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Planting Under Trees - Part 11 - Page 3

© Marge Talt

A lone plant of Liriope has also put itself in this inhospitable bit of ground. It too, is doing well, although the deer give it a severe haircut each winter. If I thought I had a prayer of inserting a digging tool more than an inch (2.5 cm), into the soil, I'd move some more Liriope here from the bed I have sitting in my holding garden. But, since they develop quite extensive root systems, and need good sized planting holes, I know it would be a major undertaking and have avoided dealing with it.

The only other plant that actually thrives, are the wild purple violets (probably Viola sororia that seed themselves weedily all over the place. They are charming in early spring, but much too prolific for me. I pull them whenever I can, but I can't eradicate them. Why, you might ask, if they are doing well in this disaster zone, don't you leave them? Well, the main reason is that they seed into the driveway, giving me hours of weeding that I really don't want. To be honest, I do leave them alone where they are far enough away from the enticing gravel seedbed so that I figure their progeny won't end up there. But those near the gravel - and that means this bed - are pounced upon and removed.

 This violet has a most interesting sex life. The perky blue-violet (or sometimes white, striped with blue in the variety priceana) flowers that you see are sterile. The self-fertile flowers are formed underground and never bloom, they just make tons of seeds which are pitched some distance from the mother plant when ripe. Their leaves and flowers spring directly from a small rhizome. If you pull this plant, you have to make certain to get all of that rhizome, or it will simply re-sprout.

 The leaves are considered a delicacy by my local deer herd, who nip them off neatly at the top of the stem, leaving serried ranks of stems to be clipped by me. This is also a plant that begins to look ratty about July. If you want to keep it, cut the leaves to the ground and new ones will form quickly.

 Moving around to the front of the trees, in barely better soil, you can see the Money Plant in the foreground with Ajuga at the bottom right in this rather lousy (sorry) close-up of The Problem Area. Directly behind the Money Plant is a small clump of one of my all-time favorite ferns, Adiantum pedatum, the American Maidenhair fern.