Plants blooming in my garden on today, May 24^th are:

BULBS, CORMS, AND RHIZOMES

Alliums, bearded iris (waning), Jack in the pulpit (full)

PERENNIALS

Columbines, Solomon’s Seal (waning), Thalictrum (waxing), sweet woodruff (waning), Geraniums (waxing), Forget-me-nots (waning), Lunaria (waning, pods forming)), Tradescantia, Trillium, Brunnera (waning), Dianthus (full), creeping thyme (full), sedums (waxing), catmint (waxing), yarrow (waxing), lady’s mantle (full), Astilbe (bud stage), Veronicastrum (bud stage)

VINES

Clematis (north/full, south/bud), Dutch man’s pipe (full) 

SHRUBS AND TREES

Japanese flowering quince (still a few blooms!), Rhododendron (waning), peonies (waxing), mock orange (waxing), container rose (need to check records for the name), wall rose (check records for name), heirloom climbing rose (unknown name, waxing), Rosa ‘New Dawn,’ Rosa ‘Heritage,’ Rosa ‘Dream Weaver,’ Rosa ‘Tess of the D’urbervilles,’ Rosa ‘Scentimental.’

ANNUALS

Heliotrope, Alyssum

THE WORK IN PROGRESS JOURNAL

 I use the term ‘waxing’ (as in moon stage) to represent those flowers between bud stage and full lush bloom. ‘Full’ is used for blooms at their peak beauty. Declining blooms I refer to as ‘waning’ (also as in moon stage). Plants posted in a colored font are newly blooming.

My ideal is to record blooms weekly on the same day but I have yet to achieve this. After all I am still a Work In Progress gardener.

I am the original creator of the content and ideas written above. © Susan Berlin – 2012 All Rights Reserved

Penstemon

Fellows Riverside Gardens (FRG) is one of the jewels of Youngstown, Ohio. Part of Mill Creek MetroParks, it sits on land gifted to the park in 1958 by Elizabeth Fellows. Fellows also created a trust to develop and care for the garden. Planting began in 1963 on twelve acres and through the years has become a world-class garden always open to the public free of charge.

FRG isn’t just a pretty place; it offers botanical education through a number of programs. Today I attended one such monthly program called Breakfast Botany. It consisted of an educational walk through the park with the Horticultural Director, Keith Kaiser. Today’s hike was about the Figwort Family or Scrophulariaceae andKeith told us some interesting facts about them. I quote: “The name was derived from European species of Scrophularia, the common figwort. The plants were used to treat hemorrhoids, which were known as “figs.” Figworts were also used to treat scrofula, a form of tuberculosis carried in the milk of infected cows.”

Some well-known garden members of the Scrophulariaceae family include figwort (Scrophularia), butterfly bush (Buddleja) Twinspur (Diascia), nemesia, and mullein (Verbascum). Keith also noted that foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) and Penstemon (shown in top photo) were previously listed botanically as Scrophulariaceae but due to research have been moved to Plantaginaceae.

Of course, Keith also pointed out all of the currently blooming plants from other families too.  One was their wonderful kousa Dogwood (Cornus kousa), pruned to perfection (shown in above photo).

I also decided I need the Allium shubertii (shown in photo below). It looks like fireworks on a stick!

After our informative hike we had breakfast at the Garden Café inside the Davis center consisting of Canadian bacon and egg on a croissant and fresh fruit and beverages.  I’d say that overall this was a very progressive gardening day!

In the shade of the pin oak tree grass never grew well; to me this was an ideal opportunity to expand the garden beds. The feature plants were to be three large hostas, the first hybridized varieties I ever bought: H. ‘Sum and Substance,’ H. ‘Big Daddy,’ and H. ‘Halcyon.’

For ground cover I transplanted some soft foliaged Sweet Woodruff (Galium odoratum). To add color to the bed, I transplanted a purple azalea from the front porch bed.  For contrasting leaf shapes I added three lady’s mantles (Alchemilla mollis) and a spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana) for its strap like leaves and dark purple blooms. Mid-height interest would be provided by shield ferns and a taller-sized legacy geranium (Geranium maculata).  A meadow rue, (Thalictrum ‘Black Stocking’), Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum biflorum) and some columbine (Aquilegia) also added varying heights. Astilbes were added for their feathery foliage and mid-summer bloom. Edging plants consisted of Heucheras, Japanese painted fern, prim roses (Primula), foam flower (Tiarella), and balloon flowers (Platycodon). In the fall I planted some spring flowering bulbs: tulips, grape hyacinth (Muscari), alliums, and scillas. Annuals such as Impatiens and Cleome provided season long color. I also added a Mother’s Day gift hydrangea, a florist’s hydrangea that I didn’t expect to live. It still lives and occasionally blooms – if I remember to remove the overshadowing hosta leaves.

I must explain that the pin oak also edges the driveway and that means this shade garden grows in just about one fourth of the shady circle under the tree. After listing all the plants in this bed I now see that this shade garden has all elements I’d hoped for: a diversity of plants, contrasting, textural leaf shapes, and flowers with successive bloom times. I think it probably has progressed enough to qualify as My Made in the Shade Garden!