Today one of our neighbours came by with her chair and we had a lovely hour long front-yard-distant-bring-your-own-chair-chat in our yard. We got caught up on the past few weeks and shared thoughts on world events and local tragedies, but we found all the bright spots to focus on and, as we looked around the garden, we chatted about the fact that despite the grinding to a halt of much of the businesses everywhere, nature keeps on keeping on.
On that same vein, before she arrived, I was poking around to see what new treasures had emerged in the garden over the past couple of days.
These are delicate little flowers that dangle downwards and never show their faces to the sky. To catch a photo I had to get my phone underneath them and take a dozen shots in the hopes that one would be in focus.
This little deciduous Epimedium is my favourite of the three different types of Epimedium plants that I have around my garden. I like it both for its colouration as well as the fact that the plant is deciduous so that the flowers are noticeable in the spring. I always neglect to shear the evergreeen ones back to the ground in the late winter so that their (less spectacular yellow) flowers can be seen in the spring.
I like this one also because it has pretty red spring foliage and deeper burgundy red fall foliage. It’s a tough plant, and makes for an excellent low-growing groundcover for woodland and shady spots in the garden. The red flowers are like tiny columbines, they are barely the size of a thumbnail across. They are incredibly easy to grow and do exceptionally well in medium to heavy shade and are drought tolerant once they are well established. They are never bothered by bugs or other pests in the garden, and I hear that they are also deer resistant.
Like I say, tough shade plants that can cover a lot of territory relatively quickly (in a few years), and with some very pretty little spring surprises.
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