woodland wildflowers

Hmmm. I'm not sure whether it's appropriate to 'come out of the closet' or not....
But the 'Hi, Ladies' salutation, innocently intended, I'm sure, cuts to the quick.
Some of us gardening enthusiasts have a Y chromosome!

RCN, I indeed have looked through lots (though not all yet) of your photos - what a great vicarious pleasure!
Don't we all phantasize about starting over with a fresh landscape?
I look forward to seeing it evolve.

picabo, I'm pretty sure your Fern is one of the Polypody ferns (Polypodium). Usually you see them growing on rocks but I have occasionally seen them on trees as well. Found a note about propagation from William Cullina's book, Native Ferns, Moss & Grasses and tried to grab a snapshot of it. If the photo doesn't work, try this link: http://books.google.com/books?id=DEDRFO-SVAQC&pg=PA212&lpg=PA212&dq=how+do+you+propogate+polypody+fern&source=bl&ots=6yICCzztr2&sig=XOPFYkXMn83-4ihWInaQSfVPXSI&hl=en&ei=7bvVSceiKZeJlAfRm73CDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4. Sounds a little tricky to propagate :(

My daughter has been waiting for years to have her own Hosta garden and I think the area between the front of the house and the road will be perfect :) When my son-in-law saw these photos his comment was: "Your mother has way too much on time on her hands!" LOL

Looks great.
Maybe I should take up virtual gardening as well.
My success rate would likely be a lot higher!

Wee, I think your success rate is already pretty darn high!!!

When I saw the pic of the fern I thought polypody fern, too...so I have to agree that is it. They grow here but I have never tried to keep them.
debc

Weerobin, I do apologize. I thought of that after I posted. That comes from posting in a different forum, of ladies only and it's partly from habit.
So I'll say hi to the gents here too. :)

A delightful thread!!! I just now joined in. There are so many lovely woodland wildflowers. I'm mesmerized with the varieties. I started a small shade garden leading by hostas, then bellsworst, then Solomon's Seals. Then variegate Solomons's Seals....

So many lovely woodland plants pictured in this thread! I don't know if anyone besides rcn is lucky enough to have these in their woods or if you are specifically getting them to plant in your shade gardens. I have acres of woodland, but alas none of the native beauties like hepaticas, dutchman breeches, virginia bluebells, etc... What I DO have is this lovely native...... SKUNK CABBAGE LOL :-) Terri

That fern is probably best left where it grows. I can enjoy it when we go for our morning walk and not have to worry about taking care of it. LOL

I love Symplocarpus!! It's a magnificent and beautiful plant. Terri, please promise you'll post pictures for us when those are all in bloom.

I just found out that there's a plant "sale" (not sure if it's really a sale) locally this weekend and Keeping It Green is going to be part of it. I probably won't come home with a cypripedium, but I'm hoping they have lots of good stuff. Still trying to figure out if I can get there on Sunday.

Kathy

I plunked out the cash to try a lady slipper for the first time - planted it last fall.
So far, it's just trying to poke it's head up.
We'll see ...
They're just so expensive!

WR - I'm excited for you. What a relief, after having laid out the cash, to see her coming back up. Whew.

BTW - That was the area at Heronswood that had the beautiful huge Symplocarpus, but it's not in that picture . . . don't want anyone getting eyestrain looking for it. ;-)

Wow a ladys slipper $$$$$$. Nice, I hope for your sake! So pretty and the true woodland flower, I do not think I've ever seen one in the woods yet. I have acouple of trilliums coming up also. So excited. And even a couple of hosta leave up on the surface. Now today cold rainy snowy. Yuck go away. Ronna

Ronna, we went on a hiking/camping trip last May in Red River Gorge here in KY and saw so many of them. Pink and yellow. They were georgeous.

Doug

Two pink ones.

My one white trillium is out today - I had nearly missed it because it was a few inches away from where I thought it would be and there was a sword fern "protecting" it. My camera batteries are low, so I don't yet have a picture. What a great surprise for me!

Hi Terri, glad you found this thread and I love your Skunk Cabbage :)

Doug, beautiful pics of the Lady Slippers! I've got a yellow one I want to move but I'm paranoid about losing it! Brought it with me from Maine 10 years ago and although it's growing perfectly well where it is, we have a spreading Yew that's spread so much the Ladyslipper gets 'lost' in that setting. I figure if it made the trip from Maine and survived, a quick trip across the driveway shouldn't hurt it but I'm still nervous about moving it :(

Katie, will be anxious to hear if you found any goodies at the sale this weekend. We received our Syneilesis from Keeping It Green on Friday - I'm glad we found them on his site but a little disappointed with the size :( Supposedly gallon size plants but I'd be embarassed to classify them as anything more than a quart, if that! I guess as long as they live I'll be satisfied. Perfect timing though, planted them on Friday as soon as we received them and already starting to see some leaves poking up :)

Oops, almost forgot, Doug I think I've got an ID for the first plant you were trying to ID!!!
Hydrophyllum macrophyllum http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=6370940 We planted some in Rick's woodland garden last year and I was so excited to see it yesterday in the gardens!

picabo, those are known as "resurrection" ferns here and as far as I know, there is no way to propagate them......just enjoy them after the rains.

rcn48 - I didn't get to go this weekend. This weekend was the first sunny day we've had in ages and the temperatures were finally warm enough to starting drying us out (we've been soaked with steady downpours for the last couple of weeks). So I took the opportunity to spend a good portion of Sunday on the roof killing the moss and washing it off. I'll have to go up again to finish it off, but at least I got a good start. I spent the remainder of the afternoon getting the moss off the sidewalk and driveway. My house is in the trees and faces north, so this is becoming a spring tradition. I can grow moss like nobody can.

