I have a few plants with leaves that really show their best color in the spring or cooler weather. What about the plants in your garden?
Jacobs ladder (Polemonium reptans) Stairway to Heaven starts the season very rose colored.
edited to add: this is a filtered or light shade edge of the border plant.
This message was edited Apr 11, 2008 8:02 AM
That is one stunning foliage shade plant Semp. My polygonatum is blooming right now but I don't have a photo. Guess I'll have to go out tomorrow and take a photo. They are pretty sparse because they are new last year.
What a beautiful polemonium! I tried one but it really didn't like either my miserly watering (our summers are bone-dry) or the site, I'm not sure which. Sure was pretty, though.
I have so many variegated plants - I'm a real fanatic about them - that I counted up my photos and there were over 30 of them! Way too many for individual posts, so I created a slideshow on Photobucket instead. Remember, there's 30 images so it'll take a little time to see it all. It's set pretty fast, however, so it doesn't take too long.
Slideshow at:
http://s26.photobucket.com/albums/c116/jkom51/VarShade2008-04/?action=view¤t=e5b3c3fd.pbw
If for some reason you want to study any one photo, here's a link directly to the sub-album where all the photos are stored:
http://s26.photobucket.com/albums/c116/jkom51/VarShade2008-04/
Enjoy! I will look forward to everyone's personal photos of their variegated beauties as this thread fills up!
Jkom, what a fantastic contrast you achieved there! wow, very inspiring!
I read somewhere that when you are a gardening beginner, you tend to dislike variegated plants but once you learn their value, you're hooked! That is so true!
Very nice slide show jkom. Here's a fargugium argenta that is fun.
Here's a variegated pteris
This Acantus Mollis Tasmanian Devil is new and I don't know if it's going to make it. IT's in very deep shade.
jkom,
Lovely combinations. It is nice to see how you combine the variegated plants. That is really what makes them successful in the garden.
robcorreia, that's probably why beginners don't like them, they're harder to use successfully.
doss, beautiful plants as usual. That pteris is fantastic.
Trillium sessile
Native Pachysandra procumbens (Allegeheny Spurge) with Dicentra canadensis (squirrel corn)
Phlox divaricata, wood phlox "Montrose tricolor "
what fun plants. My favorite is the trillium but of course those don't grow here. I tried dicentra last year and all of them died!:-(
Doss
i'm sure you could grow Trillium Kurabayashi
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=TRKU
Dick
And what about the Podophyllums :-)
Doss, my Dicentra is surviving so far...maybe it's just an annual for us here....but it's worth it I think!
True Stever. I'll keep my eye out for one. I googled it and couldn't find it for sale on-line. Glad that your dicentras worked rob. I was sad to lose mine, Podophyllums are very cool.
Doss
here is one source
http://www.thimblefarms.com/21pren.html
and here is a list of more nursery's selling Trillium
http://www.trilliumresearch.org/links/links_nurseries.htm
Dick
and if you ever get up this way ?
they are growing wild within walking distance :-)
This message was edited Apr 18, 2008 11:06 PM
Thanks Strever!
Strever, Great plants and references. The moss covered logs? in your garden look wonderful. I did try a Podophyllum a few years ago and it never returned. They do have spectacular leaves. Lucky you to have a group of them.
doss, I have erratic luck with trillium. I think I'll try Trillium luteum (yellow) next since I've seen it growing in a local woods it might be more hardy for me.
Which dicentra did you try? I try to remove the Japanese Dicentra spectabalis from my garden each year because it over runs my small spring ephemerals. Did you try Dicentra formosa which seems to be native to the Pacific northwest? I have limited success with some of the hybrids between formosa and eximina.
Heuchera "Dolce Mocha Mint" and variegated iris at the sunnier edge of the woodland shade garden.
Doss
in the favorite fern thread you mentioned to me i should try Pteris ensiformis Evergemiensis" http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=4420695
and i did
but looking at the images there
they do not look like your gorgeous variegated Pteris http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=4813569
have you been able to identify it ?
yes Pixie they are moss covered logs :-)
i also lost a cpl Podophylum when i put them in the ground the first year
i grew the Podophylum in a pot for the first 2 years before planting them in the ground
maybe they needed the security of the pot to get used to my climate ???
i have a bunch more in pots now doing fine but will wait a cpl years before planting out
Dick
you are right. Here is the proper fern - Pteris nipponica. I also have the Pteris ensiformis Evergemiensis but it isn't the plant I posted.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/35334/
Strever,
No one has remembered me as Pixie in quite awhile. I wonder if potting up the Podophyllum would work for me in zone 6? The one I bought (Kaleidoscope?) was an extravagant purchase. Ah, no wonder I couldn't keep it alive it is only hardy to zone 7 and hard frosts after it breaks dormancy will kill it. It needs a cool greenhouse here.
Heuchera Americana 'Dales Strain'
sempervirens/Pixie
i remember when i started getting interested in Heuchera a cpl years ago you were asking the questions i needed answers to in the Heuchera forum :-)
do you not use the Pixie name any more ?
i'm hoping my Heuchera take off this year and make a big splash for me
most of them have also been growing up in pots, i will plant them in the ground soon
Doss
it looks like Pteris nipponica might not be as hardy as Evergemiensis
and i could only find it available from glass house
Dick in rainy Hiouchi
I got my original stuff from the nursery. Do you mean glass house works? I bought some pteris from them but it's not quite the same. Very interesting though. It grows like weeds if it's happy.
http://glasshouseworks.com/trop-p3.html
Hi Strever,
It's nice to be remembered. I started out as woodlandpixie and signed all my posts pixie. When I switched to sempervirens I stopped using pixie because I didn't think most people would remember and I couldn't decide if I should then use the green from evergreen.
I'm in love with lamium maculatum!
Weird! I don't know why the photo posted sideways!
Lamium certainly brightens up the garden, even when it's sideways. :-)
my Pteris survived winter
but even tho the tag says Pteris ensiformis Evergemiensis
i'm not real sure which one it is ?
Dick
I believe it is. I trust Potemup with the proper ID
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/10965/
There are some other pteris on this page but they are not the same.
