I have nothing against periwinkle (Vinca minor) despite its reputation as an invasive. Its seeds are not carried into the wild, and in the garden, it covers only as much ground as it’s given while it serves to minimize weed growth. While periwinkle’s spring flowers and a yellow leafed form are enjoyed in the shaded…

How fortunate that the garden where I volunteer has two trees with flowers that will not be seen in this garden. The Bigleaf magnolia (Magnolia macrophylla, below) in my garden was obtained years ago from the nursery of a longtime acquaintance in Tennessee. The magnolia, ten feet tall and one-of-its-kind in this nursery and a…

I find it difficult to plan ahead in the garden. I believe that my career was driven by efficient organization, but in the garden, there’s little doubt that my attention is as scattered as a child’s. Perhaps that’s what I enjoy most. While there are sporadic visitors, the garden is mostly for me, though I…

While two ‘Aphrodite’ sweetshrubs (Calycanthus ‘Aphrodite’, below) grow at a moderate pace in a dry shaded location, a third in brighter shade at the forest’s edge but with little direct sunlight grows with remarkable vigor. Also, the brighter aspect encourages increased flowering. All three flower several weeks after blooms of other sweetshrubs in similar shade…

The increasing shade in the garden is most evident on the circle patio in recent weeks as trees have come into leaf (below). Planted containers annually moved from the basement, where they are overwintered, to the patio, once flourished here with a few hours of midday sun. Today, a fraction of the small patio gets…

The inclusion of big green shrubs in the garden is open to question, even in a larger space. Do two weeks of flower substantiate the area consumed by ‘Magicien’ deutzia (Deutzia x hybrida ‘Magicien’, below)? If I were a gardener willing to chop the shrub back by a third every second year, there would be…

While the leaves of two Floating Cloud Japanese maples (Acer palmatum ‘Ukigumo’, below) in this garden are unlikely to ever match their brillance in the cool Pacific Northwest, in this cloudy and often rainy Virginia spring the colors are the best I can recall. Other Japanese maples match favorably in color until the warmer day and…

The native Showy orchids (Galearis spectabilis, below), apparently in a less than ideal location, have failed to appear this spring. The cover of fallen leaves is deep in this area, so I suspected their appearance was delayed, but it appears they’re gone. As a whole, native orchids are somewhat difficult to establish in the long…

The glorious show of azaleas has ended with only a few rain-soaked blooms dangling from branches. The garden’s few rhododendrons, now flowering, make a more modest display of purple, though two variegated leaf ‘Silver Edge’ (Rhododendron ponticum ‘Silver Edge’, below) stand out with the contrast of flower and foliage. The path from the driveway to…

The pendulous branching ‘Elizabeth Lustgarten’ dogwood (Cornus kousa ‘Elizabeth Lustgarten’) was surprisingly substantial when purchased by mailorder a year ago. The branches slowly mound to increase its height, but the process to raise its canopy can be hurried along by staking the flexible terminal branch into an upright position (below). There is no ultimate height…

Graded disproportionately above the everyday triumphs of the garden are the long overdue successes of a few simple-to-grow plants that have perished more times than I wish to count. I have finally given up on all varieties of the anyone-can-grow-it coreopsis, but at least I have a clue that these failed due to damp soil…

A spot bordering the koi pond patio was perfect for the rambunctious cypress spurge (Euphorbia cyparissias, below), or so I thought. A granite boulder and a well established sedge hemmed the potential invader from one side, the stone patio to the other. As occasionally happens, I overlooked a seedling of the dark leafed, native geranium…