I've got green on the mind

BTW I know about 6 female landscape architects. 2 work in native plants only, ones a wetlands specialist and the other 3 are designers who write everything in goddam latin so you look like a complete as shole when going to the garden center

Farmerman, may I recommend Siberian Iris "Caesar's brother".

Around three feet tall, and is quite happy with only one hours sunshine a day, or dappled shade.

They bloom in late spring/early summer and have great foliage, which lasts most of the year.





PS.....I take you seriously, even though you resemble Baldrick.

Littlek, I'm treasuring that sprouting onion. Spring seems a long, long way away.

Farmer, I do know you better than that. Tried to give you a clue of it with my parting harrumph, she says, harrumphing.

Yeah, well, latin names are pretty helpful when common names are used for more than one plant. But hey, that's my excuse, I love the latin names, which increase the fun as people ("they") keep changing them over the years. I have a friend who thinks Sisiphus jujuba (or something like that) is the funniest name she ever heard. Anyway, on my lists I use both latin and common names for more typing fun.

sounds like you're obsessed with money...

For tall shade plants (average soil, neither too wet or dry) I suggest the native Cimicifuga racemosa (aka: fairy candles, bugbane)
or any of the Angelicas.
Pictured is archangel (European), but you can get Angelica gigas (Asian) which is more purple or the bright green American artopurpurea. They also have some new varieties of astilbe that have very tall deep purple and red plumes, a good garden center will carry them or order them on-line.

This is a picture of trout lily (Erythronium). The native is yellow and this is the selected variety called Pagoda. The European trout lily is pink (Erythronium dens-canis).



I have to defend the use of latin, especially when ordering plants - there is nothing worse than someone coming in and asking if you have "daisies" or "coneflowers" or the plant grandma called "wake robin". It can take a long time to figure what they a person wants with descriptions like that. I don't expect the general public to speak latin like the Pope, but it's nice for a gardener to at least learn the latin of the plants they want to grow.

Good books: The American Woodland Garden by Rick Darke or The New England Wildflower Society Guide to Growing Wildflowers by William Cullina or The Natural Shade Garden by Ken Druse.

Sorry to stretch the page out - I'm a gardener, not a computer geek.

Oooh, liking the trout lilies!!

And the Cimicifuga racemosa for that matter.

Do you think they would be too busy/ too much behind ferns? (That's still my major weakness, I know what I like individually but I have a really hard time grouping plants. Colors I can do, but types are harder. Littlek and osso helped me a lot last year, but I still have a long ways to go.)

I like to use ostrich, goldie's, and cinnamon fern with the Cimicifuga. I find the textures merge nicely and the heights work well.
You can buy trout lilies as bulbs, they have to be "fresh" and you need to plant them right away. You can get them at Brent & Becky's Bulbs in VT or Van Engelen in CT. Trout lilies work great with wild ginger, trillium, bloodroot, woodland phlox and virginia bluebells. Try the yellow trout lily with the bluebells for a knock out early spring combination.

trout lily looks neat, sort of a hosta with a primrose color. We raise angelica for a herb and its gotten quite invasive. When we moved to the farm we took a lot of trees down that jut hid the house and seemed to increase mold. Then we planted trees furyher away and moved pastures back so we have an open area around the house and then some trees. The trees are cherries, and various maples with some varieties of ornamentals which we strip leaves from the branches so as to see the "bones " of the varieties. This gives a nice look but we also have lots of shady beds beneath trees that were , in the old way, just left as lawn. Weve put beds in and want to promote colr as well as different textures.


SIr, your lordship. Weve got a huge selection of iris in a large bed and weve made them all of varying bloom time, We like the Siberians and the japanese. The only problem with Iris is that the colors weve got we need to transplant them evry 3 years or they start losing steam. Weve got black iris and brilliant yellows in one area that we use for a spot of color away from the buildings.

Farmerman - pfffft! It's the men who plant all one kind of plant. And all one kind of industrial, boring plant like yews and burning bush.

we do not. Nobody saw me, and youll never prove it.
Neener neener

hmph

I forgot to mention one of my favorite background shade plants:

Goats Beard (Aruncus diocius)

We refer to the guys who plant things like barberry, burning bush and norway maples as "landscrapers". They also have a tendency to "clean up the woods" by running a small bulldozer around trees and throwing grass seed behind them. Female designers never resort to such practices, it's just not in our genetic code to slash and burn and think it's an improvement over nature. I admit the landscapers I've admired most have been gay. They seem to have the perfect sense of knowing when to use upper body strength and when to leave the 100 year old apple tree as sculpture.

<reading along ...>

Terrific thread!

I just planted a goat'sbeard last spring. It stayed through the long dry summer, it bloomed and berried. Now I have to move before I can see what it does this year. Waaaaahhh!