fall-blooming hardy cyclamen

Archive for fall-blooming hardy cyclamen

Late Fall Interest at Carolyn’s Shade Gardens

Posted in Camellias, Fall, Fall Color, How to, landscape design, my garden, snowdrops, winter, winter interest with tags 'Potter's Prelude' snowdrops, 'Red Sprite' winterberry holly, Arachnoides simplicior 'Variegata', Arum italicum, Arum italicum 'Gold Rush', Camellia 'Winter's Joy', Camellia 'Winter's Snowman, Camellia oleifera 'Lu Shan Snow', Chionanthus retusus 'China Snow', Cyclamen hederifolium, Edgeworthia chrysantha, Epimedium stellulatum "Narrow Leaf Forms", fall-blooming hardy cyclamen, Galanthus 'Potter's Prelude', Ilex verticillata 'Red Sprite', Kuma bamaboo grass, Magnolia virginiana, Pennisetum 'Moudry', Sasa veitchii, sweetbay magnolia, variegated East Indian holly fern on December 9, 2015 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

The sunrise lights up the heavy frost outlining the semi-evergreen leaves of native sweetbay magnolia.

At Carolyn’s Shade Gardens in southeastern Pennsylvania, US, colorful fall foliage is mostly gone and deciduous trees and shrubs are no longer the focus of garden interest. We must rely on other plants to take over where fall color left off and help us satisfy our goal of providing ornamental interest 365 days a year. At this point, every plant still thriving assumes greater value in the garden, and we look to the understory to draw us outside for a stroll. Here are some of my favorites for December:

Nursery News: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA, specializing in showy, colorful, and unusual plants for shade. The only plants that we ship are snowdrops and miniature hostas. For catalogues and announcements of events, please send your full name, location, and phone number (for back up use only) to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com. Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.

The berries of native winterberry hollies stand out in the landscape after their leaves have dropped. In my garden, robins strip the berries fairly early in the season, but I have noticed that in most locations they persist well into the winter.

Fall-blooming hardy cyclamen is done blooming, but the leaves are gorgeous all winter. If you look closely, they all have a different pattern like a snowflake. Although I plant them where I want them, they move and thrive in sites of their own choosing. Here they were planted at the front of the bed and moved to the back directly at the base of a stone wall, one of their favorite sites.

Here ants moved the cyclamen seeds about 30 to 40 feet up hill all around the base of a gigantic London plane tree where they have filled in and thrived. This is not an area of the garden that I visit often so you can imagine my surprise when I found this display. An Italian arum made the trek too.

Kuma bamboo grass, Sasa veitchii, has plain green leaves during the season but acquires this elegant white edge for the winter. I planted my sasa over 10 years ago, and this is the first time that it has spread to a decent patch. Generally it is considered quite aggressive.

Variegated East Indian holly fern, Arachnoides simplicior ‘Variegata’, is a beautiful evergreen fern. Before you go looking for it though, I think it is borderline hardy here and it doesn’t thrive.

Fall-blooming snowdrops like ‘Potter’s Prelude’ pictured here are a highlight of the fall season starting around October 15 and continuing until early main season snowdrops take over in January.

This photo could show any number of my evergreen epimediums, but this is E. stellulatum “Long Leaf Form”. They all have very interesting and attractive leaves which persist until spring when I cut them back.

Black fountain grass, Pennisetum ‘Moudry’, remains my favorite grass. After a few hard frosts, it turns a lovely tan. It does move around quite a bit but has never gone anywhere that I didn’t want it in 20 years. It is downright invasive for others though, so beware.

Italian arum stays fresh and beautiful all winter—it goes dormant in the summer instead. This cultivar is ‘Gold Rush’.

Another Italian arum with much more white on the leaves—for comparison a typical arum leaf is on the left of the photo. It is possible to get a variety of leaf forms from specialized nurseries.

Chinese fringe trees, Chionanthus retusus, produce lovely dark blue berries in the fall which persist after the leaves drop. This plant is the superior form ‘China Snow’.

Edgeworthia is beautiful all year round but especially during late fall and winter when the large silver buds start to swell. The leaves turn bright yellow and drop, leaving the bare branches covered with delicate silver ornaments.

‘Winter’s Snowman’ camellia blooms in November and December with large, semi-double white flowers.

‘Winter’s Joy’ camellia

‘Winter’s Joy’ produces hundreds of buds. When a hard frost turns the open flowers brown, new buds open and flowers cover the plant again as soon as it gets warmer. Although this is usually the case, it didn’t happen during the last two winters when the buds froze early.

