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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.

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What’s Ornamental in Late Fall?

Posted in Camellias, Fall, Fall Color, How to, landscape design, my garden, Shade Perennials, snowdrops with tags Calycanthus raulstonii 'Hartlage Wine', camellia 'Long Island Pink', Camellia 'Snow Flurry', Camellia 'Winter's Joy', Camellia 'Winter's Snowman, Carolyn's Shade Gardens, Cornus kousa 'Wolf Eyes', Disanthus cercidifolius, galanthus elwesii two scapes, Galanthus reginae-olgae, Helleborus 'Penny's Pink', Heuchera 'Berry Smoothie', Osmanthus heterophyllus 'Sasaba', Pennisetum 'Moudry' on November 18, 2014 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

Gorgeous fall color of Kousa dogwood ‘Wolf Eyes’

In my last post, ‘What’s Blooming in Mid-Fall?” (click here to read), I explained that fall has three seasons for me: the early season is September, mid is October, and late is November. I promised a post on the late season, which I fully intended to do at the end of November. Unfortunately, the weather in the mid-Atlantic US just proceeded from temperatures typical of mid November, highs in the low 50s and lows in the low 40s, directly to temperatures more appropriate to January. When I got up this morning it was 24 degrees, and tonight’s low is 19 (-7.2 C), followed by three more nights in the low 20s. Almost everything is frozen so I might as well do November now.

‘Wolf Eyes’ has green and white variegated leaves during its main season and turns pink in the fall. Generally I recommend our native dogwood for its superior shape, flowers, berries, and fall color and because it supports 117 species of moths and butterflies alone while Kousa dogwood supports no native insects of any kind (source Bringing Nature Home by Doug Tallamy). However, if you want to plant a Kousa, ‘Wolf Eyes’ is beautiful.

I hope readers won’t be disappointed because, with the exception of snowdrops, camellias, and a few others, the best ornamental plants in my November garden are prized for their leaves. October is probably the best month for fall color in the mid-Atlantic, and the landscape blazes with red, orange, and yellow from the huge deciduous trees we are famous for. However, woody plants that wait until November to turn color really stand out because native maples, hornbeam, sweetgum, etc. are done by then. Here are a few that I treasure:

Scarlet native dogwood on the left, orange witch hazel in the center, and brilliant red Japanese maple on the right. This is the hill above the Carolyn’s Shade Gardens nursery sales area.

Native hybrid ‘Hartlage Wine’ sweetshrub turns a lovely butter yellow in late fall.

All the blue hostas turn an attractive orange-yellow. Here ‘Krossa Regal’ with the fiery orange leaves of enkianthus and a yellow Asian sweetshrub in the woodland.

Disanthus cercidifolius is probably my favorite plant for November color. This photo shows the whole shrub, which is probably 10′ wide and 6′ tall, although it could easily be pruned to a smaller size. Some websites call it redbud hazel, but I have never heard that common name used.

A close up of the leaves shows that disanthus displays many beautiful colors at once. You can also see why it’s called cercidifolius, which means leaves like a redbud.

Disanthus also blooms in November with tiny scarlet flowers.

Another shrub that blooms in November is evergreen ‘Sasaba’ osmanthus. Again the flowers are not highly ornamental but they are amazingly fragrant, sweetly scenting my whole back hillside.

Fall-blooming camellias are the highlight for flowering shrubs in November, here ‘Long Island Pink’ which started October 15.

‘Snow Flurry’ also continues to bloom.

‘Winter’s Joy’ starts in November and often continues into January. I just hope its buds don’t freeze this week.

‘Winter’s Snowman’ also starts in November. I was going to show the whole plant, but all the open flowers froze last night.

Perennials also contribute to November interest:

‘Brigadoon’ St. John’s wort and ‘John Creech’ sedum were not fazed by last night’s low.

This late-blooming monkshood is always a highlight of my November garden, although it froze last night. Shown here at Chanticleer.

All the coralbells derived from our native Heuchera villosa keep their beautiful color in fall and through the winter, here ‘Berry Smoothie’.

‘Zebrina’ hollyhock mallow gets a second wind in the fall and is covered with blooms in November.

Italian arum comes up in the fall and stays ornamental all winter, it’s amazing.

Fall light slanting through my favorite ornamental grass ‘Moudry’ fountain grass.

Beware, ‘Moudry’s black plumes are quite striking, however, it can be quite aggressive. I didn’t actually plant any of these plants, but I love where they planted themselves.

Hart’s tongue fern and evergreen epimediums are also beautiful right now and for most of the winter.

