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Shelburne Free Press https://shelburnefreepress.ca/?p=1908 Export date: Wed Jul 3 17:29:34 2024 / +0000 GMT |
The Gardeners Corner: Shady Ladies Make no mistake, the Shady Ladies I'm writing about are not like the Ladies of the Lake who have discreetly bared their bodies. These ladies are still tantalizing, but simply shade plants that are suitable for a woodland garden. I recently attended a seminar by the same name which prompted me to share what I'd learned. A woodland setting has soil rich humusy soil with the degree of shade full to partial. My own small woodland garden was revamped this spring and I opened up the amount of light to it by trimming back the overhead chokecherry tree branches. It's a small area so native ferns are the tallest plants to create structure which include ostrich feather, leather wood and maidenhair. Ostrich feather is named so because the fronds look like the feather of an ostrich. It grows 1–2 m high and likes moist soil, kept this way from adding a layer of compost in the spring. From this plant the edible fiddleheads are harvested. Leather wood fern which is also known as marginal wood fern is a clump forming variety and favourite of florists. It grows 45-60 cm high in a vase shape and has medium water requirements. The fronds emerge a light green and turn dark green by summer. Maidenhair fern has soft and lacy looking foliage which grows 25–45 cm high and it too likes a moist soil. A non-native fern for us but native to Japan and China is the Japanese Painted fern. There are several named varieties with silver/green foliage and burgundy stems. It will take average to moist soil and grows 30–60 cm high. Barrenwort (epidmeium) will naturalize into a colony in dappled shade. I purchased E.x versicolour which is clump forming with leaves flushed with copper that appear in April and May. There are small yellow orchid-like flowers around the same time as the leaves while other selections have flowers of various colours. It is 20–30 cm high. I also picked up wintergreen, a 10–15 cm tall native plant that will spread to a nice sized clump. The red berries overwinter and are edible as are the wintergreen flavoured leaves. Having several varieties of dogwood already, the 5–15 cm high bunchberry which can be found in wooded areas also seemed a good choice to add to this garden. It has tiny white flowers in summer that turn into red berries in July. The last thing to share from the presentation was how important the product Wilt Proof is for overwintering evergreens, particularly rhododendrons. In the fall leaves are sprayed until they're dripping wet which covers them in a thin layer of wax. Doing this, and fertilizing rhodos spring and fall with a mix of peat moss and granular rhodo fertilizer (sprinkle the granules around the shrub and top with peat moss) will produce healthy, green plants in the spring. The plants I purchased and tips on rhodos were presented by Lisa at Pathways to Perennials in Kettleby. Visit my website at http://lavendercottagegardening.blogspot.com By Judith Rogers |
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Post date: 2013-06-13 12:56:29 Post date GMT: 2013-06-13 16:56:29 Post modified date: 2013-06-20 11:04:47 Post modified date GMT: 2013-06-20 15:04:47 |
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