aspenhill's blog: Plans for the Lemon Garden

Wednesday
While working in the Lemon Garden yesterday, I was making mental notes of what I wanted to do there this season. The Lemon Garden was created in 2016 and is located beyond the back patio along the wood line. The general shape is a rectangular free form and is about 60 feet long by 24 feet wide. I wanted a garden area to showcase soft yellow and white blooming plants. I do like themes

The small groups of daffodils that bloom in soft yellows and whites are scattered throughout. It would look nicer if I had two or even three groups clustered together that bloom at the same time instead of a lone clump at intervals. So, last night I went on the internet hunt for varieties to add. I checked my usual go tos - Brent and Becky's Bulbs and John Scheepers, then found a new to me source - Quality Daffodils for the American Garden (qdaffs.us) that has a fantastic selection. A great feature of their website catalog is that you can search by bloom time. I was like a kid in a candy store. I have varieties in mind to purchase for planting next fall to get those bloom time groupings.

One end has filled in nicely with the yellow foxgloves (digitalis grandiflora) that have spread from pass alongs given to me by good friends David and Pat. There are a few hellebores 'Golden Lotus' in that area too, but there needs to be more. It is hard to find 'Golden Lotus' these days, but I recently found another yellow variety called 'California Dreaming' on the road trip to Black Creek Greenhouse. I purchased five. I think I'll like these even better because the flowers are consistently solid yellow vs the many variations of 'Golden Lotus', some of which have reddish margin accents - not what I want in this themed garden. In fact, now that they have reached blooming stage and I can see which variation they are, I'll relocate the ones with the reddish margin accents. I'll probably give those to Bonnie for her gardens. The darker reds and more primary color palette blooms really suit her gardens at the cottage.

I have several herbaceous peonies - two whites 'Amalia Olson' and 'Mother's Choice, and a soft yellow 'Lemon Chiffon'. They are hanging in there, but haven't taken off or matured at all yet. Also two yellow intersectionals. I may relocate them a bit closer to the front of the garden area - maybe they aren't getting enough sun with the shade from the wood line.

There are several shrubs in this garden. The calycanthus 'Athens' is doing great. There are also two mock oranges - both are alive, but not really flourishing. I'll be pruning these after they bloom, albeit sparsely, this spring. I'll also spread compost around the base and fertilize them several times between April and July. Google searches answer all my questions about how to care for them I also have two azaleas that were gifts and one of the reasons for starting the themed Lemon Garden. These are heavily deer damaged and may not be salvageable. One looks like it is completely dead. The other looks like it may have a few signs of life, but the shrub is reduced to a few mere twigs. I'm not exactly sure what to do with it other than construct a deer caging around it and give it compost and fertilizer. Maybe it will rebound, but even so, it will be years. A shrub that has been on my wish list for this garden for a long time is a Camellia 'Lemon Glow'. I bit the bullet and ordered one a few days ago. It ships as a 3 gallon plant and should arrive soon.

I have a pretty yellow rose that I see is starting to leaf out. Last year it was deer damaged. Like the azalea, I need to get some kind of deer caging around it. I just purchased Rose Tone for fertilizing the few roses I have too.

The propane tank for the kitchen stove is at the back of this garden. I put a nice sectional trellis in front of it and am attempting to cover it with honeysuckle 'Scentsation'. I realized that even if it fills in, the coverage is mostly higher - i.e. not starting at ground level. Last spring I purchased a decorative panel from Home Depot that should do the trick, but I haven't installed it yet. That is on the to do list to get done soon.

Several of the perennials that I have tried in this garden have failed - the ones that come to mind are trollius 'New Moon', campanula 'Takion White', various columbines, polygonatum biflorum, trillium lutea, uvularia... I tried that pretty trollius three times, the conditions just aren't suitable for it. Columbines in general just don't seem to grow for me beyond the first season, or if they do, they are short lived. The polygonatum, trillium, and uvularia were purchased at Black Creek one year when they were carrying woodland natives. None of them made it and I noticed that it was a one and done for Black Creek. The campanula and a few other perennial casualties were more than likely from lack of consistent watering. I am thrilled to have the irrigation system completely repaired for this upcoming gardening season. I will have much greater odds for getting the gardens to thrive.

The few perennials that are doing well are the foxgloves mentioned earlier, a baptisia 'Lemon Meringue', and a few epimediums. There are a few aruncus too, but they are struggling.

A big goal is to fill in skimpy patchy areas. The plants that I have in mind for this are winter aconites, celandine poppies, primula vulgaris, lady's mantle, and sweet woodruff. The general idea is to make sweeping swaths, or in the case of sweet woodruff, fill in as a ground cover below and between other perennials. In the UK, they purchase and plant winter aconites "in the green", but here in the US the only source seems to be bulbs that you plant out in the fall. There are a few Mid Atlantic gardening friends who have celandine poppies in abundance, so I'm hoping to start those with pass alongs. Primula vulgaris, the simple common primrose, is another plant that seems more popular and readily available in the UK. There are a few mail order sources in the US, like White Flower Farm, but that means pricey. I did find a source for seeds though so I'll try my hand at growing them from seed. Black Creek usually carries lady's mantle and sweet woodruff, so that will be on the list for the road trip in April.

I love the Lemon Garden. A few tweaks, consistent watering, and fertilizing are all that is really needed to get it to what I envision it to be.

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