Hellebores stay green through the winter, and some of them have spectacular leaves, here ‘Penny’s Pink’.

I couldn’t finish without showing some snowdrops! Galanthus reginae-olgae finishes blooming in the middle of November.

I have a lot of fall-blooming giant snowdrops, Galanthus elwesii. Here is one that I have selected for its nice markings and because it produces two flower scapes per plant. It still looks pristine after last night’s freeze.

Keep warm,

Carolyn

Nursery Happenings: You can sign up to receive notifications of catalogues, sales, and events at the nursery by sending your full name and phone number to carolynsshadegardens@verizon.net.

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

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.

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September 2013 GBBD

Posted in Fall, Fall Color, Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, groundcover, hosta, my garden, native plants, Shade Perennials with tags 'Aureola' Japanese hakone grass, 'Black Scallop' ajuga, 'Brigadoon' St. John's wort, 'Pamina' Japanese anemone, 'September Charm' Japanese anemone, Anemone x hybrida, autumn leadwort, Begonia grandis, Begonia grandis 'Alba', Berry Smoothie coralbells, Carolyn's Shade Gardens, Ceratostigma plumbaginoides, Chelone lyonii, Citronelle coralbells, Cyclamen hederifolim 'Album', Cyclamen hederifolium, garden phlox, Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola', hardy begonia, hardy cyclamen, Heuchera 'Berry Smoothie', Heuchera villosa 'Citronelle', hosta 'Honeybells', Hosta 'Mighty Mouse', Hosta 'Stained Glass', Hypericum 'Brigadoon', Japanese anemone, Moudry fountain grass, Nicky phlox, Pennisetum 'Moudry', Phlox paniculata, pink turtlehead, plumbago, Polystichum polyblepharum, Sinonome toad-lily, Starfire phlox, tassel fern, Tricyrtis 'Sinonome', white hardy begonia, white hardy cyclamen on September 14, 2013 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.

Hardy begonias and ‘Paradise Joyce’ hosta

I have been very busy getting the nursery ready for the fall season but took a few hours off to get this Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day post done. First though, I want to tell you what is in the fall line up. Our fourth annual Double Hellebore Offer is underway. To look at the brochure, click here. These hellebores are the biggest doubles we have ever sold, and they are almost guaranteed to bloom this spring because they bloomed last spring. If you want to see them in person, they are here right now and ready to go, so make an appointment or come during our open hours tomorrow, Sunday, September 15, from 1 to 3 pm.

Hardy begonias are the ideal fall plant—they come up late and look pristine when they bloom from September through the first frost.

Our fall season started today, September 14, when we opened for a few hours so customers eager to start planting could shop. Thanks to everyone who came by. We will be open again tomorrow from 1 pm to 3 pm. The first full-fledged open house sale is scheduled for Septmebr 28, and cyclamen breeder John Lonsdale will be making a guest appearance with his gorgeous hardy cyclamen. He will have selected forms of Cyclamen hederifolium plus many other rare species. Customers will get an email with all the details. If you want to come before September 28, just send me an email with your preferred day and time.

white hardy begonia

I am currently putting together a Shrub, Tree, and Vine Offer with woody plants suitable for all your shady areas. Look for an email this week if you are on my customer email list. Finally, my husband Michael will be holding three sessions of his well-attended Low Maintenance Gardening Seminars. They are tentatively scheduled for September 27, 29, and 30, but all the details will arrive by email shortly. That’s all the business for now so on to the post….

My back hill is filled with large patches of hostas, and I use hardy begonias to fill in between them and even to cover up plants that are worn out by fall.

It is the middle of the month and time to participate in Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day (GBBD) hosted by May Dreams Gardens (link available on the 15th of the month) where gardeners from all over the world publish photos each month of what’s blooming in their gardens. I participate because it is fun and educational for me to identify what plants make my gardens shine at different times of the year. I encourage all gardeners, but especially my customers, to expand their floral display beyond spring so that their gardens delight them with flowers whenever they go outside.

My garden is located in Bryn Mawr (outside Philadelphia), Pennsylvania, U.S., in zone 6B.

hardy begonias

Another fall star is Japanese anemone, which blooms from August into October depending on the variety. The taller cultivars look beautiful draped over shorter plants, here hybrid hellebores. However, shorter and more upright types have been introduced lately, look for the Pretty Lady series and ‘Pink Saucers’, both available at Carolyn’s Shade Gardens.

