these peonies is that the individual flowers only look great for a few days tops.
Multiple blooms extends the show, of course.
And each species blooms at a little different time,
so I'd say I have at least one of them blooming for about a month.
When they're at their peak, the flowers are stunning,
so I think it's worth it, despite the short display.
Now I'll wait patiently for next year...
Does your peonies form any seed? I would love to grow them, but peonies are one of those plants that people don't seem to bother with in SA. Would so love to lay my hand on some seed.... "drool"
They develop amazing seed pods in the fall, so I presume there's seed in there.
(I'm not at my home computer, otherwise I'd show a picture of the impressive seed pods).
I've never tried harvesting the seed. Nor do I have any idea how hard it is to grow from seed.
But I would be happy to try to collect some, if I remember later in the year at the appropriate time.
Thanks, it would be much appreciated...
Elsa ~ Does your climate have a good winter chill? I think that most peonies require it, if I am not mistaken.
(Evelyn_thelurker with a newly dug shade garden)
Hi Evelyn,
Yes, we do have proper (to us) winter temperatures, though nothing like the temps many parts of the USA have. Our nighttime temps do go below freezing quite often. (We even had snow last year - for about 2 hours... LOL!)
Elsa
Spring (or summer) is suddenly upon us.
Things are happening quickly.
#1 a cute skinny trillium, t. lancifolium
#2 Corydalis Blackberry Wine - thrives even in midwestern humidity (Yeah!)
#3 My first experiment with a 'rock garden' in humid St Louis. I made about 5 planters with sharp drainage.
Here's my first success this year, a beautiful polygonatum (p. hookerii). It's hard to believe this is a polygonatum, since the flowers are so striking. We'll see how well this experiment does as the heat and humidity accumulate mid-late summer. So far, so good...
#4 is another of my rock garden experiments, a jacobs ladder called polemonium chartaceum. Flowering it's heart out.
#1 is ladyslipper (cypripedium parviflora v. parviflora). Planted last fall, just it's first year. Looks good, so far.
#2 is the strange under-leaf flower of podophyllum delavayii. Beautiful marbled leaves are it's most ornamental feature.
#3 is arisaemia ringens. Huge glossy leaves. Looks great in the woods.
#4 is my mystery plant - I can't find the tag. Looks a little like an allium, but I'm sure it's not.
If anyone knows what it is, I'd of course like to know it's ID.
It has suddenly gone from the 60's to the 90's, so I suspect spring is over.
Things slow down in my woodland as the temperatures rise.
I'll check things out again this weekend to see if anything's still blooming.
Fabulous photos, as always, Scott. Love that chartaceum!
A very kind person sent me a bumper crop of surprise lilies - at least 7. I ran around yesterday putting them into the ground. They are quite mature plants. It's fabulous!
WOW again! I've been so enlighted here....the Corydalis is ONE of my favorites.....thanks Scott!
I don't see that many lady slippers anymore. We had some wild ones 20 years ago but they're gone now. Thanks for sharing, I love them.
Great plants. All of them are nice, and the trillium especially caught my eye. I'm trying to build up a collection of trilliums, only have three so far. I'd love to have a patch of the lady slippers, but they are so expensive and are so hard to grow - I've tried twice with a pink variety, and need to figure out what I'm doing wrong before I attempt again. I'm a sucker for the blue and purple flowers in your other posts too - awesome! Terri
Scott ~ Where did you find that Polygonatum hookeri? Is that the one with the blue flowers? That is beautiful!
Scott ~ Could that be Allium caeruleum?
That certainly looks like an Allium to me.. what does the foliage look like? What else can you tell us about it?
My goodness, you certainly have some beauties growing there! =)
Evelyn, I also thought it looks like allium, but I swear I haven't bought an allium in a hundred years.
But my wife insists we tried some a few years ago.
I've never seen it flower 'til this year.
From what I read on MOBOT's site, it likes sunny dry exposure - this is shady woodland.
