Do You Buy Plants Without Knowing Where They Will Be Planted?

A couple of years ago I started a post about this garden in my backyard. (I never finished it until tonight.) There is a large plant sale in our area (I use 'area' loosely- this sale is almost 2 hours away). I have gone three or four times since we moved here. Prices are getting higher, so I am not sure that I will frequent the sale regularly.

At this sale I bought a handful of Camellias and Azaleas. Not knowing where to plant the Camellias I decided to create a new garden bed. I am of the frame of mind that if grass doesn’t grow well in a spot in your yard, then mulch it and make a new garden. This area is on the north side of the house, under the deck overhang. It would be protected, have some morning sun and plenty of shade midday through the afternoon.

The plants were planted, garden created with the help of a certain German Shepherd. I planted a couple of the Camellias; C. sasanqua ‘Ashley Eden’, C. sasanqua ‘Elizabeth Ann’, and C. sasanqua ‘Leslie Ann’ and two azaleas, Rhododendron ‘Delaware Valley White’. One of the compost tumblers was ready to be spread. Compost and mulch and some newspaper under the mulch, voila - a garden.

I have a couple wagons that I make good use of in the garden. This one is one that dumps, and spreading mulch goes quickly when you can dump and go. Yes, I used some newspaper over the compost but under the mulch. It was a thin layer and decomposed pretty quickly. Chickweed and Poa annua grass run rampant in our yards where grass is thin. Some kind of weed block to give me a head start was needed.

Midway through the garden prep Liebling was very interested in something in the back near the wall. What was it? A baby Eastern Rat snake, one of the good guys.

Phase one of the new garden done! Unfortunately two of the Camellias did not do well. One was moved out front and seems to be doing better. ‘Ashley Eden’ remains and has bloomed a couple of times, she is still quite small, maybe eighteen inches tall.

The azaleas bloomed well and are settling into their new garden. I like having white blooms, the whiteness really pops in the shade. Between the shrubs are some ferns. I figure you can’t go wrong with ferns. This fall I also planted some Trillium, we will see how well they do. I planted Trillium in the large shaded garden a couple years ago and have no idea where they are. It might be too much leaf litter.

Phase two- the garden was expanded. The mulched area now goes along the edge of the patio under the deck. A few square cement blocks were added in the widest part of the bed so no one walks on any plants. Yes, I did add more. I divided my daffodils in one of the front gardens and needed a spot to put them. As I write the four clumps of daffodils are coming up. Most are about six inches of fresh green foliage already. Later this year I will place some stepping stones in a better pattern, when I know where all the daffodils are growing! At the end of the wall is very wet from the French drain and a downspout outlet. Since this edge of the garden gets sun, I planted a few Mountain Mint that I was dividing. What was I thinking?? I may need to put an edging around the mint.

July 2019

Oh,inquiring minds might ask what the plant is that is hanging over the wall. It is Edgeworthia chrysantha. This is one plant. Apparently it is happy there. I have five along that side of the house, all are quite large. Next month the blooms will be at their peak, sending glorious fragrance through the garden.

July 2019

Back to the question in the title of this post. Seems I always fall in love with a plant or a bargain on a plant (or ten) and then have to come up with ideas as to where they might thrive in my garden. What do you do?


©Copyright 2020 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.

Come Walk With Me

Wallace Wood and Patrick McMillan

This past Saturday my friend Ann and I were lucky enough to participate in a nature hike through Steven's Creek Heritage Preserve.    What a wonderful place!  It is over four hundred acres of unspoiled beauty.  The guide was Patrick McMillan, host to ETV's show "Expeditions".  What a great guide for this adventure.  Wallace Wood set up the tour.  He is associated with the Upper Savannah Land Trust.  What a great piece of land.

The tour was advertised as 1.5 mile long, Ha!! Thank goodness we were in the early hike.  We saw so many interesting plants and heard birds high in the trees.  Patrick can ID many birds by ear, nice to have that wealth of knowledge.  He used the iPod app for bird calls to learn many of them.
The hike started off in the upper pine forest.  Pine forests have more acidic soils and most of the understory plants are generally evergreen.  The more deciduous the forest, the more deciduous the understory plants.   One of the first shrubs he talked about was Ilex cuthbertii a deciduous holly related to I. decidua.  This plant is only found in South Carolina and Georgia.  This small preserve is host to so many special plants.   The pine forest area was once cotton fields, now most all the topsoil has washed away.