Anyway, I'm bummed that I couldn't get out to keeping it green. I keep reminding myself that at least I saved some money. And there's always tomorrow . . .

Temperatures in the high 60's with sun for the majority of the week. I can't tell you how happy this makes people in Seattle. The is the second "colder than normal" spring we've had. One event that people travel in to see is the tulip fields a couple of hours north of Seattle. Apparently this year, the tulips aren't even yet out for the tulip festival. I guess it's going to be all daffodils.

RCN, your ladyslipper must be quite mature by now.
Has it multiplied or is it still just a single plant after 10yrs?
Has it required special pampering?
I want to give my newby as much chance to survive as possible!

Weerobin, it's probably 5-7 spikes, I really can't remember from last year and even though I've headed in that direction several times to see if it's pushing up yet I get distracted every time! LOL We have one other yellow one we bought at a nursery in Michigan one summer and they definitely seem to be the least fussy about soil conditions, etc. I brought some of the native pink Ladyslippers from my woods in Maine when I moved to VA and they melted away after the second year - obviously hated this sticky red clay soil as much as I do!

Katie, our spring has been "colder than normal" as well. Everything seems to be blooming on time however with the few days of warm weather we've had here and there. But then the temperature drops drastically and some of the blooms have blasted :( I've been waiting for our yellow Magnolia to bloom and was grateful that it seemed to be stalling with the cooler weather. Warm weather over the weekend is finally tempting it to bloom, just in time for the below freezing temps we're supposed to have tomorrow and Wednesday :(

Beautiful pictures of the ladyslipper, Doug. I wish we had some of them around here. Can anyone tell me why they're so expensive? Are they difficult to propogate?

Lots of happy Seattleites around here today. Everyone is positively giddy about the sun. It's pretty funny (or very sad). Some plants seem to have waited a bit to bloom - others went ahead and decided to leave out regardless of the weather. The mason bees are late this year - I'll bet they "pop" out today. I'll have to check my nests when I get home.

Doug the lady slipper photo is georgeous... Would love to take one home lol. So dainty. Ronna

Katie, they're expensive because they take so long to produce a "flowering size" plant - 4-5 years for flowers and usually another 2-3 years before they're large enough to get divisions :( Interesting information about transplanting Ladyslippers on William Cullina's site: http://www.williamcullina.com/files/Download/Transplanting%20Pink%20lady.pdf
And, if you really want to drool, check out the photos on Cady's Falls Nursery in Vermont: http://www.cadysfallsnursery.com/Welcome.html I just HAVE to visit this place some year! I usually travel to Maine once a year, although the past five years it's always been around the holidays so a side trip to Vermont in December wouldn't work :(

I finally found the spot where Rick planted the C. kentuckiense last fall - fortunately the tag stayed intact over the winter. Nothing showing yet but I'm keeping my fingers crossed! If it survives, I'm thinking an annual fall purchase of one of these beauties would make an excellent early birthday present :)

Wow when you go let me know!!!!! LOL. I would love to go. But... Georgeous. I have never been to anything like the gardens pictured in there. Drooling. I love the shade combo of the rhodie and the large hosta. I may have to try that. Ronna

My double bloodroot is beginning to bloom.

And epimedium brachyrrhizum

Syneilesis continues to shoot skyward.
I love the way it comes up!

Anemonella thalictroides Double White is looking better.

Bluebells everywhere.

And the glaucidium I thought died last year amazingly returned.
(I bought a second one last year, assuming this one was toast.)
Now I have two!

Oh, Weerobin - absolutely lovely. I love the way the Syneilesis comes up, too. I've never seen Glaucidium; what a bonus now to have two!

That so pretty all of them. I have tried the bluebells a couple of times and they never grow for me. Well this year might just be to early? Not sure when our zone 5 would grow. But love all your photos thanks for sharing! Ronna

My virginia bluebells are just starting to bloom. I relocated a few from my friend's place on the Potomac River a couple of years ago, and they are finally starting to multiply. I wanted to show the pretty setting along my creek, but the bluebells themselves don't show up very well in the picture... Terri

I have trilliums coming up. Finally some nice weather! Dutchmens breeches are starting to apppear, snow drops are almost gone, wild ginger is starting, crocuses done, no Jack in the Pulpits as of yet. But hostas are starting to sprout. FINALLY! Ronna

A few of the White Trilliums that are blooming.

Not sure which this is. One of the Reds.

The Yellow ones are blooming