On the shady east side of my house, just off the screened porch and beneath a pair of redbud trees, I inherited the typical symmetrical Pennsylvania foundation planting. Over the years, it has become shady there and the plantings have adapted accordingly. (So you think nothing grows in shade?)
You might think that's not terribly auspicious, but you would be wrong. Under my stewardship, part of the original foundation planting died, part of it was removed, and part of it is thriving -- and I added the trees because every garden should have a shady and serene garden spot.
At the shadier corner to the northeast, a white flowered peony leans out and over far enough to catch some rays and bloom: big beautiful plump gleaming white flowers, sweetly perfumed as only peonies can be.
It is that northeast corner where the white peony grows that calls to me this year: it glows at twilight, and again in the dappled light of day. Somehow it has become a "white garden" seemingly overnight!
The dark foundation yews set off the horizontal sheets of clean white azalea blossoms, a bloomless rhodie adds a bit of dark texture, and the white flowered peony arches from the rear toward the light. The fat white buds catch the glinting sunlight and show up like shimmering orbs against the evergreen backdrop.
The graceful overhanging redbud tree, out of bloom and quiet now, arches over and around this little garden scene, embracing it with wide soft green leaves tinged faintly with a reddish outline for gentle contrast.
From my favorite vantage point, the tree and the house reach around and cradle this little corner, protect it from the wind and harsh sunlight, shelter it from the deep dark woods and separate it from the more exuberantly planted areas. It becomes a secret corner full of texture, a soft ferny glen alight with fresh spring foliage and gleaming white blooms.
Indeed, to the middle and foreground are fresh ferns, swathes of big bold Ostrich ferns, pockets of Christmas fern, Japanese painted fern. In a rough curve drift big bold hostas, some plain green, some crinkled and puckered, some nearly blowsy with spring optimism and some very tight, covering the ground fast. There are clumps of silvery purple heuchera toward the front, too, along with some "Husker Red" penstemon for accent.
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