Christie’s Blog

June 2024

Five Kinds of Gardens

When I first started gardening as a profession, my mentor Martha (read the  Forgotten Landscaper in a previous blog) told me there were 5 gardens people had to have namely,  The Cutting Garden,  The Rose Garden, The Kitchen Garden, The Flowering Shrub Garden and The Woodland Garden.

In creating gardens with my clients.  There were some ideas I could never sell. Creating a woodland garden was one of them.

Graceful Wildflowers for Your Woodland Garden

These days it is difficult to find particular wildflowers at nurseries. The more common perennials like coneflower and coreopsis have grown in their number of hybrids. Woodland plants like Thalictrum, Filipendula and Jack-in-the pulpit are not as well known.

In woodland gardens it is good to recognize different ‘air spaces’  and understand them before you plant. It helps you understand shady and sunny spots and where to plant.

There is the upper canopy or tallest  layer of air space filled with larger trees like the maples and oaks.

The second layer of air space or the middle canopy has small trees like dogwoods and  redbuds. This second layer can also have huge shrubs like rhododendrons and wintersweet.

The third and closest air space to the ground is perennials, sub shrubs and ground covers.  This understory woodland floor is usually covered in pine needles or leaves. No mulch is required (or wanted).  This is the layer that these woodland perennials should be planted.

Some of these plants can take full sun on the edge of a meadow. I put them in my woods though because of the partial shade and moist conditions. In our southern climate a lot of perennials  burn up in 90 degree heat.

Most of the plants reviewed are natives to Europe, China, Korea or the Americas but not to the gardens in the States. Even though they are not from our region initially, they have proven to be great pollinators for butterflies and bees, and are deer proof.

I am hitting the highlights of  these plants. Hopefully, this blog can whet your appetite so you try at least one for your garden. They give you a graceful growth habit, lots of  height and pastel colors. Best of all they add excitement because they are ‘new’ and not often used.

Where can you add them in your Garden?

You can put the large perennials in a wooded area with partial sun and shade that is not too dry. If you only have a swath of sun/shade land bordering your property, you can dot these through this area so they are easily seen.

I would not try to mix them with your cutting garden flowers. These have their own kind of wild, tall growth habit and I think should be grouped in a more naturalized area.

Try to place them a bit randomly and not in an easily predictable pattern like straight lines or triangles. In this way they will look more natural.

To name a few..

Thalictrum aquilegifolium or Meadow rue has a feathery bloom 2’ to 3’ tall.  Flowers are purple, pink or white in color.  The bloom seems to float above the leaves on wiry sturdy stems.  They do not need staking or support.

The leaves are bluish green and look like a maidenhair fern or columbine leaf.  Butterflies and bees love it.  They bloom from late spring to early summers. They are very showy when planted en masse.

Filipendula ulmaria or Meadowsweet like being planted in damp meadows (which is hard to find). I plant them in my  damp sunny spots in woods. They have creamy colored abundant delicate flowers with unevenly spaced red or purple stems. They bloom from early summer to early autumn. They also have a strong antiseptic smell. You may want to plant them a bit back from human traffic because of this.

You fellow (worthless) English majors may know it as meadewort from Chaucer’s “The Knight’s Tale”.

Acanthus or Bear’s breeches has a dramatic tall, spiny and  rigid  flower that looks like a snapdragon. Its dark large lush leaves are easily spotted when the flower is not blooming. It can reach a height of 2’-6’ tall.

Acanthus likes dappled shade, poor soil and moist conditions.  If the soil is too rich it produces bigger leaves but less flower spikes. It takes a year or two to become established, but once it does it easily spreads by seed and root cuttings. Deer do not eat them.

For you history buffs…It is believed that their leaves inspired the Greek Corinthian columns.

Aruncus dioicus or Goatsbeard have lovely white feathery plumes that resembles the blooms on the astilbe perennial. It grows up to 6’ tall and makes a bold statement in the garden.  It can survive full sun but the soil has to stay moist. I have never had much luck with astilbe surviving our hot summers so I am happy to try this look- alike.

Aruncus blooms from late May thru mid July.  It is not harmed by deer or rabbits and is the host plant for the dusky azure butterfly. It is not an  aggressive spreader.

Arisaema or Jack in the pulpit likes rich, damp soil and shade. The leaves usually appear before the flowers and are on long leaf stalks.

It is a hooded green flower with brown stripes and gets about 6” tall.  The flower is incandescent.  It glows in the dark! The plant seeds  come from old blooms in the spring.  They take 3 years to bloom so you need to hang in there and wait. The roots are poisonous. I try to plant these far enough off path so a wandering garden lover doesn’t step on them unknowingly.

For you science brain-os….the plants are noted for the ability to produce male flowers one year, and female flowers the next.

They alternate between male and female in their life cycle.

Cimicifugia, bugbane or black cohosh send up 1’ tall airy white flowers spikes with a ‘bottle brush’ bloom. The leaves are a dark green color. The  plant stands from  4-6’ tall and in optimum conditions can get 8’ tall.

As with most of these wildflowers, the plant likes moist soil and shade. As the weather turns warm, the flowers burst open and are great for attracting bees and butterflies.  They are also wonderful in flower arrangements for you more Artsy readers.

A little caveat though, it does have a somewhat off putting smell and  the plant takes sometimes 5 years to bloom.

Angelica giga is a dramatic looking plant that likes full sun to part shade and can reach 5’ tall. It has broad leaves with deep red stems. Its flowers are a reddish purple that form a ‘cap’ measuring 6-8” across.

It blooms from mid August til the end of September. It is considered a biennial (dies after 2 years) but drops its seeds in late September thereby creating other plants for the next year.

I bought this 30 years ago in my early days as a gardener. I didn’t really know what I was getting. What a shock when I found a stunning 6’ tall plant on the back layer of my picket garden.  Before we moved to a different house,  I spent days searching  the ground so I could dig it up to take with me, and decades trying to find out the name!  Local nurseries do not carry it but I finally figured out its name thanks to Sandys Plants. (sandysplants.com).  I am going to buy seeds on line and try to get  it  growing in my woods.

This week, I bought 38 woodland perennials to add diversity, attract pollinators and brighten up the shady spots in my woods. I may be the biggest garden show off reading this blog,  but I find great joy in seeing people stop as they walk by my woods and hear the ‘Wows’ when they spot one of the plants described above. What am I doing in retirement? I’m playing Little Miss Garden Queen and loving it.

Christie lives in Manakin Sabot , Virginia where she manages a 3 acre garden. Her blogs are written from her 35 years as a personal and professional gardener.