Early Spring in the Shade Garden

Saturday, March 20, 2010

My shade gardens are finally starting to come up again and this morning I decided to take some pictures of some of the plants to show everyone.

My two Lenten Roses (Helleborus) are in bloom. The leaves are very leathery and they stay green all winter long. The blooms start while the snow is still covering the plants. The large white one is Apple Blossom and is very hardy. The smaller one that is dark rose colored is more of a hybrid and is finicky. It has not grown like the white one.

The plant with the long heart/spear like leaves that is pictured here is unknown to me. I received this from a gardening friend about eight years ago. I do not know its name, but, if anyone who follows my blog can give it a name, I would be happy to hear from you. This plant is very unusual. It never really dies back in the winter. In the summer it will put out stalks in the center with clusters of orange/red berries kind of like a piece of corn. Then, late in the fall, the leaves kind of go back in the ground leaving the stalks. It then starts coming back up before winter.

The small chartruese colored leaves on the plant coming up is a white bleeding heart with chartruese leaves. It is a hybred and this year I will have plants to share as it had several babies start end of last summer.

My daffodils in the shade garden are coming up, also. Last week they were only 2 inches tall. Today, they have buds ready to burst into bloom.

The rest of the pictures are of our ravine w/stream and side shade garden. I will be sharing more pictures of my shade gardens as the plants come up. My back garden needs some trimming before I can take pictures. There are a lot of different hostas and unusual plants in it. Trilliums and Jack-in-the-Pulpit are just a couple. Until next time. I hope you enjoyed my pictures.