aspenhill's blog: Mature Gardens

Friday
I was just reading Annie's latest blog post, and coincidentally I was feeling much the same way about a few of my garden areas lately. There is something so very satisfying and rewarding when you realize that years of gardening efforts have not been in vain.

The garden area that I call the Angel Bower is incredibly lush this year. The calycanthus shrubs 'Venus' and 'Aphrodite' are fully mature and in full bloom this week. I remember planting 'Venus' as a small twig in a 3 inch pot from a mail order source many years ago when I first started gardening. The hellebores that I started with in a few spots have spread into mature swaths. Solomons seal and creeping jenny passed along at early Mid Atlantic plant swaps have spread and matured into large swaths too. Purple spiderwort also passed along at early Mid Atlantic plant swaps have self seeded about nicely. The really unusual shredded umbrella plant that I picked up at a Master Gardener sale is spreading slowly but steadily. Peonies, astilbes, japanese painted ferns, christmas ferns, canadian ginger, epimediums, bleeding hearts, lungworts, brunnera, and other perennials that have been planted over the course of many years have really matured.

There have been a few plant fails, but not many, in this garden. There will always be maintenance of course, mostly cleanup of fall leaves. Weeding will always need to be done too, but is becoming less and less with the almost complete coverage from the perennials that have filled in. The maintenance now will entail thinning out. What a novel concept

A general view of the Angel Bower


Close up of the angel statue in the Angel bower - blooming Calycanthus 'Venus' on left and native Mountain Laurel on right


This Calycanthus 'Aphrodite' is at the far left of the shrub backdrop to the angel statue. It is really spectacular in bloom



Another favorite in the Angel Bower is this Syneilesis aconitifolia, common name Shredded Umbrella Plant. There is a trillium in the front left corner of the photo. Both of these are plants that I specifically look for to emerge in the spring - makes me so happy when I see them

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