by Leslie Cox; Tuesday, May 7, 2013

A sunny afternoon begged a few minutes spent sitting on the front deck sipping a cup of tea while contemplating the front garden.

A hummingbird dropped in, hovering just above the fountain in the island bed. It was clear he was interested in the spouting bubble of water but yet, uncertain. He needed time to think, so alit on the tip of a maple branch just near. For seconds only before he swooped to the water spout again…then flying to the other side of the fountain to assess from that angle. No, not yet. More time needed to think back on the branch.

Waiting for the hummer to make up his mind, my eye wandered over the rest of the bed. The plants were definitely starting to break free of winter and show their spring form.

The primulas (Primula auriculata and Primula vulgaris) have been blooming themselves silly for a while, of course…and continue to splash their colour about. But now they have more than just a soil-black canvas. Patches of green in various shades as well as dabs of gold are appearing in the background.

The central island bed is now fulfilling the vision of my landscape design. The overall effect of the assortment of plant varieties I selected is pleasing.

Overhung by two brute shade trees, my island bed only gets sun once it is high enough to top the house and as long as it takes to travel across the sky to hide behind the chestnut leaves. Not long. At the height of the season, this bed is lucky to get six hours of sun… and then only in parts of the bed. Most gets much less.

You know the old saying: you can’t fight City Hall. So true in the garden. If I want to keep the lovely shade trees…and I cannot envision the front yard without them…then I had to build my design as they dictated.

Yeah for hostas! I do so love the variety this plant genus affords the gardener, albeit I think the breeders have gone a little too crazy with the over 6000 different hostas now available.

Getting back to the front porch and my cup of tea…what really caught my eye was the variegated Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum odoratum ‘Variegatum’). It is looking very smart amongst the hostas.

If you want some bang for your buck, it is hard to beat Solomon’s seal for shady areas. The tall, gracefully arching stems of this herbaceous perennial arise singly from underground rhizomes. The leaves are in pairs along the stem and held in a horizontal plane. My Solomon’s seal is the variegated species, so the medium green leaves are delicately edged with white.

I particularly love the pairs of tubular white bells delicately tipped in green dangling from the leaf nodes. If you can get down to their level and have a good nose, you just might pick up their subtle scent once they open.

Take note, I mentioned “underground rhizomes”. Commenting on my pleasure with this plant in my landscape design to John, his words of wisdom were: “I may want to be careful.” He is such a pessimist.

Solomon’s seal can be a little too happy in certain situations…much like lily-of-the-valley with which Polygonatum is sometimes lumped. But I, for one, am optimistic. It is not as aggressive as lily-of-the-valley and I feel it is controllable by simply dividing the plant if it should start to take up more than the allotted amount of real estate I am prepared to grant it.

Of course, this proclamation would entail an effort of dedication on my part to my garden chores. Bless my husband as he raised an eyebrow in my direction. How well he knows my crazy schedule and the lists of best intentions I make each day.