The tea camellia ‘Lu Shan Snow’, C. oleifera, is particularly cold tolerant and has thrived in my garden for almost 20 years. Camellias planted from 2013 on have been very hard to establish in the garden due to our unseasonably cold temperatures during the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 winters. The camellias that I planted prior to 2013 have all thrived.

Carolyn

Nursery Happenings: You can sign up to receive catalogues and emails about nursery events by sending your full name and phone number to carolynsshadegardens@verizon.net. Subscribing to my blog does not sign you up to receive this information.

Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a local retail nursery in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S., zone 6b/7a. The only plants that we mail order are snowdrops and miniature hostas and only within the US.

Facebook: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens has a Facebook Page where I post single photos, garden tips, and other information that doesn’t fit into a blog post. You can look at my Facebook page here or click the Like button on my right sidebar here.

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December 2012 Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

Posted in bulbs for shade, Camellias, hellebores, Shade Gardening, Shade Shrubs, winter, winter interest with tags Arum italicum, Carolyn's Shade Gardens, fall-blooming camellias, fall-blooming hardy cyclamen, fall-blooming hellebores, fall-blooming snowdrops, Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, GBBD, Italian arum on December 17, 2012 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA, specializing in showy, colorful, and unusual plants for shade. The only plants that we ship are snowdrops and miniature hostas. For catalogues and announcements of events, please send your full name, location, and phone number (for back up use only) to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com. Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.

The first of my hybrid hellebores is just about to bloom: Helleborus x ‘Snow White’ (aka ‘Snow Bunting’).

I am two days late for the official Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day. On the fifteenth of each month garden bloggers from all over the world post photos of what’s blooming in their gardens, and their posts are collected by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. Nevertheless, I thought it would be fun to see which plants are pretty enough to get me outside in December on a somewhat warm but dreary, rainy day. I also wanted to add a new twist by allowing myself only one pass through the garden for photos instead of the numerous trips required by a normal post.

Not surprisingly if you read my blog, Italian arum, hellebores, snowdrops, camellias, hardy cyclamen, and coral bells are hogging the show this time of year accompanied by a few others. Let’s see what we have:

Fall-blooming camellia ‘Winter’s Snowman’ has been blooming since October and still has buds waiting to open.

My late fall garden has been immensely improved by the addition of fall-blooming hardy camellias. All five of mine are blooming now and have plenty of buds left. For more information on fall-bloomimg camellias, click here.

‘Winter’s Joy’

‘Lu Shan Snow’

‘Winter’s Darling’

‘Elaine Lee’

Italian arum is always a highlight this time of year after its fresh foliage emerges from dormancy in early fall:

‘Pictum’ Italian arum

dwarf Italian arum ‘Tiny Tot’

‘Gold Rush’ Italian arum, my favorite

Hellebores are just about to take over as the stars of the garden for the next few months. For more information on hellebores, click here and follow the links at the end of the post. If it wouldn’t violate my parameter for this post, I would run out and photograph bearsfoot hellebore and ‘Praecox’ Christmas rose, which are both almost open. As it is, I have these two hellebores for you:

Another shot of the first flower on ‘Snow White’.

After blooming in October, ‘Josef Lemper’ Christmas rose is at it again and will continue to bloom into spring.

My favorite coral bells or heucheras are the cultivars that give me 365 days of colorful foliage, some of which are pictured below. If I could go back outside, I would add ‘Frosted Violet’ and ‘Bronze Wave’. I would also include some photographs of pulmonarias, especially ‘Diana Clare’:

‘Caramel’ heuchera continues to change from one beautiful hue to the next through out the winter.

‘Green Spice’ is new to my garden this year and looks like a winner.

‘Citronelle’ is a customer favorite for brightening dark corners.

You know I couldn’t resist showing you a few snowdrops:

‘Potter’s Prelude’, a fall-bloomimg snowdrop cultivar, is getting to the end of its bloom period which began in mid-November.

A clump of early blooming giant snowdrops, Galanthus elwesii, hides in the Japanese holly ferns and hellebores.

Except during the heart of the summer when they are dormant, hardy cyclamen are stars in my garden. I find their highly variable leaf patterns endlessly fascinating. For more information on hardy cyclamen, click here.

The last few blooms on fall-blooming hardy cyclamen, C. hederifolium, which began blooming at the end of August.