‘September Charm’ Japanese anemone

My favorite, ‘Pamina’ Japanese anemone

I generally do not grow hostas for their flowers, but I make an exception for the highly fragrant varieties like ‘Guacamole’. This photo shows ‘Honeybells’ towering over my miniature hosta rock garden.

Another hosta with deliciously fragrant flowers is ‘Stained Glass’, the 2006 Hosta of the Year.

‘Stained Glass’ is one of my favorite hostas—how many of your hostas look like this by fall?

Another hosta that comes through summer in pristine condition is the adorable miniature ‘Mighty Mouse’.

It wouldn’t be fall without garden phlox. I let this highly fragrant native plant self sow throughout my gardens and it is usually covered with butterflies.

The more modern garden phlox cultivars are mildew resistant and come in vibrant colors like ‘Starfire’ in this photo.

‘Nicky’ garden phlox with ‘Citronelle’ coralbells

Customers have been raving about ‘Berry Smoothie’ coralbells for the last couple of years so I finally planted it in my garden—gorgeous.

Two of my favorite colors, yellow and blue, come together through the side-by-side pairing of ‘Brigadoon’ St. John’s wort and plumbago (also called autumn leadwort), both excellent groundcovers.

Tassel fern makes such an elegant specimen with its circular habit and shiny evergreen leaves.

It wouldn’t be September without fall-blooming hardy cyclamen. The flowers start blooming in August (and last into October) and are followed by the beautifully patterned leaves which last until the next June.

white fall-blooming hardy cyclamen

‘Black Scallop’ ajuga is the only one I sell because it is so superior. It produces a solid weed-choking mat of very shiny, semi-evergreen leaves topped by lovely blue flowers.

This late-blooming black-eyed Susan species, Rudbeckia triloba (thanks Heide) self sows like mad, but I wouldn’t give up the beautiful display.

‘Aureola’ Japanese hakone grass is beautiful all year.

Black fountain grass comes into its glory in the fall. Yes, I know it can spread, but I have had it for 15 years and it hasn’t gone anywhere that I didn’t want to leave it. Gardeners with smaller areas or less tolerance for the natural look should beware.

Another favorite native, pink turtlehead, peaks in my garden in September.

A glimpse of what’s to come in October, the first flower opens on my ‘Sinonome’ toad-lily.

Almost all of these plants are available for sale at Carolyn’s Shade Gardens so, if you are in the area, I hope you will stop by. If not, you now have a lot of ideas for your fall shade garden.

Carolyn

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

Nursery Happenings: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens will be open Sunday, September 15, from 1 to 3 pm, and for a full-fledged open house sale on Saturday, September 28, from 10 am to 3 pm. We are currently offering double hellebores, both by pre-order and at the nursery. For details, click here. Now that it’s cool, we are also shipping miniature hostas again. For details, click here. Low maintenance seminars and a chance to order shrubs and vines are in the works.

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November GBBD: Make a Spring Shopping List Now

Posted in Fall, Fall Color, Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, How to with tags Arum italicum 'Gold Rush', black fountain grass, Clematis 'Warsaw Nike', Cyclamen hederifolium, Disanthus cercidifolius, fall-blooming camellias, fall-blooming snowdrops, Galanthus 'Potter's Prelude', Geranium 'Rozanne', hardy cyclamen, holly osmanthus, Italian arum, Morris Arboretum, Osmanthus heterophyllus, Pennisetum 'Moudry', Spiraea 'Magic Carpet' on November 15, 2010 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 within the US. For catalogues and announcements of local events, please send your full name, mailing address, and cell number to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com and indicate whether you are interested in snowdrops, hellebores, and/or hostas. Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.

This Clematis ‘Warsaw Nike’ decided to produce one final flower in mid-November

Now is the time to walk around your garden and assess what you need to add to make late fall a peak time in your landscape. Do you need more trees and shrubs with brilliant fall color? Could your garden benefit from more plants that bloom later in fall? Make a list and take photographs so that when you are shopping next spring you know what you need and where it should go. As an added benefit, you can enjoy each miraculous discovery like the Clematis ‘Warsaw Nike’ pictured above, which I found during my own fall inventory.

If you need ideas, visit local arboretums and gardens. I always find a trip to the Morris Arboretum near Chestnut Hill, PA, highly inspirational and informative. I have added a permanent category to my sidebar for places to visit and get ideas.

Today is Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day for November (follow the link to see fall photographs from other garden bloggers). Here are a few more highlights from my mid-November stroll through Carolyn’s Shade Gardens:

Fall-blooming Snowdrops ‘Potter’s Prelude’