Tag Archives: Woodland Garden

Winter Gems for the Garden!

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Hellebores are the gems of the winter woodland garden. Hellebores, also known as lenten rose, come in a wide range colors and flower forms, they are deer resistant and drought tolerant once established. This year we are pleased to offer many new hellebore hybrids from the breeding work of Hans Hansen at Walters Gardens. We are continuing to add new hellebores to our website monthly, including selections from our own breeding. Be sure to visit during our annual Winter Open Nursery and Garden, Feb. 24-26 and March 3-5, to enjoy the many hellebores blooming in the gardens as well as selecting a few gems for your own. Read more [...]

Hardy Lady Slipper Orchids!!

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Cypripedium, Lady Slipper Orchids, is a genus of woodland garden plants that are among the most desired of all native hardy orchids for sale, despite their often finicky requirements. Plant Delights Nursery is excited about our bare root shipment of responsibly grown, flowering size, cypripedium orchids we received yesterday.  These plants are nursery propagated and not collected from the wild. Fall is the best time for planting your hardy lady slipper orchid. Beds should be well-prepared and amended with compost unless you naturally have rich, organic soil. Dig a shallow but wide crater, spread the roots out flat (with eyes pointed upward), cover them with 1" of soil, and water in well. You should avoid planting your lady slipper orchid near aggressive groundcovers (such as ivy, vinca or Japanese pachysandra) or near the base of trees or large shrubs due to root competition. Check out this article on Cypripediums for more in depth information. Other Read more [...]

New, Hard-to-Find Sacred Lilies (rohdea) available

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We began growing sacred lilies back in the 1970s, when few people in the US, outside of a handful of fanatic collectors were growing them. The only large scale grower of the green species, Rohdea japonica, was our friends, the late Sam and Carleen Jones of Georgia's Piccadilly Farms.  Despite being very easy to grow, Rohdeas will never be found at most nurseries or garden centers, due to the long production time from both seed and divisions.   Rohdea japonica 'Go Dai Takane' We worked for years (pre-Internet and email) to establish contacts in Japan who were willing to sell and ship rohdeas to the US. In Japan, variegated cultivars of rohdeas are highly prized for what most folks think are subtle differences. Most Japanese gardeners grow rohdeas in special decorative ceramic pots as house or patio plants.  For many of the nice, variegated rohdea varieties, costs in Japan range from $50 to several hundred dollars, and several thousand dollars each for the special, slow-growing Read more [...]

Boehmeria ‘Glow Light’

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Boehmeria nipononivea Glow Light3

One of the most difficult parts of our job is to try and predict which plants will sell well.  We’d like to think that our favorites would also be your favorites, and in some cases that’s true.  In others, like Boehmeria ‘Glow Light’, it wasn’t true.  We just took this photo of one of our favorite woodland perennials that’s unrivaled for brightening a shade garden all summer long.  It’s easy to grow and hardy from zones 6a-9b.  So, help us out…why didn’t enough folks buy this amazing plant to keep it in production?

Woodland Garden plants looking great

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  Spring is an amazing time in the woodland garden.  We begin the final two days of our spring open nursery and garden with a few photos of some of our seasonal favorites.  We hope you can join us this weekend to see these amazing plants in person, but if not, here are some recently taken images. The upside down fern, Arachnioides standishii is so texturally amazing, especially as it emerges in spring. I love the gold foliage of Astilbe chinensis 'Amber Moon'.  We can't grow many astilbes due to our summer heat, but as you can see, this one thrives. Here's photo showing the flower size of Asarum 'King Kong'...it's truly other-worldly...a wild ginger on steroids.Another of our favorite silver-foliage ferns, Athyrium 'Ocean's Fury'...what a star in the woodland garden.  We just love the color and texture.  If you can't visit us, we hope you'll  spend time in your own garden this weekend and embrace the joy that plants add to our lives.   Read more [...]

Carex ‘Silk Tassel’

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Carex morrowii Silk Tassel emerging2We’ve been growing Carex ‘Silk Tassel’ for nearly three decades and it is one of our woodland ornamental grasses.  The very narrow variegated leaves are an absolutely delightful texture, although it’s hard to photograph well.  Here’s our latest attempt to capture it as the new growth emerges in the garden this week.

 

Fern zombies awaken in the garden

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Like sci-fi zombies re-awakening, ferns in the garden are spring back to life.  Nothing says spring quite like the presence of new fern fronds emerging...known as croziers.  Below are several different fern images we've taken as they emerged this spring.  The first is the bamboo fern, coniogramme. Lepisorus or ribbon ferns, with their long narrow fronds are quite unique. Matteucia or ostrich fern emerges alongside last years' spore bearing fronds providing an interesting contrast. Onoclea, aka sensitive fern does the same, holding both the new fronds alongside the old fertile fronds from the prior season..  Ferns like this are called dimorphic, which means they have two different frond types...fertile and non-fertile.  Most ferns pack light and have both on the same frond.  The two images above are our native Osmunda cinnamomea or Cinnamon fern.  The hairy croziers are just amazing.  Recent taxonomy has actually kicked this Read more [...]

Beesia – have you met yet?

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Beesia calthafolia emerging2

 

Do you know beesia?  Outside of the plant collector world, few people have heard of this obscure member of the Ranunculus family…first cousin to hellebores, thalictrum, and clematis.  There are only two species, both native to moist woodland soils at high elevations in the Himalayas.  Surprisingly, Beesia calthifolia thrives in our heat and humidity almost as well as it does in the cool Pacific Northwest.  The beautiful mature foliage resembles a cross of wild ginger and galax and is about the same stature.  If you have a woodland garden in Zone 6a-8b, we hope you’ll give this a try.

Trout lilies in flower

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Erythronium rostratum A2AL-065

 

Among many flowers in the garden today are the native trout lilies, Erythronium rostratum (Ohio to Texas).  This small woodland ephemeral perennial is amazing, both for its foliage and flowers.  By May, it’s gone to sleep for the summer.  We are growing these from seed, which should take 2-3 years to have flowering-size plants to share.  Would anyone purchase these if we had them available?