Spring-blooming hardy cyclamen, C. coum, doesn’t need flowers to attract attention.

Here are some more late fall stars that might surprise you:

‘Brigadoon’ St. John’s wort always takes on this lovely peach color for the winter.

This new mahonia called ‘Soft Caress’ was given to me by the breeders at the Southern Living Plant Collection to trial in my garden. It is evergreen, blooms now, and is hardy to zone 7. For more information, click here. I have high hopes for it because I have since seen it in two other local gardens.

This sedum always turns a lovely burgundy in the fall. Unfortunately, I don’t know its exact name.

Bigroot geranium, G. macrorrhizum, takes on red and pink tones for the winter.

‘Black Scallop’ ajuga has quickly become one of my favorite groundcovers because its dark purple leaves remain shiny and beautiful through the winter.

You may be wondering why I would limit myself to one trip outside for photos for this post. Every article that you read here takes me at least a full day to compose, including the photography, the research, the writing, and the editing. I wanted to see if I could cut that back to a few hours and still produce a quality product, and I believe I have been largely successful. It would only work for a post like this though where no significant supporting research was required.

Enjoy, Carolyn

Nursery Happenings: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA. The only plants that we mail order are snowdrops and miniature hostas. The nursery is closed until spring 2013. Thanks for a great year.

If you are within visiting distance and would like to receive catalogues and information about customer events, please send your full name and phone number to carolynsshadegardens@verizon.net. Subscribing to my blog does not sign you up to receive this information.

Facebook: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens has a Facebook page where I post single photos, garden tips, and other information that doesn’t fit into a blog post. You can look at my Facebook page here or click the Like button on my right sidebar here.

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Posted in bulbs for shade, evergreen, Fall, Fall Color, groundcover, Shade Gardening, Shade Perennials, winter interest with tags Carolyn's Shade Gardens, Cyclamen hederifolium, evergreen groundcovers for shade, fall-blooming hardy cyclamen, hardy cyclamen on October 17, 2012 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

Fall-blooming hardy cyclamen, C. hederifolium, used as a groundcover under Hosta ‘Blue Angel’ 11/13/10.

My last post on hardy begonias sparked such interest and comments that I thought I would profile another unusual star performer for fall. Like the begonia, I learned about hardy cyclamen at a course I took at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA, this one on bulbs in 1995. And just like the begonia, I couldn’t believe that there was a plant that looked like my florist cyclamen house plant but grew outside and came back every year. I talked about hardy cyclamen in my post on More Flowering Wintergreen Groundcovers for Shade, but I want to profile it in more detail here and include more photos.

Fall-blooming hardy cyclamen

There are several species of hardy cyclamen, but the two that are usually available are fall-blooming Cyclamen hederifolium and spring-blooming Cyclamen coum. I have them both and love them, but if you are just starting out, the fall-blooming variety is much easier to grow. Cyclamen coum requires the kind of excellent drainage rarely found in mid-Atlantic gardens. I grow mine most successfully in my rock garden and also less abundantly between tree roots.

Hardy cyclamen begins to bloom in the fall before its leaves re-emerge from summer dormancy.

The life cycle of hardy cyclamen is unusual. I guess you could say it begins in September when dozens of small pink flowers begin to bloom before the leaves emerge. Each flower is on a separate 4 ” stem and looks just like a miniature florist cyclamen flower with gorgeous reflexed petals. The flowers continue to be produced abundantly in succession through out the months of September and October and sometimes for parts of August and November too. They are said to be fragrant, but I have never noticed a scent.

I would grow hardy cyclamen just for the flowers, but the leaves are spectacular. They emerge slowly as the flowers are blooming in late September and take several weeks to reach their full size. “Variable” is an understatement to describe their wonderful shapes, patterns, and colors. They can be round to lance-shaped, lobed or entire, serrated or smooth edged, dark green to silver. And the patterns on the leaves are indescribable, I will just have to show you….

Now that you have seen how gorgeous the leaves are, you will be able to truly appreciate another of their wonderful qualities: they stay green and fresh all winter! The photos above were taken in November but I could just as easily have captured their glory in March. Instead of going dormant in the winter like most of our plants, hardy cyclamen goes dormant for a few months during the summer.

White hardy cyclamen, C. hederifolium ‘Album’

There is a lovely white cultivar of fall-blooming hardy cyclamen called ‘Album’. Some of mine have pure white flowers and others have white with a pink blotch. It is just as hardy as the parent species and seeds around my garden readily.

Hardy cyclamen growing between roots at the base of tree.

Hardy cyclamen is native to western Turkey, eastern Europe, including Albania, Bulgaria, and the Balkans, and southern Europe, including France, Italy, and Greece. It is a woodland plant that requires good drainage and shade. In fact it thrives on summer drought in dry shade. Although it likes to grow between tree roots and rocks, I have success with it in any shaded eastern facing, dry location. As you can see from the photo below, my plants seed prolifically and eventually fill in to make a solid mat of groundcover.

Seedlings emerging in a new location across from an established patch with no help from me. I have a feeling that ants move the seeds around.

Hardy cyclamen grows from a corm, which reportedly can reach the size of a dinner plate when old. There are growing points all over the top of the corm. If you try starting the plant this way, plant the corms with no more than 1″ of soil on top plus a very light mulch of leaf litter. I have never done this because I have read many times that dried corms do not establish well and are often collected from the wild. I started all my patches from established potted plants and that is how I sell hardy cyclamen at my nursery. Look for it in my 2013 Snowdrop Catalogue.

The top of corms (about 2 1/2″ wide) of hardy cyclamen with the leaves starting to emerge. The corms are spherical when younger.

The bottom of the corms—this side down.

The hardiness zone information for hardy cyclamen is inconsistent. Some sources say USDA zones 7 to 9. The Missouri Botanical Garden plant finder lists it for zones 5 to 9, while other sources say it grows successfully in upstate NY in zone 4. You will just have to try it. For all my UK readers, hardy cyclamen received an Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society.

Carolyn

P.S. When I pushed the Publish button, I found out that this is my hundredth post—kind of exciting!!!

Nursery Happenings: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is done for the fall. Thanks for a great year. See you in spring 2013.

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October GBBD: A Few Fall Favorites for Flowers

Posted in Fall, Fall Color, Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, landscape design, native plants, Shade Gardening, Shade Perennials with tags Aster cordifolius, Begonia grandis, blue wood aster, Cyclamen hederifolium, Eupatorium coelestinum 'Cory', fall-blooming hardy cyclamen, Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, GBBD, hardy begonia, Heuchera villosa 'Autumn Bride', Japanese anemone, Salvia koyamae, Solidago 'Little Lemon', toad-lily, Tricyrtis 'Sinonome' on October 10, 2011 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

The subtle coloring of ‘White Towers’ toad-lily, Tricyrtis latifolia ‘White Towers’, is magical in the fall. Every photo was taken at Carolyn’s Shade Gardens this fall.

I am linking this post to Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day for October when gardeners around the world show photos of what’s blooming in their gardens (follow the link to see photographs from other garden bloggers assembled by Carol at May Dreams Gardens). I am also linking to Gesine’s Bloom Day at Seepferds Garten. I am located in Bryn Mawr (outside Philadelphia), Pennsylvania, U.S., and zone 6b.

In my last post, A Few Fall Favorites for Foliage and Fruit, I explained that, inspired by an article about dressing up your fall garden with mums because everything else is finished, I grabbed my camera and headed outside to prove them wrong. There was so much going on that I divided the plants into three posts: foliage and fruit, flowers, and hostas for fall. This is part two highlighting flowers. So here are some of the flowers dressing up my shady gardens right now:

Japanese anemones, Anemone x hybrida, are one of the undisputed stars of my fall garden, growing anywhere from full sun to almost full shade and thriving no matter what the weather. Clockwise from upper left: ‘Honorine Joubert’, ‘Margarete’, ‘Whirlwind’, ‘Bodnant Burgundy’, ‘September Charm’.

The black plumes of ‘Moudry’ fountain grass, Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Moudry’, glow in the low-angled fall light. ‘Moudry’ does well in the shade, flowering later and remaining more compact.

I grow about five different varieties of native golden rod, Solidago, with my current favorite ‘Little Lemon’, growing only 12 to 18″ high. Contrary to popular belief, goldenrod does not cause allergies as it is pollinated by insects. Wind pollinated ragweed, which blooms at the same time, is the culprit.

Toad-lilies, Tricyrtis, bloom throughout the fall in full shade with ‘Sinonome’ just getting started now and continuing into November. Clockwise from upper left: ‘Sinonome’, ‘White Towers’, ‘Miyazaki’, ‘Empress’.

Another plant that is just warming up is Pennsylvania native northern sea oats, Chasmanthium latifolium. Its foliage will turn orange later in the fall and then dry to a beautiful khaki for the winter. Be forewarned, however, when this plant reaches critical mass, it starts spreading, and its wiry roots are very difficult to remove. Give it room and then triple the space you think you need.

Autumn leadwort, Ceratostigma plumbaginoides, is one of my favorite groundcovers. Its true blue flowers start blooming in June and continue through October when its leaves turn bright red.

Pennsylvania native ‘Bluebird’ smooth aster, A. laevis ‘Bluebird’, seeds all around my garden in full sun to part shade. Butterflies and bees love it. Please click here to find out why most native cultivars are just as friendly to native fauna as the species.

‘Zebrina’ hollyhock mallow, Malva sylvestris ‘Zebrina’, seems to move around my garden at will, but it never fails to steal the show with its 3 to 4′ stalks loaded with showy flowers. It grows best in full to part sun.

Fall-blooming hardy cyclamen, Cyclamen hederifolium, is one of the plants I would take to my shady “desert island”. Right now its pink or white flowers are floating all around my shady gardens. Later its evergreen leaves will emerge from summer dormancy and look like the photo on the left all winter long.

I am always raving about the foliage of the coral bell cultivars derived from our Pennsylvania native Heuchera villosa. Well this is the plant that started it all, Heuchera villosa ‘Autumn Bride’. It has very large and attractive fuzzy green leaves and beautiful flowers that bloom right now–this is the only cultivar I would grow for its flowers (the rest I grow for the leaves).

The cultivar ‘Cory’ of Pennsylvania native hardy ageratum, Eupatorium coelestinum, is far superior to the straight species. It has more abundant and showier flowers, ornamental purple stems, interesting crinkled leaves, and a much better upright habit. ‘Cory’ is also a good spreader in sun to part shade so give it room. Pictured above with another of my favorite Pennsylvania natives, wrinkleleaf goldenrod, Solidago rugosa ‘Fireworks’.

Hardy begonias, Begonia grandis, have spread all over my garden in full shade, and I have yet to find a place that I don’t want them. Because they come up very late in May and really just get going in the fall, I use them to fill in between my hostas on my back hill.

Pennsylvania native Joe Pye weed, Eupatorium dubium, reaches 10′ tall in my garden and flops over in our torrential rains. The “dwarf” version called ‘Little Joe’ grows to a diminutive 5′ tall and has remained erect through the 30″ of rain we had in August and September to bloom now with its large purple flowers–a magnet for butterflies and bees.

In the spring, a gardener I very much admire brought over this plant, telling me it was a salvia with yellow flowers that grows in full shade and blooms in the fall. I duly planted it in my shady “yellow garden” and it thrived through heat, drought, and rain with no attention. It is called woodland sage, Salvia koyamae.

I am just beginning to learn about hydrangeas because until last year there was no point in planting them because of the deer. One of my first acquisitions after the netting went up was ‘Limelight’, Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’. The large white flowers aging to pink have been blooming all summer in part shade, and there are still buds coming—very impressive.

If you want a multitude of fall flowers in dry, full shade, you can’t find a better plant than Pennsylvania native blue wood aster, Aster cordifolius. It fills in all the difficult sites in my woodland and produces a glorious blue haze in the fall.

It is fitting that I should end with my favorite Pennsylvania native perennial for fall, garden phlox, Phlox paniculata. I love everything about garden phlox: its heavenly fragrance, its long bloom time from early summer through fall, the wealth of colors available, its polite self-sowing, and its attraction to butterflies. I dream of installing a meadow area and collecting dozens of plants of every phlox cultivar out there!

Of the 17 photos above, 8 picture plants that are native to Pennsylvania and eastern North America. I believe that planting native plants is crucial to our survival. Please take the time to read this short essay explaining why. And Pennsylvania’s native plants really come into their own in the fall eliminating the need for dressing with mums!

Click to enlarge

Carolyn

To read Part 1, A Few Fall Favorites for Foliage and Fruit, click here. Stay tuned for Part 3, Hostas for Fall. In the interest of full disclosure, I must confess that sadistic botanists have recently changed the botanical names of many of the native plants that I highlighted to completely unpronounceable and unspellable but “botanically proper” names. At this point, I refuse to follow.

Nursery Happenings: The nursery closes for the year on October 16.

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CAROLYN'S SHADE GARDENS

Archive for fall-blooming hardy cyclamen

Late Fall Interest at Carolyn’s Shade Gardens

December 2012 Garden Bloggers Bloom Day