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More Plants in the Circle Garden

© Marge Talt

 This week, we'll continue around the perimeter of the Circle Garden. On the opposite side of the steps from the ferns and hellebore I told you about last week, the ground at the top of the wall is mostly covered in Pachysandra terminalis, with some Christmas Ferns (Polystichum acrostichoides), underplanted with daffodils. The ferns do a grand job of hiding the dying daffodil foliage. The Pachysandra is trying to colonize the face of the wall - if you look closely at the following photo, you can see a tuft under the top stone on the right. I go around, periodically, and whack it right back to the stone to remind it that its supposed to be a ground cover, not a wall plant.

 As I've said before, this is one of the workhorse plants for gardens up to USDA zone 5. Undemanding (with shade and soil on the acid side), it looks good all year; swallowing most leaves and debris that land on it. I do rake off fallen leaves in late fall where they are so deep they completely hide the plants, just to keep them from smothering. Yet, this plant will grow in just about total darkness, making it a good underplanting for shrubs, conifers and even aggressive ferns like hay scented fern (Dennstaedtia punctiloba). I've a patch where this fern completely covers the Pachysandra all summer, but when the fern collapses with the first frost, there's the Pachysandra, still growing away strongly to take over for winter.

R. yakushimanum & Athyrium niponicum var. pictum

 At the corner of the steps is Rhododendron yakushimanum - possibly 'Jane Grant' (my records from ten years ago are not grand). You can just see some of the foliage on the left of the photo. This species of rhododendron, from Yakushima Island in Japan, is hardy to -25F (-31.67C), so it's a good choice for those of you in colder areas. It also stays small, reaching about three feet (1m) in height and spread. In addition, the underside of the leaf is thick with woolly brown indumentum; soft to touch and nifty visually.

 Flowers on this species typically start with rose colored buds, opening pink and maturing to white. My plant is not the happiest rhodie in my garden and does not bloom well. There are exactly two flower buds on it at this moment. It's had a hard time, as some critter was fascinated with its root system and kept digging it up. After finding its rootball completely out of the ground two or three times, I got annoyed and covered the soil around the roots with substantial rocks. It hasn't been dug up for several years, but it took some time for it to recover from that harsh treatment. Plus, I think it is getting a bit too much shade from the Border Privet (Ligustrum obtusifolium) on its south side. Further, although the rocks help keep the soil cool and moist, they don't feed this plant as an organic mulch would - and I'm pretty cavalier about feeding, so the poor thing may be hungry. I have resolved to lift the rocks early next spring and give it a good dose of HollyTone, put down some mulch and then replace the rocks to see if that will bring it back to the glory I know it can have.

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