Malus angustifolia

Most of the pictures are in order of the hike.  The flowering crab-apple is fragrant, pretty white blooms.

We traveled along the path, heading into the lower forest along the Savannah River.  As we walked we saw differences in the terrain and the vegetation.   More Ostrya virginiana, Quercus alba, Cornus florida, and other deciduous trees were more plentiful.    Dogwood, Cornus florida, are some of the most shallow rooted trees.  The one in the picture below looks dead.  We had a bad drought last summer and it looks as though the leaves came out on the dogwood and crinkled up and died, without falling off.  It is not dead though...look closely at the new growth.  

There is hope that this one and its fellow dogwood neighbors will live and continue to grow ...provided we have enough rainfall this year.
Lots of Wild Ginger, Asarum was coming up through the leaf litter.  This one has a common name of 'Little Brown Jugs'.  The evergreen leaves hold on to many of the plant's nutrients, especially Calcium.  As you move further into the deciduous forest, the soils are less acidic and have far more nutrients are present, calcium and magnesium to name a couple.

I wish there was a list of all the various plants we were able to see, being in the middle to back of the pack, I wasn't able to catch all the names.  Seems like I kept falling further back as I stopped to take some photos.  Will have to return next spring again.  With this warm spring and a little more rain, we were able to see a lot of spring ephemerals in bloom.  This is Hairy Spiderwort, Tradescantia hirsuticaulis, which blooms spring and fall.  The small hairs on the filaments are most interesting.  According to Patrick, this plant is sensitive to radiation in the soil.   This one was found in the first part of the trail.  Remember this as we get down closer to the Savannah River area.

 Native Geranium were scattered in the open areas.

 So pretty ---

 When we first encountered this little beauty I thought it was Blue-Eyed Grass from a distance.  As I got closer I saw the beautiful coloration on its petals.  While I have seen this on many other blogs, I was not prepared to know it for its small size.  This is Spring Beauty, Claytonia virginica.

Nestled along with the Claytonia and Geranium, was this False Rue Anemone, Enemion biternatum

 

 Many Trillium were in bloom, again, being in the back of the pack, I am not sure of the species.   What interesting blooms!

There is one plant that is not found anywhere but here and Lake Miccosukee, Florida.  It is the Miccosukee Gooseberry, Ribes echinellum.  Two places on this earth!! Amazing.   The leaves are lobed, hairy and the stems are quite thorny (as are most Gooseberry)

 It appears that each node there are three thorns, pointing in three different directions.

 The berries form after the flowers are spent, hanging under the foliage.

They are described as little ballerinas twirling.

Down along the pathway, where the moisture is more abundant, are some Solomon's Seal.  Polygonatum biflorum  The flowers aren't quite open yet.

 Native shrubs, like the Spicebush, Lindera benzoin, pictured below were in the open area.  There was a grove of Pawpaw, Asimina triloba.  Interesting facts about the Pawpaw-- they need another plant to reproduce.  Most Pawpaw form groves, clones of the parent plant.  They will not produce fruit if there isn't a different parent plant.

 Ferns were coming up.  I love the curled heads as they emerge and unfurl.  There were Christmas ferns and Beech ferns along our path.

 Little foam flowers, Tiarella cordifolia were blooming. I love natives.

As we walk along the edges of the Preserve where we are closer to the Savannah River we come across some more Spiderwort--- remember those hairy fibers along the filament?  No longer purple, but a pinkish color.  Very interesting!!

Great blooms, whatever color they might be!

Last but not least, as we joined crossed a small creek and headed back, retracing our steps, was a cluster of  Shooting Star, Dodectheon meadia.  

Pollination of this upside down bloom is quite the challenge!  

Additionally, this ties in well with Gail's Wildflower Wednesday at Clay and Limestone.  Head over and see more natives!

©Copyright 2012 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.