But it might be adaptable. So far, I have no better ID than allium caeruleum, so it might be...
As for the source of the polygonatum hookeri, I think it may have been Edelweiss nursery.
No, I stand corrected. It's not an allium caerulium, it's something much more special. It's am allium Christophii seedling. It came from a seed that was blown into your garden.
The second picture is a bunch of smaller ones from seed.
They can get quite big, and they go with everything. If you don't deadhead it you will have more in 2-3 years, maybe sooner.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/60/#b
I LOVE this plant.
Donna, are those allium photos from this year? I remember planting Christophii and Schubertii, both new for me. Many of mine are already up, and I wonder if the new ones are later bloomers.
Marcia
Definitely from former years, but I have a lot of christophiis with quite large buds.
I posted a picture of trillium lancifolium above. I couldn't help but show another picture (#1).
It is forming a family with multiple stems, though only a few are flowering. I like it.
#2 is from my new shady 'rock garden' experiment - it's in a large container.
The soil in the container is super-sharp draining. So far, it's working out well.
This is a saxifrage 'Winifred Bevington'. It's tiny, as you can see in #3.
#4 is pinella Polly Spout with curious jack-in-pulpit flowers/tails.
I thought I had lost this, but I ran across melittis Royal Velvet (#5), another shade perennial.
Here are a couple shrubs which thrive in shade.
The first two are the results of crosses of carolina allspice with the chinese version.
#1 is Hartlage Wine, a deep burgundy flower. It's very floriforous and has a nice scent.
#2 is Venus, an ivory flower with burgundy throat. Also scented.
#3 is a foliage combination of the golden hypericum Brigadoon against the burgundy cotinus Royal Purple.
The combo looks nice all season.
Finally, I wanted to show my 'wild phlox'.
I cleared choking honeysuckle (both shrubs & vine) out of my woodland about 10 yrs ago.
It was astonishing to see the spontaneous appearance of tons of woodland wildflowers,
including trillium, mayapples, celandine poppies, geraneums, etc.
But the most prominent is what I called 'wild phlox'.
It puts on a remarkable floral display this time of year in my deeply shaded woodland.
It spreads a little rambunctiously, so I have to pull it in some areas.
This year, I posted it on Plant ID forum to verify it being a phlox... oops.
It's actually Dame's Rocket.
At any rate, it's in full flower now.
Pic #1 shows how densely it's flowering along a path through my wooded garden.
#2 & 3 show how many of the blooms are variegated.
I know dame's rocket can be aggressive, so I'll be a little tougher restricting it's spread.
But it's still pretty.
You have a real dream garden. I just love your dame's rocket. It is so light and airy....
I can't believe this. I just got a trio of mosquito bites. Through a heavy tee shirt, on my left shoulder!
Donna, 'tis the season. They just reappeared in my yard this past weekend.
So annoying!
Cindy, the dame's rocket definitely stays in the shade in my yard.
But you're right to be concerned about it's spreading tendency.
I've let it roam up 'til now, but it's encroaching on areas where I have much more delicate things.
I'll definitely be more attentive to restricting it's spread from now on.
Realizing what a great ground cover it is (and motivated by Bluestone's 50% offer) I just obtained a half dozen Nepeta Snowflakes. It is gorgeous pretty much all year. I'm putting them where weeds tend to appear.
Weerobin, I object to mosquitos appearing before my peonies bloom!
I have a friend who keeps bringing me plants of geranium Bevan's Variety. I must have 40, and am using them to fill in spots where you don't want to spend a lot of time, like along the neighbor's chain link fence.
My japanese anemones that were close enough to be exposed to a neighbor's walnut are weak or didn't return. The ones in other areas are fine. I am finding that roses are not affected, thank goodness. I have ordered replacement Honorine Joberts, but I won't put them near the walnut.
Watch out....I can now post pictures....I would love for you to see some of my shady friends:
