Dames Rocket:Romancing the ordinary

Dames Rocket is a lovely phlox-like flower that is often seen along roadsides. This grouping nestled nicely up against a fence line along a nearby forest road and stopped me dead in my path. Although beautiful, they are invasive in our gardens and woodlands and should not be cultivated.

A non-native plant, but a flower photographer’s dream

Nature doesn’t care about the value of a plant, shrub or tree, but somehow she manages to create beautiful vignettes with what she is given.

It’s something we gardeners can learn to do as well.

The problem is, nature can’t tell the difference between native and non-native plants.

If you’re one of those people who have been stopped dead in your tracks by a natural floral display along a roadside, there’s a good chance that display involved a plant commonly named dames rocket.

This plant, Hesperis matronalis, often goes by other names including dame's rocket, damask-violet, dame's-violet, dames-wort, dame's gilliflower, night-scented gilliflower, queen's gilliflower, rogue's gilliflower, sweet rocket, and mother-of-the-evening.

Dames rocket may be considered a roadside weed by many, but its phlox-like flowers affords the flower photographer a wealth of opportunities to explore creative approaches.

Some may see these lovely spring-blooming flowers, which are actually biennials or short-lived perennials native to Eurasia, as nothing more than roadside weeds or, at best, plants that add a nice hit of spring colour to our gardens. Unfortunately they would be right on both occasions.

Like many of these roadside plants, they are the result of plantings that have escaped from cultivation in gardens.

For more on dealing with non-natives in your garden, click here.

For reasons why we should plant native plants in our garden click here

This image shows the Dames Rocket growing wild in a sunnier area of the woodland garden. Once the flowers show a hint of fading they will be removed and disposed of but not on the compost heap.

A threat to native woodland plants

Let’s make it clear, these are not native North American plants and can be aggressive. They are detrimental to our native plants and need to be treated as invasive, non-native plants. They are everywhere in my area invading areas of natural woodland and threatening native plants.

They popped up in sunnier parts of our garden and have, despite their problems, added a lovely hit of colour to these parts of the garden. That, of course, is the problem. They are easily mistaken for native phlox and left to sow seed in the garden. And, their good looks makes the decision to remove them a little more difficult.

But don’t be mislead by their attractiveness.

Be aware that dames rocket is much like garlic mustard and will, if allowed, produce thousands of seeds that will eventually threaten your native plantings. At the very least, remove the flower heads before they begin to die off and dispose of them (not in your compost heap). Preferably, pull the entire plant and roots out and dispose of them before they go to seed.

For more information on this plant and how to control or eliminate it from your garden, check out Wildones.

A non-native plant, but a flower photographer’s dream

In the meantime, I’ll enjoy the flowers while they exist and do what I can to “romance the ordinary” through photography rather than gardening.

I have photographed these early spring-bloomers along the roadsides for years. It wasn’t until they found a home in our garden that I decided to explore the photographic potential just a little further.

The large colonies of plants often seen in open fields and along roadsides open up great possibilities to explore more creative approaches to flower photography. Individually, however, they can also be beatiful subjects.

The following are just a few of the images, I have made recently and over the years.

Dames Rocket is an excellent plant to explore selective focus. By shooting through a mass of flowers with a wide open aperture, you are able to make lovely selective focus images with a dreamy feel to them like the image above.

Dames rocket provides the background in this wildflower meadow image.

A close-up image of a single dames rocket flower shot with selective focus. If you find yourself in a field of these flowers, be sure to explore all the possibilities, especially more creative approaches. By opening up your aperture to f2.8 or grater, you will be able to capture dreamy images. Focus becomes a little more critical under these circumstances as your depth of field becomes very restricted

Dames Rocket photographed from above with Olympus 45mm 1.8 and MCON-P02 close-up lens. By adding Olympus’s high-quality close-up lens to the 45 f.18, I was able to move in close while allowing the flowers to take on a delicate, out-of-focus look.

Dames Rocket photographed with Olympus MCON-P02 close-up lens and post processed with photoshop and Luminar Neo. The high key, dreamy look is the result of using the extensive creative tools provided in Luminar Neo software. More information on Luminar Neo’s extensive tool kit for creating lovely flower and landscape images below.

One of the joys of flower photography is not only making the original image, but using the tools available in photography programs like Photoshop, Lightroom and Luminar Neo to transform the ordinary into more painterly artistic visions that allow you to explore your creative vision.

Dames Rocket flower after creative effects were added in photoshop, but before the image was brought into Luminar Neo for final creative edits.

In the image above, I brought the original image (below) into photoshop where I “extracted” a light purple colour from the original image and used it with a series of PS brushes to create the soft pastel look around the plant.

Using Luminar Neo to add the magic

I then brought the image into Luminar Neo where I was able to tap into the magic of the program’s extensive creative tool kit. Through the use of several modules in Luminar Neo including the develop, mystical, soft focus, vignette and high key modules, I was able to transform the original image into a more creative flower image that better communicated the feel of being in a field of these lovely wildflowers.

For more information on how I use Luminar Neo in my approach to post processing click here for my woodland images article, here for how you can use Luminar Neo as your only post processing software tool, and here for more creative results using Luminar Neo with traditional film photography.

If you are interested in purchasing Luminar Neo, please consider using the code FernsFeathers at checkout to receive a 10 per cent discount. By using this code, I receive a small percentage of the proceeds which helps me to continue producing articles like this one for readers.

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How to create a natural log planter

A natural log planter with the beginnings of native plantings including a maidenhair fern. The natural curve creates a shady spot for toads, salamanders and other critters. It is important to dig in both ends of the log so that it does not look like it is sitting on top of the soil.

From woodland vignette to garden feature

Part four of a series

One of the best additions we can make to our woodland/wildlife gardens is a simple rotting log, surrounded by native wildflowers and moss.

Not unlike a forest, where large branches and entire trees are left to slowly decay on the ground, our gardens benefit from the same rotting logs on our forest floors. These logs can quickly become home to any number of small woodland creatures, many of which are often unseen unless we really go looking for them.

A trillium pokes through the undergrowth from a dead tree stump creating a lovely woodland vignette that can be easily copied in our own woodland gardens.

During my Walks in the Wood, I have been drawn to woodland vignettes – like the one pictured above – surrounding downed tree branches or old tree stumps that have attracted a host of native plants and mosses. Recreating these scenes in my own garden has been a real joy, although I still have much to do before I can say they are completed.

The images above and below represent the beginnings of a project that involves a total of six natural woodland pathway planters.

If it’s large enough, you should see toads, snakes, even salamanders move in to the log along with a myriad of insects and fungi that all work in unison to break down the wood and add nutrients back to the garden.

Moss and a pink wildflower add a nice touch to our woodside planter.

The process of decay is slow and might even go more or less unnoticed, if it wasn’t for the birds and animals that visit the log looking for a quick meal or a place to escape predators. Photographers looking to improve their wildlife opportunities can use the log as a to capture wildlife in a natural setting like the image of the chipmunk farther down the page.

Ideally, we are looking to create a log planter similar to the artistic interpretation below.

A natural log planter is the perfect addition to a woodland garden. Place it along a path so you can enjoy it on your walks through the garden.

Don’t remove those large branches after tree trimming

One of the best decisions I made several years ago was to tell our local tree service company not to cart off the large branches they took down from our upper canopy trees and, instead, leave them be on the ground.

One area where a lot of branches fell was our massive garden of ferns (link to fern garden post). It was the perfect place to just leave the large branches on the ground to break down naturally.

Our massive ferns grow up through the large branches and hide them throughout the summer months. During the early spring and fall and winter, I get to monitor the slow breakdown of the large branches spread over the ground.

“An interesting log or gnarly branch can add a very artistic touch to a shade garden or a final bit of realism to a woodland garden.”

— Sally Roth

In another area of the garden, I used the large branches that were removed from the tree to create a natural woodpile to provide shelter and habitat for the backyard critters that need places like this to escape predators. I’m sure some of them use it as shelter throughout the winter.

In fall, I throw on a layer or two of fallen leaves to provide even more shelter and create an even better environment for the large branches to break down over time.

If you are able to find a stump or old log with a hole in it, you just might have the perfect outdoor studio for capturing images like this. A few sunflowers dropped in the natural cavity will bring chipmunks and birds to your planter for some great photographic opportunities.

Five tips to find deadwood

If you do not have dead trees or stumps on your property to attract wildlife, you can always go out on a scouting trip to find a handsome trunk or large branch to place artistically in your landscape. Here are a few places to look for deadwood to create your planter.

• If there is a natural woods nearby; ask permission to collect a few good-size pieces of deadwood. It’s best to collect soon after a storm blows down the branches, before wildlife have a chance to move in.

• Call a nearby tree service company. They are usually willing to let you have anything you can haul off, or you may be able to arrange delivery for a small fee.

• Check with your local cable, electric or telephone company. Trimming branches and clearing trees are routine maintenance and they are more than likely happy to let you take them.

• Your local parks department and the town or city road crew may be able to help as well. They maintain public trees and are often looking to get rid of large branches.

• Keep an eye out for possibilities in your neighbourhood. Your neighbours will probably be pleased to let you cart off their stumps an larger branches. Explain to your neighbours why you want them and how you will be using them. It’s a good way to raise awareness about the value of deadwood.

Deadwood does not have to be left on the ground.

In her book, Natural Landscaping, Gardening with Nature to Create a Backyard Paradise, Sally Roth dedicates several pages to the benefits of using deadwood in the woodland garden.

It is almost as useful standing up as it is lying down, she explains. An interesting log or gnarly branch can add a very artistic touch to a shade garden or a final bit of realism to a woodland garden.

If you have a large, long branch that is manageable, consider creating your own “snag” by simply digging a deep hole and planting the deadwood vertically.

I have a 8- to 9-foot branch planted in the back of our yard near my outdoor photo setup that is a regular stop for woodpeckers, nuthatches, red squirrels and chipmunks.

These are particularly prized by woodpeckers, and they make an excellent foundation for a feeding area. I have drilled holes in the branch where I insert bark butter regularly. You can also wire suet to them or hang a feeder. The dead tree is also the perfect landing spot for birds approaching the feeding station. Keep it far enough away that squirrels can’t leap over to the feeders.

Create a simple log planter

Letting nature slowly break down the logs is certainly one way to help wildlife, but using the logs to create a path-side planter is an even better one.

How often have you been out for a walk and saw the local arbourist either cutting down or trimming up a large tree in the neighbourhood. That’s a great opportunity to ask if they would drop off a large branch or two at your home. If you have access to a truck, you could obviously just throw it in the back and take it home on your own.

Some of the tools I used to hollow out a part of the log to pack it with moss and/or wildflowers. A battery-operated chainsaw is an excellent way to cut the initial grooves, which can then be chiseled out to your liking.

Once you have it home, you can go to work carving out a portion of the log where you can pack in a rich forest soil loaded with compost, rotting leaves and bits of fungi that will quickly go to work breaking down the wood.

If you are comfortable using a chainsaw, you can create a large hollow in the log in no time. If a chainsaw is not something you want to get involved with, you can create the planter with simple tools like a hammer and chisel.

To speed up the process, consider using a power drill to first create holes in the area you want to hollow out. Once the holes have been drilled 5-6 inches deep, you can begin chiselling out the wood. Depending on the size of the log, you may have to drill and chisel out the wood a few times before you have the look and depth you want.

If it’s possible, use a longer drill bit to create drainage holes through the log. Drainage holes may not be necessary since the idea behind the project is to create a rotting log, and the wood in the log will absorb a lot of the moisture anyway, but drainage holes might be appropriate depending on what you are planning to grow in the fallen-log planter.

I have seen many of these natural planters with colourful bedding plants filling them up. That’s fine if you are looking to “pretty-up” a corner of the yard, but using native or at least woodland-style plants in and around a natural planter looks and feels much more appropriate.

Think wildflowers like hepatica, trilliums, maidenhair ferns, mushrooms and small succulents. A natural path-side planter where you can control factors like soil PH, is the perfect place to grow Bunchberry (cornus canadensis) or other acid-loving plants.

Three native foam flowers and a Columbine are added to the back of the planter that can be seen from our patio.

In his book, Landscape with Nature, Using Natural Design to Plan Your Garden, Jeff Cox writes that “you can make a totally natural planter by hollowing out the centre 1 foot deep.” He suggests planting the old log planter with ferns, begonias, impatiens, or hens-and-chicks, but I prefer a more natural approach using native wild flowers including trilliums, dog-tooth violets and even wild ginger along with hepatica and spring beauty. It might also be the perfect spot to try some native orchids.

A log planter can also be a great place to grow a small bonsai-like shrub – suggesting the rebirth from a dead tree into new life. Again, try using a native shrub like a serviceberry, or one of the many small-shrubby native dogwoods, and viburnums preferably one with berries.

Commercial alternatives to a natural log planter

If carving up an old wooden log with a chainsaw or painstakingly chiselling one out is too much, there are much simpler ways to achieve the overall look without lifting a finger.

Commercial stumps are available that give you the look of an old, hollowed out tree stump without the work and the eventual complete break-down. High quality concrete planters can look remarkably real.

This example of an old wooden log planter from Wayfair.com is a good indication of what is available.

The concrete containers that are made to look like a real tree trunk are perfect for the woodland garden. You can purchase ones that stand up more or less vertically to give height, or planters that are more like fallen logs that lie on the ground horizontally.

These have the added benefit of being able to be easily moved around the garden.

Of course, you will lose out on many of the insects and small animals that would readily move into the more natural pathside planter, but you will be gaining a woodland aesthetic that will surely bring a smile every time you pass it by.

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Native plants on the woodland walk

“May your life be like a wildflower, growing freely in the beauty and joy of each day.”

— Native American proverb

As May fades into June, the Trilliums too, begin to fade from their stark white stage, to a lovely shade of pink. Not to be mistaken by the vibrant colours of the red trillium or Wake Robin pictured farther down.

Trilliums, cranesbill, violets and Redbuds: Rooted in the woodlands

Part Two of the series

Most people enjoy a walk in the woodland. They marvel at the discovery of a favourite wildflower, shrub or flowering tree growing deep in the forest.

In many places around the world, those same plants growing in a front garden become the talk of the neighbourhood, often bringing HOA administrators or city inspectors to tell the homeowners to cut these same plants down, or worse, rip them out and replace them with tidy non-native plants that they all know and love.

Is it the plants that are the problem, or where they are growing? should it even matter?

Wild violets early bloomers

Yes, the same violets that neighbours work so hard to keep out of their barren yards of turf grass are among the first blooming native woodland wildflowers.

Without getting into an in-depty discussion of why we need more native plants in our gardens – front and back – I am a firm believer that where and how native plants grow make a world of difference to how they are perceived.

In the woodland and other natural areas, Mother Nature does the planting. Somehow, she seems to know how and where to grow these plants so that they fit in perfectly in most cases and make us stop in our tracks and marvel at their perfection.

Click on the links for my earlier post entitled “A Walk in the Woods” and the accompanying Photo Gallery.

Mayapple in Bloom

Most passersby will never notice the lovely white flower beneath the large, attractive leaves of the Mayapples that spread across the woodland floor, but if you lift one of the leaves you just might see the large white flowers that eventually become the “apple” later in summer. The seeds of the “apple” seed pods are eventually planted by ants and other fauna.

She doesn’t worry about planting in ones, threes or fives. Odd numbers are not in her vocabulary. She plants as many as needed, where they grow best. The fact their placement almost always feels right might be coincidence, or meticulous planning, but we all know it’s really about what comes natural and what really works in that world.

During my walks in the woods, I couldn’t help but notice the familiar and unfamiliar plants that emerged with the coming of spring.

Now, I am no expert on native plants, nor do I believe that there is only room for natives in a garden setting. We definitely need more natives in are gardens, but there are aesthetic and other legitimate reasons for adding non-natives to our garden beds.

A single trillium growing among fallen logs and last year's fallen leaves. I gentle reminder to leave your leaves for the beneficial insects and wildflowers.

In the forest, however, non-natives become more controversial, especially those plants that leave our gardens and spread aggressively into the forest. Buckthorn, wild garlic and purple loosestrife are just three non-native species that threaten our woodlands in Northeastern United States and Southwestern Ontario. There are too many more to list – Lilly of the valley and ditch Lillies (those ubiquitous orange day Lillies that seem to have place in every garden) just to name a few.

Our woodland native plants need protection, but in the meantime, we can enjoy them in their natural environments provided we know when and where to look. Once we find them, we can take note of how and where they are happily growing, and ask ourselves why they are growing so successfully in that particular part of the forest or woodland clearing.

click on the link for my earlier post on why we need to plant more natives in our gardens.

By asking ourselves that question, we can locate them in our own gardens with greater success.

Lesson 1: Mother Nature never plants trilliums where she thinks they will look best or seen by the majority of visitors to the woodland. Instead, they appear where they will grow best – in the right light, in deep, rich forest soil formed over years of leaves falling to the ground and decaying year after year. They are not growing in that sandy soil or heavy clay, many of us try to force our trilliums to grow in our gardens.

A cluster of Wake Robin trilliums photographed from above to show their nodding habit and the habitat where they grow. Notice the abundance of fallen leaves and native white pine needles.

What native Trilliums in the woodland can teach us

A wonderful discovery in the woodland. Not far off a secondary path a grop of red trilliums or wake robins warmed up the woodland floor.

Trilliums are a great example of our spring ephemerals. They begin to emerge when the leaves have yet to fill the tree canopy. Without the leaves shading the ground, the sun’s rays reach down deep into the forest floor warming it quickly and giving a kick start to the winter-dormant plants.

By the time the leaves are emerging from the upper canopy, our trilliums are beginning to appear. First in sunnier west-facing areas that get sufficient morning and afternoon light, followed by other areas on the forest floor.

Click on the link for more on growing trilliums in our woodland gardens.

Mother Nature looks for ideal conditions and then lets the trilliums go to work building drifts and, at times, massive carpets of Ontario’s official wildflower.

A wake robin nodding in their typical style of growth.

On my woodland walks this spring, I have watched the trilliums emerge in various parts of the forest, mostly in small groups rather than large drifts, and certainly not in any large carpets that I have witnessed elsewhere.

Along the way main pathway where hundreds of people walk, run and ride their bikes, the trilliums survive and put on a nice show. Some take up perfect spots overlooking the clear creek that runs alongside the path. These are particularly pretty with the stream flowing past them and make for potentially lovely photos.

But, it’s off the main path over the many surrounding hills where I find the largest number of trilliums and certainly the most photographically pleasing compositions. Here, they are more or less undisturbed. The leaf cover is deeper, the fallen trees are decaying more naturally without much interference from humans and the plants are able to spread their seed more efficiently.

On one recent walk along the main path, I noticed a much smaller path going almost straight up vertically. With my trusted, and highly recommended walking sticks, (Amazon Link) I climbed the steep hill, only to be greeted by a lovely woodland scene full of fallen tree stumps in various levels of decay, wood ferns and trilliums – most in small groups, but others growing singularly.

From my vantage point on the other side of the hill, I could hear people walking by (talking loudly of course even in the quiet of the woodland), but I was in another world entirely.

I imagined creating a similar “secret garden” in a quiet area in our woodland garden. It could never match this magical discovery, but maybe I could capture the spirit of the place.

Native Foam flower (Tiarella) blooms alongside trilliums and other native wildflowers.

Lesson 2: Look to capture special places you discover in the woodland in your own garden. You will likely never replicate the exact feeling, but you can capture the spirit of those places. A fallen log left to become moss-covered, a pocket of deep rich humusy soil where you can successfully grow trilliums and wood ferns. Add a natural seating area where you can escape the noisy world around you. Maybe add a natural stone basin to encourage wildlife to visit your secret place.

Woodland scene

How easy would it be to duplicate this first scene in your woodland garden? The cut tree is the result of the local conservation authority maintaining the forest to some degree after fallen trees block walking paths.

In another, much more distant area of the woodland, I come across a grouping of Wake Robin hidden in a quiet area far from the groups of walkers, families with children out for a stroll and bike riders ripping up the forest floor with their knobby tires.

I’m guessing these, more rare, grouping of maroon trilliums have escaped the eye of people who think the wildflowers are there for only their enjoyment and walk off with either an entire plant or just the flowers, hoping to get them home in time to pop them in a vase.

Or maybe, it’s just ideal conditions that brought them there.

As spring opened its arms to more and more wildlfowers, from the large drifts of Mayapple and skunk cabbage (covered in more depth in my first post A Walk in the Woods), the emergence of large drifts and smaller clumps of Forget-Me-Nots began lighting up the forest floor.

The blue mistiness of a blanket of Forget Me Nots surround a large tree just off the path in the woodland.

Forget Me Nots: Native or non-native?

A ray of sunshine catches a clump of Forget Me Nots along a main path. Being out late in the day allows us to capture special moments like these.

I was always of the understanding that Forget-me-nots were an introduced species that naturalized in our woodlands, but I have learned that, in fact, there is a species of native Forget-Me-Nots in the United States and Canada. That’s good news because they are certainly in abundance in the woodland around my home as well as in our garden.

The species native North America including Ontario, Canada is Myosotis Macrosperma, also known as the large-seed forget-me-not. It is in the borage family (Boraginaceae) and found in a variety of natural habitats, including areas of bottomland forests, mesic forests and prairies. Like most native woodland plans it likes nutrient-rich soils, but can be found growing in less than ideal soils including pastures and fallow fields.

Myosotis macrosperma is a spring blooming herbaceous annual that produces a cyme of white flowers. Myosotis macrosperma can be distinguished from the non-natives by its longer inflorescence nodes, larger and more deciduous calyx, and larger mericarps

While the common forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica) is not native to North America and is considered an invasive species, it has naturalized in various regions. 

I admit a soft sot for these lovely little flowers and enjoy photographing them whether they are the native or non-native variety. They are not around for long and are certainly willing self-seeders.

Lesson 3: Unless you want to be inundated with an abundance of Forget-me-nots in your spring garden, think twice about introducing them to your garden. On the other hand, if you like the blue carpet of these early spring bloomers, feel free to let them spread through areas of the garden and experience the joy of the misty blue carpet every spring. In an area of our garden, the Forget-Me-Nots are happily spreading and allowed me to capture the image of the spring fawn (above).

Many of the images in this post and other posts from a “Walk in the Woods” were post processed with Luminar Neo software. If you are looking for an inexpensive, but comprehensive editing program for beginners, check out Luminar Neo’s wide ranging tools to take your editing to new heights. Check the bottom of page for a 10 per cent discount code.

A river of Marsh Marigolds is a stunning sight to come upon on a misty morning in early May. Below, a single bloom shows how beautiful they are in close up.

A river of of Marsh Marigold

I stumbled across a river of marsh-marigold (Caltha palustris) also known as kingcup one misty morning on a path a little out of the way of the main walking path, but certainly in an area regularly visited by the many who walk the conservation area trails.

A single marsh marigold bloom from the river that blanketed an area in an open, marshy area of the woodland.

I photographed the incredible scene from every angle I could imagine to ensure I could do it justice. In other areas, smaller clumps of the joyful sunny flowers graced the woodland wetlands.

Marsh Marigolds, is a small to medium sized herbaceous perennial and member of the buttercup family. As its name implies, they are native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodlands throughout the northern hemisphere. These lovely plants flower between April and August depending on location. For more details, use this link to read Wikipedia’s extensive description.

Wikipedia includes this description of the flowers or (inflorescence): “The common marsh-marigold mostly has several flowering stems of up to 80 cm (31 in) long, carrying mostly several seated leaflike stipules, although lower ones may be on a short petiole; and between four and six (but occasionally as few as one or as many as 25) flowers. The flowers are approximately 4 cm (1+1⁄2 in) but range between 2–5.5 cm (3⁄4–2+1⁄4 in) in diameter.”

How is that for a mouthful?

Lesson 4: All I know is that these native wildflowers thrive in the local wetlands. Unfortunately, I don’t have a natural or man-made pond in our garden, but if I did, these would be a must-have. Not only do they light up the area with an abundance of golden flowers, they provide pollinators with an early-spring source of food. A win-win for our gardens.

Wild geranium or cranesbill

A wild geranium shows off its lovely mauve flower. These are an important early source of nectar and pollen for a host of insects.

Wild Geranium making their presence felt

Most woodland gardeners have at least one wild geranium (cranesbill) in their gardens. Whether it’s the native plant or one of the many “nativars” that have invaded most nurseries, these hardy, low-growing ground covers work as well in the natural woodlands as they do in our gardens.

Click on the link for my full story on using wild geraniums as a ground cover.

As I write this post in late May, the Wild Geranium are just starting to flower both in the natural woodland and in our garden. The mauve flowers are always a welcoming sight growing among the ferns and adding colour to the forest floor. Check out my earlier post on growing wild geranium as a ground cover in the woodland garden.

Wild strawberry make an appearance in late May. The flowers will eventually turn into a wild strawberry fruit that willed woodland fauna.

As May turns to June and the woodland matures from spring to early summer wildflowers, ferns, mayapple, sedges, Jack-in-the-pulpits and other primarily foliage plants begin to take over from the ephemerals in the woodland, where they go about their business of shading the forest floor.

I’ll keep visiting my woodland, exploring and discovering more native flowers, plants, shrubs and trees as spring turns to summer. Here are just a few more I came across during my Walks in the woodland.

Jack in the Pulpit

Areas of the woodland support numerous Jack in the Pulpits, which easily go unnoticed on the greening forest floor..

A native Redbud tree has found its roots in a dense part of the woodland along a stream.

A serviceberry tree enjoys a ray of late evening sunshine that lights up it myriad spring flowers. In summer, the tree will be visited by woodland birds and mammals looking to get a taste of its sweet red fruit.

Concluding thoughts on a walk in the woods

Walking in my local woodlands this spring and exploring the flora and fauna that grows naturally there has been an eye-opening experience. Not only have I watched the forest come to life, but I have witnessed the change from week-to-week, day-to-day.

It’s been an inspiring couple of months as the regular visits allow me to become more intimate with the landscape, flora and fauna. Our woodland is actually part of the Hamilton Conservation Authority and is located primarily in a deep, rather hilly ravine.

The Dogtooth violet photographed from above to show habitat and bring out its interesting star shape. The image was processed with Luminar Neo where it was given a soft glow often effect to bring out a dreamy look. For more on Luminar Neo, see links below.

In the past, a very bad hip would never have allowed me to hike the area, especially considering the extreme variations in topography. The only reason I am able to hike these woodlands as extensively as I have is with the use of Nordic hiking sticks. Whether you are young or old, in perfect health or struggling to keep up, Nordic hiking sticks should be an important part of your journey into the woods.

I have used hiking sticks for close to a year and would not be without them on any hike into the woods.

If you live near to a woodland – and most of us do – take time to experience it, explore it and discover the hidden treasures nature provides us if we make the effort.

• Many of the images in this post and my other “Walk in the Woods” articles, are processed with Luminar Neo photo editing software. If you are interested in taking your photographs to a higher level, you should consider exploring Luminar Leo. It’s an ideal software package for those who are new to photo editing. The photo editing software capitalizes on Ai features to make photo editing much simpler for the beginner.

For a completely different look at what Luminar can do with film that is digitized, Check out my review of the Pentax PZ20 and Luminar Neo processing here.

If you decide to purchase Luminar Neo, you can use the code “FernsFeathers” for a 10 per cent discount at checkout.

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What about all those cultivars of Native Plants?

Are “Nativars” safe to plant in our gardens?

"‘I love the cultivars or nativars of so many of our native plants. Are they okay to use in our natural garden?”

That’s a question many natural gardeners are asking these days as they try to do what’s best for the environment while at the same time being tempted by a “better” rendition of an already existing native plant.

A hummingbird visits native bee balm in our garden.

What is a nativar and how to spot them at the nursery

First of all, what is a “nativar” anyway? In their book A Garden for The Rusty-Patched Bumblebee, authors Lorraine Johnson and Sheila Colla offer this definition: “You can tell whether a plant is a cultivar because it is “named” in quotation marks.” They then go on to give an example of a named cultivar of the native plant Monard didyma which would be in nurseries with the tag Monad Didyma “Cambridge Scarlet.” This plant would be a cultivated version of the unmodified species plant. These native plants have been “deliberately selected, cross-bred or hybridized for traits that are considered desirable by the nursery trade and gardeners.”

In the image below, the term Nativar is on the flowers name tag and the flower has a name “Ruby Star”. True natives would only use the name Purple Coneflower and/or the botanical name Echinacea Purpurea.

These flower tags are clearly marked ‘Nativar’ in the lower right but the name of the plant “Ruby Star” is a giveaway that this is a hybrid of the native Purple Coneflower. The jury is still out on these plants, but when given the chance, it is always better to use the true native plant.

The authors go on to explain a further complexity gardeners face when trying to decide whether to add the plant to their garden “because some “named” plants for sale at nurseries are “varieties” rather than cultivars. Look for “var” in the name of the plant, which indicates that it is a variety, not a cultivar. Varieties are naturally occurring and are selected by nurseries for their desirable traits.”

Okay so are these “varieties” desirable for your garden, the environment and the wildlife that are dependant on native plants?

Native plants are always a good choice when deciding what to plant in your garden.

The answer to this question is yes. Johnson writes: “In terms of biodiversity, the important difference between varieties and cultivars is that with varieties, the traits can be passed down to the plant’s offspring via sexual reproduction, which leads to genetic diversity within the plants. With cultivars, the trait(s) is not passed down via sexual reproduction, which means that to retain the trait(s), the plant is cloned. Thus each cultivar is genetically identical to every cultivar of the same name, and cultivars do not contribute to genetic biodiversity.”

In other words, “They do not have the genetic variations that ensure resiliency in species and adaptability to stressors such as diseases, pests and climate change,” the authors write.

The authors go on to cite a study by Dr. Annie White at the University of Vermont which arrived at interesting results showing that although native plants performed better than native cultivars in most cases, cultivars were used by pollinators both as a source of nectar and pollen.

Other studies also show varying results.

Authors Johnson and Colla in their informative book A Garden for the rusty-Patched Bumblebee conclude that “in the absence of of empirical data it is prudent to plant unmodified native species. Unless the nativar has been evaluated in a comparative study, its pollinator value is simply assumed, rather than known.”

They conclude that by planting “unmodified native species, you not only contribute to helping pollinators but also to plant conservation, including genetic diversity.”

As readers can conclude, planting unmodified native plants is always the best choice for both the environment and our native wildlife, however, I think planting “nativars” and “varieties” are probably a better choice than planting non-native species, especially when they have the potential to force out native plants by taking over natural areas.

In time, future studies will reveal more information on the dangers and benefits of using these modified native plants and will help to definitely answer the question of whether we should be using these in our garden.

In the meantime, it’s best and safest to stick to native plants.

A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee can be purchased at most local bookstores or at on-line stores like Amazon.ca or often used at smaller book sellers under the umbrella group Alibris.

Inspiration: Discovering the essence of your garden

I think this image begins to capture the essence of our garden. The blue jay enjoying a refreshing drink below and in the cover of a beautiful dogwood in full bloom. Images like these can help inspire the vision you are looking for in your garden. It would never have happened if I did not place the bird bath under the dogwood fully expecting similar scenes to occur every day. It could just as easily be a small naturalized pond that was inspired by an experience in a nearby woodland.

Cultivating a vision through fine art and natural experiences

Inspiration can be found in so many places, and yet, we all struggle to find a vision for our garden.

Finding the vision is really the first step to creating it.

That vision is constantly being shaped by a world where we are bombarded with images, videos and garden experts telling us how to create the perfect backyard.

It’s rarely as simple as looking through gardening books and picking out a garden style. We know that adopting another person’s vision for such a personal space is probably not the answer, but the questions remain, where do we get the inspiration to cultivate a vision for our garden?

Obviously, there is no single answer to that question. But, let me share with you a few ways that I am looking for inspiration.

This year, I’ve decided to take a multi-faceted approach to finding garden inspiration. Of course, exploring the natural world is first and foremost, (see my earlier post on using nature as a guide), but books and music can be equally inspiring sources of inspiration. And, I’m not talking about gardening books exactly, although they too can be excellent resources for garden inspiration.

Let’s start with experiencing a natural woodland.

“When the leaves on trees are about the size of squirrels’ ears, when birds returning from months in the south dart around in search of nesting sites and daffodils dance in gardens and meadows, a deep sense of well-being floods over me. Everything good in the world seems possible.”

— Freeman Patterson, Photographer

We are lucky to live in an area surrounded by woodlands and conservation lands. When we first moved here, I explored the area to some extent, but raising a family and work always seemed to get in the way of really getting to know the land intimately. For years, I’ve more or less taken the woodlands around us for granted, rarely exploring it to any great extent.

This year, however, I have decided to make a concentrated effort to fully experience and embrace the natural woodland. That includes spending significant time exploring the paths, wildflowers, stream, trees and wildlife that call it home.

It means experiencing the sounds of the forest, breathing in the fresh air, feeling the rain on my face and sitting quietly in secret places among the wildlife at various times during the day and into the evening. This will help to provide a sense of place.

Even if you do not live in such an area, take the time to visit a local woodlot and experience how nature shapes its natural design. Study the finer details. Look at the forest floor, how a stream or small pond influences the surrounding vegetation. Now take this knowledge and put it to use in your own garden.

A vision of what could be

This image taken in the garden one morning captures the essence of what I want our woodland to represent – wild, mysterious yet open to exploration.

For me, experiencing the surrounding woodland also means documenting it photographically. What am I looking to achieve? you ask. I am looking to find images that help to portray the essence of the emerging spring woodland so that I can incorporate some of these discoveries into my garden.

They don’t have to earth-changing revelations, maybe they are nothing more than gaining a greater understanding of how the plant communities work together.

If we give it a chance, the natural world can be our teacher and provide much of the inspiration for our garden designs.

Like any worthwhile endeavour, I know it will take time and regular explorations into the woodlands.

In fact, the process has already begun. I have ventured into the woodlot several times photographing what inspired me. To date, the images I’ve made have been very uninspiring. But that is expected. I think you have to get to know your subject before you can capture its essence.

Early signs of spring

The skunk cabbage is just starting to emerge with its rather odorous leaves. These plants are an important signal that spring has sprung.

On my last visit, I captured the early emergence of spring as skunk cabbages (Symplocarpus foetidus) began to poke their wonderfully vibrant coloured leaves through the wetlands. Now, few gardeners would likely plant skunk cabbage in their gardens unless they had a large wetland area, but Mayapples and even Hosta leaves sprout up in early spring. Skunk cabbage may well serve as the inspiration to plant native mayapples or non-native hosta to experience that same thrill of early spring emerging skunk cabbage.

My early ventures into the woodland to date, though not photographically successful, will be important images to document the emergence of spring as the trees begin to leaf out, grasses and sedges emerge and the undergrowth once again becomes alive with life.

Stay tuned for more on this spring exploration of the woodland.

This image captures the dreamy vision I have for my garden inspiring me to work to encourage more butterflies such as this Painted Lady and to add delicate flowers to add to the dreamy look.

Focus on artistic vision for creative inspiration

In addition to being outside in nature and experiencing the spring rebirth of the woodlands, I’ve been exploring the books of various visual artists who share many of my interests about the natural world. These fine artists provide a unique look into capturing the essence of a scene.

Studying how they use line and shape, colour and textures, where they place the focus of interest, (even if there is one at all in the piece of art), all contribute to the attempt to capture the essence of the scene.

First, I turned to one of my favourite photographers for both inspiration in the garden as well as photographic inspiration.

Freeman Patterson’s book The Garden (see my post here) was a perfect combination of garden and photographic inspiration.

Many of Patterson’s other books, Photography & the art of seeing, Photography of Natural Things, Photography for the joy of it, Photographing the Word Around You and Odysseys, Meditations and Thoughts for A Life’s Journey, just to name a few, illustrate his unique vision, willingness to experiment with colour and visual design, and contributed to help inspire my own vision of how I can use these concepts in our garden, let alone my photographic pursuits.

Below are two images taken years and miles apart that share many of the same characteristics. Both use a single colour, both are dominated by a large rock mass on a diagonal line, and both suggest the fragile nature of living plants growing in what might be perceived as a hostile environment. The top one was taken in a very wild area in northern Ontario, the other in our garden alongside our driveway. In both cases the stone forms the foundation of the image and the plant life creates the essence showing the delicate balance between hard and soft, life and death.

Inspired by Canadian photographer Freeman Patterson’s approach to the Photography of Natural Things, I made this image of a single fern growing in what appears to be a rock face. The simplicity of line, shape and colour helps to form a vignette that captures the essence of what I am trying to achieve in parts of the garden.

Garden vision from nature

The image above was photographed in a natural setting and may have influenced the image of creeping phlox trailing over the rocks in a garden setting. You may not be able to duplicate the vision, but you can take cues from the natural images.

In his book The Garden, Patterson writes: “When the leaves on trees are about the size of squirrels’ ears, when birds returning from months in the south dart around in search of nesting sites and daffodils dance in gardens and meadows, a deep sense of well-being floods over me. Everything good in the world seems possible.”.

Robert Bateman, a Canadian fine artist who became famous primarily for his incredibly realistic wildlife art, reminded me that nature can be beautiful in its raw form. Some of his images are just tapestries in nature reminding me of my earlier post on a Tapestry of Groundcovers, but others show an animal, bird or other form of wildlife as a small element in a larger scene. The environmental portrait approach is covered in my recent post here, entitled Give your subjects room to breathe.

His work reminded me that a dogwood tree takes on a whole different look and feel when a blue bird sits in its branches. A simple lichen-covered rock can be beautiful in its own right and does not benefit from flowers being planted around it.

His work is a reminder to keep everything in the garden simple and learn to appreciate what nature offers us.

Fine artists who manage to capture a scene in a single painting or photograph teach us another important lesson – to look for the essence of the place.

Essence is defined as “the intrinsic nature or indispensable quality of something, especially something abstract, that determines its character.”

Finding that essence in a single image or painting requires careful composition, design and a thoughtful approach. It is not that much different to creating and implementing a vision for our garden.

A fascinating look at Foliage

Foliage is an elegant oversized coffee table book featuring the images of master photographer Harold Feinstein.

These images will change how you look at your garden

If you are one of those gardeners who have yet to embrace the beauty of foliage, Harold Feinstein will change your mind in a hurry.

Feinstein is the master behind the meticulously composed images in the beautifully photographed coffee table book simply entitled FOLIAGE.

The simplicity of the title reflects the same approach Feinstein takes in this breathtaking, 135-page oversized book published back in 2001. Don’t let the age of the book put you off. These digital images are of the utmost quality, printed beautifully and presented in a contemporary, minimalistic approach that lets readers zero in on what is really important.

For woodland gardeners who depend on foliage for most of the growing season, these images prove that we no longer have to be jealous of our cottage gardener friends who like to show off their abundance of colourful and showy flowers.

The next time “one of those people” try to impress you with their fancy flowers, pull this book out and show them what they are missing. If that’s just not your style, leaf through the pages at least once a month in the growing season to remind you why you love woodland gardens.

“With my photographs, I want to do for horticulture what Audubon did for birds and animals.”

— Harold Feinstein

Although Foliage is primarily a book of photography, contributing authors Sydney Eddison and Alexandra Anderson-Spivy add a touch of their own with elegant essays on “Looking Beyond the Obvious” and “The Architecture of Nature Enhanced.” Greg Piotrowski adds informative botanical notes to fill out the book.

The hardcover book is available at Amazon book sellers used for just a few dollars here, or at independent booksellers in the United States, Canada and elsewhere here.

It’s a quick read. You can get through the prose with a couple of afternoon teas or morning coffees, but you’ll want to return to it regularly to view the gorgeous images all taken with stark black backgrounds.

Of course, some of the most striking images in the book are ferns – always beautiful for their architectural qualities – but ornamental grasses like Switch grass and Maiden grass have never looked so good. Fruits and vegetables are included along with a full-spread image of gourds.

Hardy geranium foliage, yellow spurge, and a simple Sycamore Maple leaf are just a few of the outstanding images woodland gardeners might appreciate most.

For more on using foliage in the garden, be sure to read my earlier post: The importance of foliage in a woodland or shade garden.

Linden leaves and acorns is a combination that will take you back to a walk through the garden in fall. The simple but lovey image of Maple samaras might even help gardeners get over the dread of all the little maple trees sprouting up through the leaves in spring.

In her opening essay, Alexandra Anderson-Spivy writes: Feinstein excels at making the humblest, most familiar vegetable or weed provoke our astonishment and scrutiny. His wonder at the world remains undimmed. He says, ‘With my photographs, I want to do for horticulture what Audubon did for birds and animals.’ The images in Foliage, perhaps even more than the photographer’s flowers, invite his viewers to ponder the infinite architectural variety of nature. He examines everything from ferns and grasses to grapes and Hosta leaves, from dissected artichokes and tomatoes to a tapestry of maple seeds, every shape isolated against deep black backgrounds. These images teach us again the the gorgeous diversity of nature is an inexhaustible subject.”

There are separate essays on grasses and ferns, edibles, The Essence of Green, The Beneficial Green Plant, Leaf coloration, Cactus and succulents and Seeds of change.

This is not a gardening book. Readers will not learn how to grow, nurture or fertilize a plant, but it will inspire you to look at foliage in a new way and to use it boldly in our gardens.

One final note – I can’t think of a more beautiful book to place on your coffee table for inspiration and to remember why you garden in the shade of a tree.

The hardcover book is available at Amazon book sellers used for just a few dollars here, or at independent booksellers in the United States, Canada and elsewhere here.

• If you are interested in purchasing the book, it is published by Bullfinch Press / Little, Brown and Company Boston • New York • London.

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Yellow lady slipper orchids in the garden

Where to purchase hardy Yellow Lady Slippers and how to grow them in the garden

It’s hard not to fall in love with Yellow Lady Slippers. These two were among the many photographed in a cedar bog growing alongside Showy Lady slippers (see images below). Never dig these flowers in the wild, they can be purchased through specialty nurseries.

I’ve always had a thing about Lady Slipper orchids. In my earlier years, I spent a lot of time and effort driving all over the area searching out these elusive wild orchids in the forests and wetlands in the area.

Among my favourites were the delicate and truly lovely Yellow Lady slippers.

Some of my best photographic images, in fact, were taken in a nearby cedar bog where the yellow orchids (Cypripedium parviflorum) grew alongside showy ladyslippers. They bloomed in early June and my buddy and I could only stand a half hour or so in the cedar swamp before the mosquitoes and who knows what else ate us alive.

I have not been back to see if the wild orchids are still growing there, but I suspect they have been dug up by gardeners thinking they can grow them in their own yards. Or, maybe even worse, the bog has been drained in the name of progress.

Both are big mistakes, but I want to emphasize that digging these rare wild orchids is almost criminal. For more on why you should never dig wild plants, see my earlier post here.

Not only is it rare for these orchids to survive in a completely different environment than what they were growing in – a heavy cedared bog – many of these orchids need a fungi present in the soil to survive, or at least prosper.

The beauty of wild orchids

Growing hardy native orchids is possible but not for the faint of heart.

And don’t take my word for it. Frasers Thimble Farms, an expert orchid grower on Salt Springs Island on Vancouver Island in Canada states on their website this about growing any hardy Lady Slipper orchid: “The most beautiful of all the Hardy Ground Orchids are the Lady Slippers, however, they are not the easiest plants to grow. Frequently, people need several attempts before mastering their cultivation.  In cultivation, many have success growing them in pure perlite or in pots with a mix of equal parts of peat, sand and perlite.  In nature, they often grow in bogs, but they tend not to like soggy conditions.  Until recently it was not known how to germinate the seed of these beauties, but a few people (labs) have worked out how to in sterile medium (including us now). … We will also have a small selection of mature single eyed divisions of garden grown plants (mature plants).  We have also recently begun to sell large plants with two growth points ( double eyed Divisions).

In speaking to Richard Fraser this week via email, he reports that:  Yes, in fact, “we grow lady slippers. A few species and a few hybrids. We have been shipping them in the Fall but we don’t ship in the spring anymore.  We no longer sell young plants in culture ( still in the test tubes) as the mortality rate was too high. We sell 4-5-6-year-old plants that are near or at bloom size and a few 7-8-year-old plants that are a little larger. We no longer ship to the USA.

Okay, so they are available but at a cost. Expect to pay upward of $100 Cdn with shipping for a mature plant.

Frasers Thimble Farms only sells to Canadian purchasers. There are U.S.-based sellers who grow in labs that only sell to US-based buyers. One mail-order seller is Great Lakes Orchids who have a long history of lab-cultivated hardy orchids. Check on-line for more, if you are interested.

I am sure that an on-line search will also bring up European sellers as well.

How to grow hardy Lady Slipper Orchids

Great Lakes Orchids website has an outstanding comprehensive website page about how to grow a variety of specific hardy Lady slipper orchids. This information is critical for anyone who is thinking of trying their hand at growing these orchids. Go here to see their recommendations on growing orchids.

For example, on Yellow Lady Slippers they recommend the following:

• “Existing on a variety of soil compositions, but generally requires a slightly acidic condition, PH 5.5 is typical. It can be found in openings in hardwood forests, androadside ditches, and grassy fields, but the common denominator is PH, PH=5.5

• Enjoys full morning sun with high dappled shade in the hot afternoon. Tolerates moisture but sites should be well drained. Can be found on gradients and slopes that provide good drainage. Common name: Small Yellow Lady Slipper.

• Recommended soil mix: MetroMix 560 SunCoir, amended PH to 5.5. CEC=medium

• Fertilization: Enjoys regular feedings of ¼ strength fertilizer. We use water soluble fertilizer. Stop fertilizing when flowers open.

• Water: Typical water supply, city, well, rain water, etc. Municipal chlorine and fluoride are not a problem in any way, they’re fine.

• Fungus control: Use a systemic fungicide as per labeled directions

• Overwintering: Protect dormant eyes and buds from mice, voles, and squirrels. Hardware cloth may be used; remove early in spring before they break dormancy in spring.”

This group of wild Moccasin flowers were photographed in a sandy-based pine forest. Do not dig these flowers in the wild, they will not grow in your garden without proper fungi in the soil.

East-coast seller to check out

In Canada, an East-coast seller that looks promising is Bunchberry Nurseries that is offering an impressive assortment of Lady Slippers. Jill Covill, owner of Bunchberry Nurseries says that her company does ship orchids to Canadian customers. Jill says customers should go to the website and e-mail her directly to order their favourite Lady Slippers.

Bunchberry Nurseries grow all their Lady Slippers from seed. Check out their website for more information.

My experiment growing hardy Lady Slipper Orchids

Back to my personal experience with these orchids. When I was photographing these orchids in the wild, I never thought I could grow the yellow Lady Slipper in my own garden.

Years later, I was surprised to find out I was able to purchase a Yellow lady slipper from a specialty nursery about an hour from my home. Unfortunately they are no longer in business.

This image shows a trio of wild Showy Orchids growing in a cedar bog. Do not dig these flowers in the wild. It is highly unlikely they will survive in a garden setting. Instead, purchase them from specialty nurseries that propagate them in laboratory settings.

The nursery took advantage of new cutivation methods of native Lady slippers. These Lady slippers orchids – like the orchids that are only recently readily available in every grocery store, nursery and many big box stores – are beginning to get a little more common in gardens as a result of the new scientific cultivation through root cuttings.

Without getting into specifics, cultivating and bringing these cold-hardy varieties remains a painstaking task, which helps explain their high cost.

If cultivating them was difficult, growing them successfully can be even more difficult, depending on a number of factors not the least of which is your garden’s soil, lighting conditions and planting locations.

While I’m saying that growing these orchids can be extremely difficult, I’m also aware that some people have enormous success growing these orchids in their garden. I think it’s a combination of the right soil, location and care, with a fair bit of knowledge and dedication.

I am certainly not an expert Lady slipper grower but have managed to keep the lady slipper alive for several years despite only getting a single bloom a few years back. My guess is that if I don’t do something soon to turn it around, I may end up losing the plant.

So, I’ve decided that this year is going to be the year of the rejuvenation of my Yellow Lady slipper. Once the plant emerges this spring, I plan to dig it up and replant it into a container where I can control the environment where it is growing, including soil, fertilization, sun and water.

I know a lot of readers are going to tell me that they have successfully grown wild orchids for years in their gardens, especially those in the maratimes where Moccasin flowers (Cypripedium acaule, also known as the pink lady's slipper) can grow like weeds in some areas, but here in southern Ontario and I’m guessing the American north east, growing wild orchids is hit and miss and more miss than hit.

Unlike the Moccasin flower, the Yellow Lady Slipper can be more easily grown in a garden setting.

My goal is to get our yellow Lady Slipper to a healthy stage where I can actually divide the clump and begin to enjoy more of these outstanding woodland plants.

If planted in a favourable location with good soil etc, these plants can prosper and form large clumps which can be divided and spread throughout the garden.

I’ll keep readers informed of my progress over the spring and summer.

Stay tuned for more on my Yellow Lady Slippers.

If you are looking for more information on Native Orchids, you might want to purchase Native Orchids of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. (Amazon Link) It’s available both in hard cover an in a kindle version and is considered an authoritative guide showcasing the diversity of the native orchids of the southern Appalachian mountains. The book covers the 52 species--including one discovered by the author and named after him –found in a region encompassing western Virginia and North Carolina and eastern West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

If you would like to purchase the book from Alibris (an umbrella group of small book sellers in The US and Canada you can go press on this link. These book sellers often offer outstanding deals on used copies of the books and are highly recommended.

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The Garden: An artist’s spiritual approach to shaping our vision of beauty

The Garden is an inspirational journey by photographer Freeman Patterson exploring his passion for both gardening and photography.

“A forest is a dynamic, creative community. Whether it’s forests or fields, there’s no better way to garden than simply to help the community do what comes naturally.”

— Freeman Patterson – The Garden

Making images, finding passion in the natural garden

Beauty is something we crave. We gravitate to it throughout our life, searching for its elusive qualities. We need it in our lives. And as Freeman Patterson writes in his book, The Garden, when we finally find it, we need to celebrate it. We need to dance, to sing. We need to fall in love all over again.

Beauty, however, is many things to many people. For some it is a frost-covered rose in late fall. For others, it is an arching blade of grass covered in a spring’s morning dew. It may be a field of lupins or a magnificent old oak tree backlit against the morning fog. It may be a white moth hiding in plain sight on an old rustic white-washed window frame.

It may even be the sound of a cardinal singing in spring, or the mist rising off the river as the sun slowly makes its appearance over the horizon.

Canadian artist Freeman Patterson makes no apology for needing beauty in his life. Afterall, to some extent at least, this renowned photographer makes his living finding, exploring and celebrating beauty in the natural world.

“We grow plants, especially flowering plants, in our gardens, greenhouses, and window boxes because they are beautiful. Beauty never requires justification, because it balances the ugliness, hurt, and sorrow that are present in every human life to a greater or lesser degree.”

— Freeman Patterson

So, it should come as no surprise that the garden is both where he discovered beauty and where he continues to cultivate it.

His is not a formal garden – One of straight rows, colourful blooms and finely manicured pathways. Freeman’s vision is a garden of natural beauty. A woodland, a meadow, a pond and secret places where he can experience the beauty of silence and explore his dreams.

Freeman Patterson in his garden in Shamper’s Bluff, New Brunswick.

And he writes about it in a way only he can – with a spiritual approach that reflects his formal education and Masters of Divinity from Columbia University in New York and undergraduate degree at Acadia University in Nova Scotia. His is a vision developed over years of exploring and searching for that elusive trait we call beauty.

“We grow plants, especially flowering plants, in our gardens, greenhouses, and window boxes because they are beautiful, writes Patterson. “Beauty never requires justification, because it balances the ugliness, hurt, and sorrow that are present in every human life to a greater or lesser degree. Without beauty as inspiration and refuge, our deprived should grow hard and cold, and often we transfer, or project, our unacknowledged suffering onto others, especially those with whom we live and work."

Beauty is invariably a positive factor, an enriching presence, a healing influence. It is true in music, painting, and dance, of clouds in the sky and birds singing in the light of dawn, of flowers, even humble geraniums in kitchen windows.”

“... no matter how tiny or grand, how colourful or restrained, how wild or ordered, the garden is a metaphor for the gardener. When you invite someone into your garden you are inviting them to meet you.”

— Freeman Patterson

But his is not a superficial beauty. Freeman recognizes the importance of protecting simple, natural beauty that is all around us. In fact, he has worked his entire life showing people the beauty in everyday things through his photography.

I have always found Freeman’s work inspirational. From the first time I attended one of his day-long presentation to his countless books that help to cultivate both my photographic vision, and a deep spiritual feeling with the land.

Patterson’s photographic vision has brought him great recognition, but it is his writings that has inspired artists, photographers and just simple lovers of nature to explore their dreams and find meaning in their everyday lives.

Patterson recognizes that “Every garden and every gardener is a work in progress. And no matter how tiny or grand, how colourful or restrained, how wild or ordered, the garden is a metaphor for the gardener. When your invite someone into your garden you are inviting them to meet you.”

Stunning photographs combine with exceptional writings that express Pattersons spiritual roots and love of all things natural.

He believes in preserving the natural world. Even the land where he lives and gardens will remain a natural place after he dies. Patterson was a national trustee of the Nature Conservancy of Canada for six years and, in 1997, he donated his property on Shamper's Bluff to the conservancy for an ecological reserve and education area. By donating the land his vision of beauty will live on and help others appreciate nature’s inherent beauty that he has cultivated on his 500-acres of natural gardens.

Patterson gardens with nature, and therefore native plants are an important part of his canvas. He is not a purist, however, and will happily add non-native plants providing they are not considered invasive where he gardens. It is an approach most gardeners are happy to implement.

The Garden takes a seasonal approach to its chapters in the book.

On spring Patterson writes: “Often we ‘attack’ our gardens in a state of frenzy. It’s all too easy in spring to become overly enthusiastic, to prepare a mental or written list of all the jobs that ‘need’ doing and to destroy the magnificence of the season by trying to do them all. What we are really doing, of course, is passing up our enjoyment of the present, in anticipation of a future that, for one reason or another, may never come.”

On growing old he writes: “My garden grows wilder as I grow older. There’s much less formality and restraint than there used to be, nothing planted in rows, and not a straight path to be found. I’m more tolerant of disorder as well, incorporating may beautiful ‘weeds’ into flower beds simply by not pulling them out. I don’t need or want to get anywhere as quickly or directly as I once did, either. Friends tell me I’m more laid back than I used to be and, sure enough, the garden shows it.”

On the environment and natural gardening he writes: “Some people say our country is underpopulated as if humans were the only species living here. But the best possible use of land is to leave it alone, Freeman writes. “let the trees and other plants filter the air, and allow the soil to keep the water clean. Only then can all the elements and species work together to maintain global temperatures that will prevent us from frying or, alternatively, freezing to death.”

The book explores Patterson’s love of nature, his approach to the land and his thinking behind many of the images throughout the book.

His book, The Garden, is a wonderful journey through his life, from growing up as a child in rural New Brunswick not far from where he now gardens at his home at Shamper’s Bluff, to his life threatening liver transplant and his corresponding rediscovery of life’s celebration.

He talks lovingly of his mother and how she introduced him to the beauty of a flower and gardening at an early age. And, he talks –maybe not quite as lovingly – of his father and his very different approach and disdain for a garden cultivated for beauty rather than sustenance.

Throughout the 190-pages of this hardcover book, Patterson masterly combines his two passions in his life – Photography and gardening. The symbiotic relationship is a celebration of art and the natural world revealed in a spiritual approach that leaves the reader wanting more and desperate to get out into their garden to cultivate its beauty whether in the form of photography, a painter’s canvas, or simply in their minds or in their dreams.

Pick this book up. Read it. Experience all it has to offer both in words and images. Then put it down, go out in your garden and experience it. Then, when the time is right, return to The Garden and read it again and again.

It is that good, it’s that inspirational.

If you are looking for a camera to capture garden images, consider KEH Cameras excellent deals on used cameras and lenses at very reasonable prices. Click here to check out their comprehensive website.

Final thoughts on The Garden, the artist and the quest for beauty

I don’t know when I discovered the work of Freeman Patterson. It was likely back in the 1980s when he published the book Photography of the Natural World. I attended his one-day presentation at my alma mater, McMaster University.

It was truly an inspiring day but one that I only realized recently probably changed my life more than I could ever realize at that time. It was also around that time in 1985 that Patterson received The Order Of Canada.

Back then I was youngish, before the day-to-day struggles of raising a family and caring for elderly parents and the like took up most waking hours. It was only after retiring that I rediscovered Freeman Patterson’s writings. Since then, I have grown to better appreciate his writings, his spiritualism and appreciation of the natural world and, most importantly, capturing that feeling through photography.

His book, The Garden, first published in September of 2003 by Key Porter Books, stands as the perfect complement to my two greatest passions in life – photography and gardening. It is an inspiration to continue to pursue my passions and hopefully it will be the inspiration readers find to dive into gardening and even cultivate a new-found passion for documenting their gardens through photography, a paintbrush or maybe just in their dreams.

To order The Garden through Amazon click here.

For fantastic prices from private bookstores in the U.S. and Canada through Alibris on used copies of The Garden and other Freeman Patterson books click here

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River cruises offer incredible garden experiences

Visit spectacular spring tulip displays, private and public gardens all in luxury

All of the above images were provided by the Tulip Festival of Amsterdam

Imagine waking up to a sea of tulips as far as the eye can see. Sheets of red, yellow and orange stretching out before you only broken up by a windmill or workers harvesting the flowers for markets around the world.

And then, imagine your biggest decision of the day is whether to order the Coq au Vin (chicken in wine) or the Boeuf Bourguignon (beef stew) at your dinner table overlooking the Rhine River as you cruise from Amsterdam to Basel Switzerland.

It’s just another day in the life of a European river cruise.

These are the experiences of a typical European river cruiser visiting The Netherlands and Belgium in spring. Every year thousands of Americans, Canadians, Asians and Europeans board Avalon, Viking, Scenic and other river boats to experience this spring phenomenon along the Rhine River.

Of course, experiencing spring in The Netherlands is just the beginning of an incredible week of touring historical and iconic French and German cities along the Rhine River.

Even outside of the spring touring season and the incredible tulip displays, gardens and floral displays are front and centre along the river cruise routes, with breathtaking container plantings and window boxes. In many towns along the routes, window boxes, hanging baskets and impressive container plantings greet visitors adding incredible beauty to already magical towns.

Tours of the Black Forest in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwestern Germany, close to the borders with France and Switzerland offers visitors an opportunity to experience a natural woodland in the heart of Europe. The forest earned its name from the Ancient Romans who found it so thick, dark and impenetratable that they named it the Black Forest.

Today, locals and tourists visit the area for its hiking opportunities, as well as a wealth of museums, small towns and villages that are known for their abundance of cuckoo clocks.

Window boxes line many of the smaller canals and gardeners can get plenty of great ideas with the spectacular container plantings along the cobblestone streets and pathways in the quaint commercial areas.

When it comes to gardening on a small scale, it’s tough to beat the artistic touch and attention to detail European gardeners bring to the table.

My wife, daughter and I have booked a river cruise along the Rhine for September. I’d love to experience the spring tulips, but circumstances led us to a September cruise. My research, however, go me thinking how readers of this website might appreciate learning a little more about what garden experiences can be found on a river cruise. During these let’s say difficult times, cruising Europe just might be the perfect escape from the pressures facing Americans and Canadians at home.

One of the highlights of any trip to The Netherlands in spring is the Keukenhof gardens considered to be one of the best garden of The Netherlands. Seven million tulip bulbs on eight acres of incredible beauty from about the middle of March through to the middle of May. For more on seeing the best tulip displays check out this post from Jessica Lynn writes.

Of course, you don’t have to go on a river cruise to experience spectacular spring blooming tulips. In Ottawa Canada, the tulip festival runs from May 9th to the 19th at Commissioners Park. The festival features massive tulip displays, family-friendly activities, and celebrates the flower's beauty and its historic ties to Canada's capital. Click here for more information on the Ottawa tulip festival.

Make it stand out

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Closer to where I live, The Hamilton/Burlington Royal Botanical Gardens offers incredible spring displays in its sunken rock garden. Many of the images in this post are from the RBG rock garden display. More on the Royal Botanical Gardens, with a focus on their woodland gardens, here.

Many public gardens have incredible spring bulb displays of tulips, daffodils and Hyacinths. They are a great way to welcome spring and get ideas on the best way to use bulbs in our gardens.

In our woodland garden, tulips are almost impossible to grow because of the deer, but we do have a few daffodils in our front garden. Naturalized plantings of tulips and daffodils can work perfectly in a woodland garden setting. Distribute the bulbs in a more natural way, maybe among ferns, to maintain a naturalized look.

You might consider leaving the more formal plantings of your favourite bulbs in the front of your property.

Whether you are planning a river cruise or just a visit to a local public garden, now is the time to begin planning. I suspect most of the cruises will be already sold out for this season, but you may be able to get a deal on a package if you check out one of the many cruise lines.

In any case, experiencing spring bulb displays are an excellent way to welcome spring.

Buy native, buy local and help your favourite Canadian garden centres grow

Continued threats from the American president, his followers and a cowardly Republican party is forcing Canadians to take action any way they can to support Canadian businesses from tariffs and other American threats. That action includes a massive “buy Canadian” movement aimed at crippling the U.S. economy and sending our neighbours to the south a serious message. The following is a list of Canadian garden products, services and companies to support during these threatening times.

American threats to Canada: A growing concern

I have steered away from taking a political stand on this website, but the recent decisions of the American president, his followers and members of the Republican Party have forced me, as a Canadian, to take a stand and take steps to combat these threats from the United States.

I’m sure that the majority of American readers to this website will understand my stance and perhaps sympathize with Canadians who have done nothing to bring on this action from our neighbours.

As a result of Trump’s threats and insulting suggestions to annex Canada and turn it into the 51st state, Canadians have been banding together to “buy only Canadian” products.

Canadian Tire is a good starting point for many of your gardening needs from tools to plant material.

Although this website promotes a lot of American-based products to its American readers, this post is aimed at Canadian woodland gardeners looking to promote and buy Canadian Garden products and from Canadian distributors etc.

This is by no means a complete list (I will add to it as I become aware of more outlets etc.) but it is a good starting point for Canadians to make a strong statement and begin spending their money in this country.

Reader Heather Latto adds: I found many suggestions on a simple Google search: “Canadian owned garden centres in Ontario”. Here are a few:
Garden Centres Canada website: https://www.gardencentrescanada.ca/ is a place to start looking for a local garden centre; may still require further enquiries as to whether or not the garden centre is Canadian owned.

Crawford’s Garden Centre, Milton, ON: https://www.crawfords.ca/

Northland Nursery, Millgrove, ON: https://www.northlandnursery.com/

Buy native plants locally

To begin, whether you live in Canada, the United States, Great Britain …, it’s always important to buy local.

In the case of native plants, it is even more important to buy plants, shrubs, trees and seeds locally. So, always look for seeds, plants trees and shrubs that are not only sold through a local nursery, but grown as close to home as possible. This will help to ensure that the plants are adapted to your growing conditions from the lighting conditions and soil, to local temperature fluctuations.

Buying locally could mean purchasing from a favourite nursery that grows its own plants from locally sourced seed.

In my region in southern Ontario, I urge readers to consider a number of smaller growers including Ontario Native Plants, Connon’s Nursery in the Burlington Ontario area, Struyk Farms and Holland Park, Terra Garden Centres and Greenhouses also in the Hamilton-Toronto corridor.

In addition, field2home informs me that they are a Canadian on-line garden centre that ship trees, shrubs and perrennials to the Toronto and Niagara regions of Ontario.

A reader recommends Natural Themes native plant nursery in Frankford, Vesey’s Seeds, Burley Gardens in Ontario’s north, Richter’s Herbs, Terra Ebibles Heirloom Seeds to name just a few.

Lee Valley Tools is a great Canadian tradition

Toronto Star columnist extraordinaire Lorraine Sommerfeld reminded me that Lee Valley tools is a Canadian based company that carries high-end gardening products including tools, bird houses etc. They are also a mail order firm and will ship across Canada for those who are not close to a retail outlet.

In addition to being an outstanding Canadian company, they are incredible employers. Lee Valley President and COO Jason Tasse, talking tariffs’ impact on Canadian retail and manufacturing on CBC recently announced “We will forego profits for the next 1-2 yrs to ensure employees are stable."

If you have never checked out Lee Valley, be sure to visit a local store or check out their on-line store at Lee Valley.

A Western Canada reader says www.selectroses.ca is great for rose selections, although these may be best for the beautiful climates in Canada’s West. Explorer roses are a popular choice for colder climates in Southern and Northern Ontario as well as the prairie provinces.

Don’t overlook Canadian Tire as an excellent source of garden tools, planters, trellises and other garden accoutrements including BBQ’s, garden chairs, fire pits etc. Last year, I also picked up several plants and trees from my local Canadian Tire outlet. Some Canadian Tire franchises also sell native plants as a fund raiser for Naturalist’s Society.

Rona is another large Canadian-based retailer to keep in mind. They have a large nursery attached to most of their stores.

Home Hardware is a Kitchener Ontario based chain of independently owned stores to also consider. Use this link for savings of up to 25 per cent on seasonal tools and other goods.

If you have other suggestions, please feel free to add them to the comments section here and I will try to include them asap.

For our American readers, please understand that although we Canadians can be a mild-mannered and kind group, there is only so far we can be pushed before we take action. That line was crossed by your president, his followers and your weak, cowardly Republican politicians who are refusing to stand up to this president, Elon Musk and others.

Canadians also know what many of you are having to deal with as this man systematically dismantles everything you believe in and have stood proud of in the past. If you support your neighbours, I urge you to take action. Write your politicians, protest -either through actions or by standing up and screaming from your rooftop.

Not only is this president attacking your allies, he is also attacking the environment by cutting environmental protections.

Action is needed.

Support local journalism

Canadian and Americans also need to support local journalism to provide a check on politicians trying to ramrod their views through without sufficient opposition from the public, opposing parties and unbiased journalism from companies like FOX and others.

Canadians need to beware of Canadian media owned by American companies. Post Media newspapers, including The National Post and most western-based media, are owned by Americans and are working hard to promote pro-American politicians both nationally and locally.

I spent almost all of my journalism career working within the Toronto Star network of newspapers. This media chain may not be perfect, but it is the best and least biased Canada has to offer at this time.

If you want to stay in touch with the latest news, consider subscribing to The Star, in paper form or via the web. American readers might like to hear the other side of the story written by some of the finest journalists Canada can offer.

Garden show inspiration combines nature and fantasy

The combination of colourful flowers, natural moss and a meticulously fashioned tablescape combines to create an incredible fantasy garden room that can be used as inspiration for our own gardens. Imagine incorporating some of these ideas for your next garden party. Even Alice herself is admiring the results.

Injecting a little theatre into your natural garden

I had no great expectations when I stepped into the main doors of our local botanical gardens’ latest flower show entitled “Alice in Bloomland.”

Afterall, I was there to photograph some decent flower images in the middle of a long, cold Canadian winter. After tracking coyotes and owls the previous week, I needed some ready-made subjects that were not hiding out, weary of a photographer, and just plain difficult to find.

“I started out trying to keep the images looking all very natural, but within minutes I realized the beauty of the show was its ability to transform nature into an incredible fantasy stage set that was simply mind blowing.”

Welcome to the show

Here, the use of well-positioned garden art adds colour to an otherwise green-textured ground cover. Imagine adding colourful art pieces like these mushrooms to a quiet area of your garden.

I couldn’t ask for a better situation than flowers out on display, even if they were a little staged. I figured I could work around that and keep it as natural as possible, while maybe even getting a little garden inspiration at the same time.

Boy was I wrong.

I’m convinced Lewis Carroll, author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, would be impressed if he could witness this incredible fantasy garden display.

It’s as fantastical for adults as it is for children, as inspirational for gardeners as it is exciting for photographers. As a gardener with a passion for capturing photographic images, it was almost a dream come true.

I started out trying to keep the images looking all very natural, but within minutes I realized the beauty of the show was its ability to transform nature into an incredible fantasy stage set that was simply mind blowing.

Three take aways from exploring this theatrical show

1. Use colour boldly through the use of flowers and garden art

2. Use mirrors to emphasize and reflect already splashes of colour

3. Incorporate natural materials like moss, ground covers and flowers in theatrical-style installations.

Colourful orchids dominated the display helping to create a truly fantasy world.

The beauty of a single orchid

A single orchid stands out from the thousands that took centre stage in the garden show.

The sheer number of orchids blooming everywhere you looked was inspiration enough, but the extensive use of moss and other natural elements combining with the flowers and Alice in Wonderland garden art, took the display to a whole other level.

Lessons learned from theatrical garden show

But what could a gardener – let alone a woodland gardener – take from all this?

In a word, plenty.

A woodland table setting combining mosses, flowers and the necessary accoutrements.

A massive moss-covered table decorated with an array of flowers softening the accoutrements of a formal table setting provided enough inspiration in itself to dream of what could be done in our own gardens. A similar display on our gardens – toned down a little of course, but not so much to take away the theatrical presence of the display would be a wonderful addition.

A door into the garden

Colourful doors add more excitement to an already incredible theatrical stage set in the garden.

Alice herself even showed up for a few photographs in the garden.

This was garden art taken to extremes. Toned down, a smaller version of the moss-covered table could easily stand in for a boring, old, underused table in the back garden. A glue gun, a variety of mosses, a good helping of annuals, succulents and some well thought out thrift finds could transform a little-used corner of the garden into a favourite sitting spot.

Looking for great gardening products that are made especially for the serious gardener, be sure to check out Gardeners supply? They offer a huge array of garden products.

Either a secret spot in a corner of the garden or, even better, imagine incorporating some of these ideas for your next garden party? Wouldn’t that be fun?

Painting the town red

Using the red extraction filter on the Fujifilm X10 creates the illusion of a youngster painting the town red.

And if a moss-covered table setting is not your “cup of tea” you could always use the naturalized table setting as a place to feed birds, chipmunks and other backyard critters.

Imagine capturing images of your favourite chipmunk sitting down for lunch at your moss-covered table setting with all the trimmings.

Of course, the fantasy table setting was just a small part of the entire display.

In another area of the display, mirrors added depth to the garden, and a vignette focussed on using oversized chess pieces as garden art.

Garden shows, like this one, offer a wealth of ideas for gardeners looking to create a special place in their landscape. The images I collected are too numerous to include in this post, but I have created a gallery of images you should check out to get a more complete picture of what this show and others like them can offer gardeners. To check out my gallery of images click here.

The king and queen sit among an incredible display of roses.

In another area, the queen and king took their positions on stately thrones festooned with an incredible wall of roses. Not far off, children “painted the town red.”

For the Photographers

It’s easy to walk into a display like this and instantly get overwhelmed by colour and the intricate detail captured by the garden designers. Not unlike walking into a forest, it’s always a good idea to walk around and explore the area to get a better feel for the entire display.

If you want to see more images from the Alice in Bloomland garden show, check out my photo gallery here.

I chose to keep my approach simple and stick to my Fujifilm X10 – an enthusiast point-and-shoot camera that was first introduced in 2011. Despite its age, it remains a very capable camera with features that allow it to be the perfect walk-about camera complete with its 28-112mm equivalent lens with close-up capabilities.

For more on the Fujifilm X10 – fast becoming one of the cult cameras in the Fuji lineup, check out my review here and my Photogallery of images taken with the camera here.

It turned out to be all I needed for my first visit and allowed me to capture a comprehensive overview of the display. I returned the next day to capture more detailed images of the show.

Exploring Fujifilm’s extraction filter

The creative approach in the garden inspired me to experiment with Fujifilm’s in-camera filters, and choosing the red extraction filter proved to be an ideal choice to emphasize a garden design feature. (Many camera manufacturers offer colour extraction filters but they are often buried in the camera’s menu systems.)

Taking advantage of a design feature by using an in-camera filter to pull out the reds in this image adds to the fun of shooting in this type of environment.

Time to focus on details

Small details are worth photographing so that you can incorporate many of the ideas in your own garden.

By using the red extraction filter, I was able to simplify a group of mannequins “painting the town red.” The extraction filter, which creates a B&W image that only allows the colour red to show through, helps focus attention on the design by eliminating distractions such as green leaves and other colours in the scene.

If you are looking to purchase a high quality used camera or lens, be sure to check out the offerings at KEH Camera Exchange.

Imagine using the different coloured filters in your garden photography focusing on extracting the colour blue or yellow in your native flowers.

In a show with this much attention to detail, look for garden ideas that might work in your own garden.

Thrifty ideas

Consider using everyday household items as garden art.

One of the details that caught my attention and one that could easily be incorporated in any woodland or natural garden design, is a vintage clock surrounded by a flowering vine.

These little details are features to always keep your eye on while visiting public gardens, but especially when garden designers are brought in to create a fantastical theatrical displays that you are unlikely to see in a typical garden.

Happy shooting.

Capturing images of beautiful gardens and streetscapes is always exciting. European villages offer some of the prettiest streetscapes imaginable, complete with extravagant hanging baskets, window boxes and containers. If you have never considered a river cruise, check out Avalon River Cruises for your next vacation. Click on the link above, or here, for more information.

Native plants: A winter reminder of their importance in our wildlife garden

A wild turkey eyes what is remaining of our Northern Sea Oat seeds growing in our garden. The two young males visit the Sea oats on a daily basis, stripping the seeds which in themselves are elegant additions to the fall garden. (See image below)

Wild turkeys teach us a lesson or two about native plants and garden cleanup

Every day I’m reminded of the importance of planting native plants in our garden. It’s easy to see the importance in spring, summer and fall when the pollinators are buzzing around the coneflowers and the hummingbirds are working the cardinal flowers on an hourly basis.

But, it’s in the dead of winter that I’m being reminded every day of how much wildlife depends on native plants in our woodland garden. You would be forgiven if you thought the goldfinches feasting on the Black Eyed Susan seeds was the reminder.

But that’s not it.

Every day for the past few months it has been our two male wild turkeys that remind me of the importance of growing native grasses, plants, shrubs and trees.

The two male Wild Turkeys that have taken up residence in our backyard are also the perfect illustration of why we should leave fall garden cleanup until spring – especially when it comes to cutting down native grasses.

You don’t need to plant Northern Sea Oats in your garden to attract wild turkeys or other birds and wildlife. Plant it because it is a beautiful and elegant addition to any garden. Consider the wildlife as just an added bonus.

Turns out that wild turkeys – at least the ones in our yard – are big fans of Northern Sea Oats grasses. Not a day goes by that I don’t see our wild turkeys eating the seeds of the Northern Sea Oats. In fact, the other day one of the gobblers was laying down among the sea oats while his buddy stripped the seeds off the plants.

For more on the importance of native plants, be sure to check out my earlier posts:

• Bringing Nature Home, How you can sustain wildlife with Native Plants by Doug Tallamy. This is a review of his outstanding book that has changed the way so many of us garden.

• Why we should be using native plants in our gardens. and why they are critical to our future

• A Garden Revolution: Ecological gardening is way of the future

I’m convinced that without the sea oat grasses, our friendly wild turkeys would be long gone rather than winter residents in the garden. They spend most of their day hidden up in a more wild corner of the yard, coming out several times a day to snack on the native grass and, of course, take advantage of the feed I spread out for them under the bird feeders.

I looked out one cold day to find the two wild turkeys enjoying themselves in the Northern Sea Oats. One laying down eating the seeds, the other standing so he could reach the higher seed heads. Consider growing this lovely native grass and be sure to leave it standing all winter. You might just be surprised about who is using it.

Of course the wild turkeys are not the only wildlife either living in or regularly visiting the garden and the native plants in it.

Earlier today I watched as two Juncos fed on more native wildflower seeds in a corner of the yard.

There are so many examples of wildlife using native plants in our garden. The images below are just a small sampling of the birds, animals and insects that depend on native plants in the garden.

Hummingbird feeding on one of our native cardinal flowers.

Juncos, several species of woodpeckers, cardinals, jays, chickadees and nuthatches join rabbits, fox, deer, raccoons, possums and a host of insects, amphibians and reptiles that call our garden home. While not all depend directly on the native plants in the garden, it’s probably safe to say that they all benefit in some way from the native plants in the garden.

Acorns from the oak trees feed the wildlife, along with the berries from the serviceberries and dogwoods on the property. Viburnum, wild grape, Virginia creeper… the list goes on. Without host plants we would not have caterpillars and therefore parent birds would have nothing to feed their young.

Native plants will play a role in attracting some interesting visitors to your yard. Without a consistent amount of food available, this screech owl would not have chosen our yard to roost in. Native plants attract a variety of insects and small mammals that make up this tiny owl’s diet.

It’s a never ending cycle of dependency that we cannot ignore in our gardens. I’m not one to say that every plant in our gardens has to be native, but if we all make an attempt to plant as many native plants as possible in our gardens and ensure that any non-natives are not harmful to our environment, we will be on the road to helping our local wildlife survive today and into the future.

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Wild Ginger: Native ground cover for your shade garden

Natural replacement for small hostas

This image of Wild Ginger shows off the native plant’s flower beautifully. The small reddish-maroon flower is normally difficult to see because it grows under the leaves and emerges for a short time in spring.

Canada Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense L.) has been described as an ideal replacement for hosta in the native garden, and I couldn’t be happier.

I mean, who isn’t up for a native plant to replace the ubiquitous hostas that have become a mainstay in every suburban garden? I know that I am ready for a change.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a beautiful hosta but so do deer, slugs and a host of other backyard wildlife.

What makes this low-growing ground cover so special is the fact the plants contain a type of acid that ensures deer, rabbits or any other hungry critter that enjoys filling up on our garden plants, have absolutely no desire to sample these plants.

That’s a win-win in my books.

Wild Ginger, also known as “little jug” is a good, low groundcover for eastern woodlands and shaded landscapes. It is considered a new-world native plant and the genus is well distributed around the northern hemisphere.

Before you ask, “Where have you been? Wild Ginger has been around for a long time as a garden plant.” Let me just say that I’ve been a fan of the plant for decades but for some reason have never planted it in the garden.

The above picture, for example, was taken more than thirty years ago in a nearby forest. For whatever reason, I just never got around to planting wild ginger until last season when I picked up three plants at a local horticultural society plant sale.

I’m looking forward to buying more at this year’s sale and spreading what I already have around the garden. The plant is more than capable of spreading all by itself and will quickly colonize an area through underground runners. It can also be easily multiplied through rhizome division in spring or early summer.

Propogation of Wild Ginger is by root division, seeds or even softwood cuttings.

Like most effective ground covers, Wild Ginger is very good at choking out weeds that try to invade its space.

For wildlife gardeners, native wild ginger is attractive to some butterflies but, most important, is a larval host for the Pipeline Swallowtail butterfly.

Like most woodland plants, a mulch of leaves in spring and fall is beneficial and always a wise choice.

A little about our native wild ginger ground cover

First, it’s important to make it clear that this is not a member of the ginger family (Zingiber officiale) that we love to eat. In fact, although wild ginger does have a ginger smell to it, wild ginger can be dangerous to eat. Although it has been used as a medicinal herb in the past, more recent studies suggest that the plant contains carcinogenic properties that makes it better left to simply leave it in the garden rather than use it in any dish.

Wild Ginger grows to about 6-inches tall (15 cm) with a corresponding spread of about 6-inches (15 cm) in diameter making it a great choice for those gardeners who are looking for a low-growing, tidy ground cover. Wild ginger sports two heart- or kidney-shaped leaves that stay on the plant throughout the season.

It is native to Quebec and New Brunswick through to Ontario and Minnesota and south to Florida and Louisiana. It happily grows throughout Eastern North America from zones 3 to 7.

Its range means it can be found throughout the U.S. in AL , AR , CT , DC , DE , GA , IA , IL , IN , KS , KY , LA , MA , MD , ME , MI , MN , MO , MS , NC , ND , NH , NJ , NY , OH , OK , PA , RI , SC , SD , TN , VA , VT , WI , WV). In Canada you’ll find it growing from Manitoba to Quebec and throughout Southwestern Ontario.

A dark reddish-purple flower grows beneath the two leaves that make up a single plant and remains on the plant for a short period of time in spring. You can expect a bloom to appear from April, May and even into June depending on your location.

Wild Ginger is an excellent ground cover for the woodland garden. The above images show how the plants colonize to form an impressive ground cover as well as individual plants showing the maroon-coloured flowers.

These plants can and will self pollinate but are also pollinated by ground-dwelling insects such as beetles, ants and small flying insects.

Once the flower is spent, ants go to work gathering the seeds. They then take the seeds to their underground burrows where they provide food for the colony. In return, the ants provide an efficient form of seed distribution. Don’t be surprised to find plants sprouting up in other areas of the garden thanks to your local ant population.

Wild Ginger is best grown in shade to part shade in moist, acidic soils (pH of between 6-7). These plants do well in morning sun in cooler climates provided they get afternoon shade. It will get baked out if it gets sun all day long.

Botanists argue that there are actually two subspecies of Asarum canadense (wild ginger): Asarum Refexum, and Asarum Acuminatum. The differences can be identified by differences in the length of the calyx lobes of the flower and the amount of fine hairs on the plant’s petioles (stalks). Most, however, are simply lumped together as Asarum Canadense.

There is also an Asian species with a shinier leaf as well as a European species of wild ginger. Canada wild ginger has softer, mid-green coloured leaves that keep its colour all summer long.

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How to grow and care for native Hepatica in your woodland garden

These woodland flowers are among the first to bloom in spring

Hepatica was always my favourite early-blooming wildflower to photograph in the spring woods around our home.

On most early spring photo excursions it was the only wildflower to grace the woodland floor – certainly the most delicate and the one that had the most potential for a lovely photograph. While other spring wildflowers were still in winter dormancy, these spunky little blue, white, purple and pinkish flowers – actually part of the buttercup family – were already up and blooming providing a source of much needed pollen for native bees and other pollinators.

Even if you’re not interested in photographing Hepaticas, experiencing them in your garden each spring is one of the great joys of woodland gardening.

Unfortunately great images of these small flowers can be difficult to capture in the messy spring woodland.

So, why not plant these native beauties in our own garden so we can better admire them, and maybe grab some nice images of them in the best light?

And, don’t be surprised if your hepaticas begin to reproduce in your garden through self-seeding.

On the University of Wisconsin - Madison website, Susan Mahr writes about where to find Hepatica in the wild and how to create those conditions in our garden: “In the wild, Hepatica is usually found in high-quality, open woodlands with many native trees and herbaceous plants and few or no invasive species such as garlic mustard or buckthorn.”

She writes that this low-maintenance plant is best grown in places where it can remain undisturbed for several years. However, she is quick to explain that: “Hepatica are easily transplanted and plants can be rescued from construction sites.” She adds that they should never be dug from intact woodland settings.

For more on why native plants should not be taken from the wild, please see my earlier post here.

Ms. Mahr writes: “While not typically thought of as a garden plant, Hepatica can be readily grown in rich soils in shady sites. It looks best placed in clumps of two or three or scattered about under trees with other native woodland plants including bleeding hearts (Dicentra spp.), wild geranium (Geranium maculatum), Dutchman’s breeches (Dicentra cucullaria), trilliums, woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata), and many others..”

Secret to their success

The secret to Hepatica’s early arrival is because they are a spring geophyte. All this means is that these plants have underground renewal buds which are ready to sprout immediately after the cold season gives way to spring and enough light makes it to the woodland soil through the still-bare trees. The plants’ leaves remain active throughout the winter months, conducting photosynthesis and gathering energy when it is sunny and safe to do so. The old leaves stick around until the plant starts to bloom and create new leaves to carry on its winter-surviving legacy.

The simple beauty of our native wildflowers

Hepatica growing in a woodland setting. Notice the delicate flowers and fine hairs on the leaves and stems.

When Hepatica blooms?

The Sharp-lobed Hepatica, (Hepatica acutiloba) also known as Liverwort and Liverleaf is a native woodland plant that blooms throughout April to May. The flowers are easy to spot on the woodland floor as their hairy, leafless shoots emerge in colourful clusters that add splashes of white, pink, purple, or bluish colours to the forest floor. There is also a variety called the Round-Lobed Hepatica.

Hepatica flowers actually have no petals. Instead, the colourful petal-like objects are actually sepals that frame the flower and sit on top of three green, pointed-tipped bracts. The leaves of Hepatica are also easy to identify with their mottled green colour and three deep lobes that have pointed tips resembling the shape of a liver, hence the common name Liverwort and Liverleaf.

Where are Hepatica found?

This plant can be found throughout southeastern United States and up through Ontario, Manitoba and into parts of Quebec. They are often found growing in open deciduous woodlands with a good woodland soil.

Being part of the Buttercup family, the plant has mildly toxic leaves saving it from being eaten by animals and insects looking for greenery in winter and early spring. Fine hairs along its stems, bracts, and leaves, add to its unappetizing appearance, especially in spring when they are preparing to bloom and their is little else around for deer and other grazing animals and insects.

An extreme closeup of a Hepatica shows their yellow anthers atop the stamens.

There was a time when hepaticas were difficult to find in local nurseries, but the move toward more native plants has made these spring-blooming herbaceous perennials much easier to track down at better nurseries.

Hepatica grows to about 12-inches high and are hardy in zones 8 through to about zone 4a.

The ½- to 1-inch-wide flowers have a number of oblong white, pink, lavender, purple or bluish sepals (no petals!) surrounding numerous central stamens tipped with yellowish anthers.

Imagine small clumps of these

delicate

flowers in your woodland garden

Clumps of these delicate native wildflowers spread throughout your woodland garden can be a magical experience each spring.

Hepatica can be important early food sources for many pollinators, including butterflies, bees, flies and beetles that visit the flowers during the month-long bloom period.

One important note for photographers who are looking to get an early morning photo session in on these flowers, or for those hoping to catch them in beautiful overcast skies. Chances are you will not be very successful. Hepatica flowers actually close at night as well as on cloudy days. They often don’t open up until later in the morning or early afternoon when the sun in out in full force.

Hepaticas time their bloom during warm sunny periods when pollinators are more likely to be out and about.

Hepatica also have the ability to self-pollinate.

By early summer oblong fruits appear on the plants. These are also covered with silky hairs and are a favorite food source of chipmunks and other rodents.

The seeds, which have a small, fleshy appendage called an elaisome, are dispersed by ants, that take them back to their nests to consume the fat-rich elaisomes and discard the seeds which then germinate far from the mother plant.

Other varieties of Hepatica

Hepatica nobilis occurs in eastern North America, Europe, and Japan. Variety obtusa and var. acuta occur in North America, var. nobilis and pyrenaica in Europe and var. asiatica, var. japonica and var. pubescens in Japan. In addition, several other hepatica species occur in Europe and the Far East.

Sometimes the two North American varieties are considered to be species in their own rite. The synonym for var. obtusa is Hepatica Americana, and for var. acuta is Hepatica acutiloba. They are very similar in appearance except that the lobes on the leaves of var. obtusa are blunt and those on var. acuta come to a point. Hepatica nobilis var. obtusa is often found on more acid soils while var. acuta is most common on calcareous soils.

Hepatica nobilis also occurs in Europe from England across Scandinavia thru the Baltic States, east to Ukraine, and south to Italy and Spain.

Propagation

Propagation Material: Hepatica propagation is by both clump division, and by growing seeds. Seeds, which are commercially available, can be collected from mid to late May in most northern climates and should be planted outside soon after collection.

Seeds can also be hard to collect and require cold treatment, so consider fall division as an alternate propagation plan. Clumps can be slow to increase so ensure that when you are dividing a clump, to leave 2-3 buds in each division.

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Five ways to make gardening easier

A garden vignette can be as simple as using a watering can as a focal point to draw your eye to a lovely planting.

Gardening should be a joy not a chore

Depending on how busy you are, how much time you want to spend in the garden or how large your garden is, finding time to keep it looking its best can be a real challenge.

Here’s an idea, and it just happens to be my number one tip on how you can make gardening easier – Stop trying to create the perfect garden aesthetic.

Instead, create garden vignettes that make you happy and are easier to maintain. It might be a destination sitting area in the back of the garden, a lovely piece of art, or a small, colourful garden around a lovely bird house.

In our garden, vignettes include natural tree branches and stumps that give wildlife perfect places to perch, a sitting area where we can enjoy an open fire, a Japanese-inspired mini-garden leading into the backyard from the front of the home.

A piece of art such as this ceramic piece of art from Fish in the Garden can create a focal point and vignette in your garden.

In the great scheme of things, the perfect garden is not important. Visitors will remember the exquisite garden vignette you have created more than the overall look of the garden.

It’s not important to friends and family and it’s certainly not important to the wildlife that either drop in for a visit or choose to live their lives in your garden.

In fact, for the wildlife, a little messy is okay. A lot messy is even better.

Wildlife will reward you

Case in point: we have a couple of wild turkeys who seem to have chosen our backyard for their winter roosting area. Besides the bird seed that is either sprinkled on the ground for them or drops from the regular bird feeders, I continually catch them working the seed heads from our native Northern Sea Oat grasses left standing throughout the winter.

This, of course leads me to my second tip on making gardening easier. Stop tidying up the garden in fall. In fact, you can even refrain from most garden tidying if you are willing to let nature take its course. There are no gardeners cleaning up in the forests, grasslands or other wild places around us. Nature knows what to do if we give it a chance and accept a little mess in spring and fall.

By leaving the garden to go a little wild, you will get more visits from local wildlife.

It goes without saying that leaving the leaves should be a primary goal. Leave them where they fall, or rake them onto your garden beds. Cleaning up fall leaves is not only a never-ending job, it’s a waste of time and one of the contributing factors behind the decline of so many of our native butterflies, moths, fireflies and other important insects. It’s also depriving our soil of important ingredients like organic matter and trace minerals.

Even without the seed from the feeders, these turkeys – as well as many of the traditional songbirds – would be flocking to the backyard to eat the natural seed remaining on this native grass. Recently I watched them working the seeds on the brown fern stalks that remain all winter. These natural food sources are vital for the survival of these magnificent birds throughout the winter.

But the seed heads feed a host of animals in the garden from songbirds, to larger animals from our friendly red squirrels to mice that are food for our neighbourhood fox families and screech owls that also need a source of food during our long winters.

The Goldfinches are regular visitors to our dried Black Eyed Susan flower heads.

Adding the native cardinal flower will reward you with hummingbirds and other backyard wildlife from butterflies to hummingbird moths.

Explore the world of native perennials

This leads into my fourth tip: Begin transitioning from primarily using annuals in the garden to depending on the beauty and ease of perennials as the main backdrop for your garden. Whenever possible, use native varieties that are more hardy and adapted to the conditions in the garden.

Keep most of the annuals for containers and hanging baskets and focus on hardy native perennials that not only come back each year with the least fuss, but also spread willingly throughout the garden creating free plants that will eventually act like a living mulch.

Speaking of mulch, it is one of the key ingredients to creating an easy-to-maintain garden.

Here various stone was used to create a non-organic mulch that allows black mondo grass to shine as it grows up through it.

Mulch can be your best garden helper

My final tip is to ensure your garden beds are covered with a thick layer of mulch – either organic or non-organic like pea gravel or river rock.

If you are just starting out on your garden adventure, plan on ordering truck loads of natural mulch to cover your garden beds. Your soil will thank you over time and you will significantly reduce the number of weeds in your garden.

Shredded cedar mulch is my chosen method, but I have also readily dumped natural (free) mulch from tree-cutting companies in parts of my garden as well.

And, while you can purchase mulch on a regular basis to keep a thick blanket covering your soil, a better goal is to use a living, natural mulch of ground covers to get the job done. Purchasing mulch can get expensive, and it requires a lot of time to spread every couple of years.

Creeping phlox forms the perfect ground cover in the front of the garden where it is quite sunny. In shadier areas, use wild geranium, wild ginger or a variety of ferns to form a ground cover.

By planting native ground covers, you can achieve the same results naturally. There are many to choose, from aggressive ground covers like Virginia Creeper a native vine that can quickly cover the ground in a woodland garden, to a less aggressive native plant such as wild geranium.

Another favourite of mine is to use a tapestry of ground covers that form a beautiful tapestry of colour and texture as the various ground covers weave in and out and around one another.

Covering the floor of your garden with native ground covers will take time. Meanwhile, keep the commercial mulch topped up and before you know it you’ll need less and less shredded cedar mulch and you’ll have more time to enjoy your garden and the wildlife that it attracts.

Finally, if all of these tips still means your garden is too much work, consider doing what I did and find someone who sees and shares your garden vision and hire them to help you enjoy your garden to its fullest rather than see it as a constant chore.

Watching the garden grow

This 20-year-old image shows our garden as it was about 20-years ago. The below picture is updated to show how the garden has changed over the years.

Garden journal / photos combine to document your garden journey

Anyone who follows this gardening blog knows how important photography is to me and the content of this website.

Documenting the garden and its inhabitants – both the fauna and flora – is not only a favourite pastime, it’s an important resource for me from year to year to plan for next season and well into the future.

Remembering where the coneflowers or wild ginger were planted and when they bloomed previous years, or how the native wildflowers found a footing in the crevice on the large boulder, are just a few of the many benefits of documenting the garden through images and in written form.

The garden today with its black-eyed susans and native grasses and ferns dominating the back garden.

This is another view of the front garden as it is today showing a corner of the Japanese-inspired garden. The bench in the top image is replaced by yellow Adirondack chairs in front of a fern dominated garden.

Consider a garden journal

A garden journal like this elegant 5-year garden Journal (see image below) from YouTuber extraordinaire Linda Vater is an excellent way to document the garden from year to year. It also can make the perfect gift for the gardener in your life.

There is nothing like flipping through a well-worn garden journal filled with insights, drawings, tattered photographs and meticulous notes about the garden to inspire you either to get out in the garden come spring or dream and plan throughout the winter season.

Adding your own photographic images to the journal is an excellent way to enhance the journaling experience and work as a visual reminder not only from year to year, but decade to decade.

This elegant 5-year garden journal not only helps you record your garden journey, it’s a fine way to stay organized.

Even if you are not overly interested in extensive garden journaling, simplifying the process using only a photographic record to document your garden is both fun and rewarding.

Simply documenting the garden annually through photography and using inexpensive self-published books to create your own visual garden journal is a worthwhile endeavour. Or, you can create one larger book that includes a more long-term record of your changing gardens.

To read more about how easy creating your own photographic book is, check out my earlier post here.

The importance of documenting the garden over the years came into sharp focus over the past few weeks as I began scanning the thousands of slides and negatives I’ve accumulated over the past 45 years since first discovering the joy of photography.

Of course, documenting the garden’s growth took on a greater importance since I started this website, but even before the website I was using traditional analogue photography (prints and slides) to capture moments in the garden – from planting our first serviceberry tree to the changing face of our front and back gardens.

The images even show the history of the almost complete elimination of the massive lawns that carpeted almost every square inch of the property when we first moved in more than 25 years ago. Replaced, obviously, with a woodland-style garden.

Front garden transformation

The image at the top of the page illustrates how the front garden has changed in the past 20 years, going from a sunny garden with lots of flowers to a more shade garden using textures a subtle colour.

It shows a very different garden than our current front garden. For example, when I came across this image in my files, I barely remembered the drift of purple coneflowers and large grasses.

This image from about 20 years ago includes several areas of grass –long since gone – and an immature serviceberry tree on the left that is now quite large and shades out a large part of the existing garden.

The coneflowers died out many years ago, probably from the excessive shade that took over after the serviceberry pictured here staked off, grew into a mature understory tree. The grasses were removed after getting out of control and ferns have taken over the back area that once boasted a number of hosta and trilliums. There are still remnants of trilliums that emerge before the ferns take over that area of the garden.

Today our front garden is a combination of mature trees, ferns, grasses, a ground cover of pachysandra, creeping phlox and black-eyed susans. We’ve also added large boulders down the side of the driveway to hold back the garden.

This decision to use natural boulders as a retaining wall not only helped clean up a problem area in the garden, it gave us another micro-climate where we can use the heat generated from the boulders to grow rock-garden loving plants like thyme and allow the creeping phlox to drift over the rocks and cascade down between the crevices.

It also gave reptiles, such as our friendly garden snakes, toads and salamanders the perfect place to warm up in the early morning as the sun heats the rocks long before the surrounding area.

This image, taken at a local botanical garden, was the inspiration to plant Golden Alexandra or Basket of Gold in our own garden to cascade over the large boulders along the driveway much like the image below of the creeping phlox.

Last year, I added “Basket of Gold” (Aurinia saxatilis) to the area (see image above) and am looking forward to documenting its spreading growth over the seasons. (Beware: this plant is considered invasive in warmer climates). The idea came after visiting our local botanical gardens (see post here) where it lit up the rock garden in spring and early summmer. Once again, photographing the plant in the botanical garden gave me a visual reminder of how it was used, its growth pattern and its stunning beauty.

The garden in spring when the creeping phlox carpets the front in a sea of purple.

The top image and the more current photographs reminds me of how much the garden has changed in the past twenty years. Without the visual representation, these early memories of the garden would fade much like the flowers, grasses and trees that formed the early foundation of what is today.

This website’s focus is, of course, on woodland gardening with an emphasis on native plants and attracting wildlife. Documenting the garden and its inhabitants through photography is also an important part of the website. I try to provide helpful tips on everything from getting close to backyard birds, what cameras are best for garden photography and how to capture beautiful images of flowers and garden visitors.

Part of my focus on garden photography is using inexpensive, smaller digital cameras that are more than capable of creating stunning garden images, rather than spending huge amounts of money on the latest and greatest equipment. Many of these simple cameras are probably sitting in one of your drawers. If not, purchasing them on line for pennies on the dollar is not difficult. If you enjoy the experience, you can upgrade over time.

If you are interested in exploring garden photography further, please take a moment to check out my photography related posts on the website. Just go to my homepage, scroll to the bottom and you’ll be able to access those posts in the “photography related” links.

Going back into my photographic archives and scanning them into digital images has opened up a new appreciation for the importance of not only archiving our journeys in the garden, but our life’s journey with family and friends.

These are journeys that beg to be captured and archived, maybe on our smart phones, but even better on a dedicated camera designed to capture only our memories.

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Focus on tree bark for winter interest

Trees add winter interest to our gardens in so many ways. Even their ability to catch snow and hold it on their branches adds immense beauty to our winter gardens. Here a tufted titmouse uses a small branch as a landing spot during a snow squall.

Five trees, shrubs for winter interest

As fall turns to winter, we look for more subtle ways to create interest in the garden. One of the best ways, besides adding evergreens and native grasses, is to focus on planting trees and shrubs with interesting bark.

The white paperbark birches are standouts in our garden. And, to ensure the trees take centre stage, I purposely planted three clumps of white birch just outside our large dining room windows to capture their stunning beauty during all four seasons, but especially in winter.

By planting them close to the house, viewers from inside the home are able to pull out the finer detail of the bark – everything from the exfoliating (peeling) papery white bark, to the black striations that give birch trees much of their winter beauty.

It’s difficult to match the beauty of birch bark in winter, or for that matter, any time in the year.

While the stark white bark of the paper birch is an outstanding addition to any garden, our native river birches add their own winter interest with their extreme exfoliating cinnamon-coloured bark creating incredible texture in the trees’ trunks.

(The entire birch family is worth exploring if you are searching for trees with superior winter interest.)

Our native River Birch trees offer outstanding exfoliating cinnamon-coloured bark to our gardens.

The exfoliating bark not only catches our attention throughout the seasons, it is also a magnet for insects to hide throughout the winter. Don’t be surprised to see birds regularly checking out the exfoliating bark for a quick snack. The bark can also be a perfect spot for seed-eating birds to tuck away food for later in winter.

Don’t overlook the Paperbark Maple

The Paperbark Maple is often overlook as a tree providing winter interest.

Another outstanding addition in our garden that takes advantage of the inherent beauty of exfoliating bark against a backdrop of snow is the Paperbark Maple. Although not a native tree, the paperbark maple is an elegant understory tree that does well in a woodland garden.

Like the birches, paperbark maples earn most of their praise for their exfoliating, cinnamon-coloured bark that can be a showstopper throughout the seasons, but especially in winter when it’s copper-coloured trunk stands out against the white snow.

Of course, these are the more obvious trees with outstanding winter bark foliage. There are more, less obvious, woodland trees and shrubs that offer their own interest in more subtle ways, from mottled colours and extreme texture in the bark, to more gnarly looking trunks that come into their own against a snowy background.

Let’s take a look at a few more trees and shrubs with outstanding winter interest.

All Japanese Maples provide outstanding year-round interest, but the coral bark Japanese Maple is truly a standout during the winter months.

1. Red- yellow twigged dogwood: When it comes to shrubs for winter interest, red- and yellow- twig dogwoods (Cornus spp. and cvs.) are easily on the top of the list. They are strong performers in zones 3-9 and have long been planted en-masse for spectacular winter statements in the garden. Newer hybrids such as Arctic Fire from Proven Winners offer even more vibrant colour than native varieties, but try to stick to our native varieties or combine them with newer introductions from Proven Winners such as Arctic Sun Cornus sanguine in zones 4-8. (Grows 3-4 feet tall and wide) Yellow twig also boasts hybrids that perform well such as ‘Bud’s Yellow’ (6-8 feet tall). Consider planting these shrubs in front of darker evergreens such as cedars to bring out the best colour in their bark. Annual pruning of about one third of growth will help the shrub maintain their colourful branches.

2. Japanese Maple particularly the Coral Bark Maples: Combine outstanding summer and fall interest with stunning coral-red bark that takes centre stage in winter. It’s pretty tough to beat a Coral Bark Maple for outstanding winter interest in the understory of the garden. There are several hybrids available including the “Sango-Kaku” with its delicate leaves that open pinkish-yellow before changing to a light green in summer followed by a bright yellow in fall. These trees can be grown as a shrub or small tree. Like most Japanese Maples, it is a slow grower with an upright form.

3. Black Cherry Prunus serotina . (also known as wild cherry trees is another favourite: Our native Cherry trees boast a lovely mahogany-coloured bark when they are young, becoming dark and flaky as they mature. In spring, bunches of small white flowers appear after the first leaves have fully developed. These flowers become dark red cherries from August to early September (8 to 10 millimetres across). These trees are valuable forest trees for wildlife. They provide a good food source for up to 33 species of birds and many mammal species also eat its fruit. It is also of special value to many of our native bees as well as bumble bees and honey bees. These trees are a larval host plant for Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Cherry Gall Azure, Viceroy, Columbia Silkmoth, Promethea Moth, Small-eyed Sphinx Moth, Wild Cherry Sphinx Moth, Banded Tussock Moth, Band-edged Prominent and the Spotted Apatelodes.

Adding trees to your garden, as well as grasses, goes a long way to transforming a dull landscape into a winter wonderland. Here a combination of mature and understory trees combine with grasses to bring the winter landscape to life.

These are just a few of the trees we can add to our gardens, not only to create winter interest, but to attract a wealth of wildlife from native bees and birds, to mammals such as chipmunks, squirrels and foxes.

Winter is the perfect time to begin planning additions to our gardens. Take the time to do some research to find the perfect trees for your backyard. Remember to always look for native trees if possible and ensure that they will grow in your zone.

Why plant a Chinkapin Oak tree

Fast-growing, mid-size oak that produces an abundance of small acorns

Oak trees are an outstanding addition to any garden looking to attract a variety of wildlife from deer and wild turkeys to chipmunks, squirrels, birds and a host of moths and caterpillars to feed the birds in spring and summer.

The Chinkapin Oak is a Carolinian species found in Southern Ontario and throughout native to eastern and central North America. It ranges from Vermont to Minnesota, south to the Florida panhandle, and west to New Mexico in the United States. In Mexico it ranges from Coahuila south to Hidalgo.[2]

The dilemma is not, should I plant an oak, but what oak out of the more than 400 varieties should I plant.

The final decision is as much about the conditions in our yards, as it is about the look we’re after.

In our yard, the combination of sandy-based soil, a nice sunny spot and the need for a fast-growing oak that puts out plenty of acorns early in life to feed wildlife, led me to the Chinkapin Oak (Quercus muehlenbergii) also spelled Chinquapin oak.

Doug Tallamy’s The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees is an excellent resource if you’re looking for more information on these important trees.

You can also check out my posts here: The Mighty Oak, Columnar Oaks.

The Nature of Oaks is considered the bible for anyone looking for information on Oak trees.

Chinquapin Oak is a Carolinian species, common throughout the Eastern United States but found only in southern parts of Ontario that feature species from the Carolinian zone. The most common small tree and shrub species found in association with chinquapin oak include flowering dogwood Cornus florida, sassafras, sourwood, hawthorns, and sumacs.

They like an alkaline soil especially on a limestone bedrock. It’s a member of the white oak family and can live for up to 400 years.

The fact that it is rare in my geographical area and adds to the many Carolinian zone species in our yard is a pure bonus.

It didn’t hurt that the city where I live made the informed decision to give away native trees as a way to encourage homeowners to plant more native trees. Granted, my Chinkapin oak is very small and needs several years of nurturing to get to a stage where it becomes a part of the canopy and an important structural element in our garden. Once established, however, Chinquapin oaks can put on two or more feet of growth per year and grow to between 40 and 70 feet tall (30 metres) tall with a straight trunk up to 60 centimetres wide, with a similar-sized canopy.

The leaves of the Chinkapin oak are large and can grow up to 8 inches (10-18 centimetres) in length. The leaves have a scalloped look and are shiny green on the top with a dull underside. The leaves are more narrow than many traditional oaks. They are coarsely toothed with pointed tips. In the fall they turn a pleasant dark, purply-grey colour.

But the real reason I decided to plant a Chinkapin oak is the abundance of acorns borne singly or in pairs that these trees produce and the fact that production starts early in life. The acorns are smaller than typical acorns and turn almost black as they mature. They mature in one year, and ripen in September or October. Their shell is also softer than most acorns and are therefore more accessible to a greater number of birds and wildlife. The cap covers a third to half of the acorn.

In a few short years, our local wildlife is going to love it. Blue Jays, woodpeckers, our packs of wandering wild turkeys, deer, red squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons and of course birds that thrive on the caterpillars and other Lepidoptera that use the tree as a host.

These trees prefer soils in the 6.5 -7.0 up to 7.5 range. Chinkapin Oak is often confused with the swamp white oak and chestnut oak.

Those who know their oak trees, understand that Oak species, as a group, serve as host plants for caterpillars of more than 500 different butterflies and moths – more than any other genus of tree. The caterpillars (larvae) feed on the oak foliage, but do not harm the trees.

Wildlife that use the Chinkapin oak

Chinquapin oak acorns provide food for many species, including:

• The high-quality acorns are a reliable food source for the red-headed and red-bellied

  woodpeckers, northern bobwhite, ruffed grouse and wild turkey

• white-tailed deer

• chipmunks

• squirrels

• hummingbirds visit the flowers in spring

• The trees are a larval host for the Grey hairstreak butterfly and the Red-Spotted Purple butterfly

• The leaves of young chinkapin oak are commonly browsed by deer and rabbits while

  beaver feed will happily feed on the tree’s bark and twigs.

If you live in an area with deer, rabbits and other rodents, you may need to protect the sapling until it is large enough to fend off the critters.

Protect your Chinkapin Oak while they are young

In our yard, I have had to protect the sapling from rabbits, deer and other rodents by placing fencing around it for a few years until it grows large enough to fend off the critters on its own.

The bark of the Chinkapin Oak is a pale brownish grey colour with thin, narrow and often flaky scales.

Flowers emerge in late spring. Trees have both male and female flowers – male flowers form as catkins, while female flowers are small and grow as individuals or in clusters.

Where do they grow naturally?

Chinquapin oak are found in well-drained soil over limestone, calcareous soils and forested sand dunes. You can expect to see them growing best on rocky sites such as shallow soul over limestone.

Fun facts about the Chinquapin Oak

• Chinquapin oak acorns can be eaten raw and taste sweet.

• Chinquapin oak can be mistaken for dwarf chinquapin oak as they can both grow under harsh conditions.

• Chinquapin oak trees can produce almost 10 million acorns over their lifetime.

Alliums are perfect choice to add architectural interest

Fall is the time to plant your allium bulbs

It all started with an experiment that didn’t quite work out. So, in the spirit of gardening, I added even more alliums this year to ensure next year is a success.

That’s the thing about alliums. Once you get a taste of them, there’s no going back.

My plan was to grow giant alliums in the fern garden where they could rise up above the massive Ostrich ferns and create outstanding architectural interest and a pop of coour among the ferns in late spring.

Alliums add architectural interest to every garden, whether formal or a more natural garden.

A very wet spring meant our ferns grew especially tall and, unlike most years, the ferns stood their ground and refused to fall. The result, our Purple Sensation alliums merely peeked out from between the ferns rather than rising above them.

But even the sight of the alliums peeking out among the ferns was enough to make me want to plant more this year. So this year we added taller alliums in both purple and white. I’m hoping for a great show next season.

We also added alliums in two other parts of the garden to ensure we get a great display.

If you are like me and have hesitated to plant alliums in your garden, make this the year you take the leap into this fascinating group of plants that are often referred to as ornamental onions.

These non-native bulbs, that tend to bloom a little later than daffodils and tulips, are part of a group of plants that include onions, garlic, leeks and shallots.

They are available in a range of sizes, colours and blooming times. In fact, if you plan properly, you can have them blooming from late spring through summer adding architectural interest to any garden.

They work both in formal gardens as well as more natural gardens including woodland gardens. Try to find a sunny spot for them for best results.

These alliums elegantly grow through a black wrought iron fence.

Like daffodils and tulips, fall is the ideal time to get allium bulbs in the ground for next spring. You can now find them in most stores, including many of the Big Box stores. Just realize that your choice in many of these Big Box stores is limited to the more common variety of allium bulbs. If you are looking for more interesting or unusual allium bulbs, you may have to check out better nurseries or mail-order firms like Brecks that offer a beautiful and comprehensive variety of alliums.

You can even purchase your allium bulbs from Amazon as well.

Get your orders in early to ensure you get the best quality and varieties.

What makes these bulbs especially great is that rodents tend to leave them alone. Deer, squirrels, chipmunks, voles even groundhogs express no interest in alliums. That’s probably because of their roots in the onion family.

The bulbs multiply in the ground creating denser clumps each year and the allium seeds can reseed in the garden adding more of these lovely plants to your landscape.

These easy-to-grow plants prefer full sun but do well in half-sun conditions in well-drained sandy soil. Extremely wet, poor draining soil is likely to create conditions for bulb rot in the garden.

Alliums stand out against a white wall.

Alliums can be a little more expensive than other bulbs, but once planted they last forever and after about three years the bulbs can be split to create even more plants.

Plant the allium bulbs about 7 inches under the ground – deeper than most bulbs – and about 8 inches apart.

If you are planting a lot of the bulbs, consider using a drill bit or auger especially made to create ideal holes for planting larger bulbs. This set of four augers from Amazon will meet the needs of even the most ardent bulb enthusiast.

Also, remember, pointy end of the bulb goes up.

One important point to consider is that the foliage of alliums often yellows before they bloom, so you might want to place another type of plant in front of the allium bulbs to cover up the yellowing foliage.

Allium growing in our fern garden adding a pop of colour in late spring.

Alliums also make great cut flowers and their dry seed heads are perfect for arrangements. Consider painting them gold or silver for an especially nice touch in your arrangement.

There are so many alliums to consider for your garden, depending on size, colour and how adventurous you may want to be.

Brecks offers an incredible choice as well as mixed assortments that work well together. If you are serious about getting started with alliums check them out to give you a good grounding on what is available.

I picked up most of my bulbs from Costco this year, but you had to grab them early because they sold out quite quickly. My latest purchase from Costco were bags of Allium Nigrum Pink Jewel (10 to a bag), and the much larger Allium Gladiators (4 to a bag). I also picked up some white varieties of Alliums that we planted in the front garden.

Here are a sampling of alliums to consider for your gardens.

Best alliums for your zone-5 garden

Globe Master – has a huge bloom with purple flower heads as much as 5 inches across. Their blooms last a long time. Plant them in the middle or back off the border to hide the leaves. These alliums do not produce seed so it does not get weedy.

Mount Everest – White flower is 3-4 inches across but they are on a very long stem and grows to about 3.5-4 feet tall.

Purple Sensation – blooms at about 3 feet tall. Flowers are a little smaller than Globe Master but the colour is more intense. It is happy to re-seed itself around your garden.

Ivory Queen – Wide leaves and flowers at about six inches high with a lovely white creamy flower. Flower heads are two inches across and white. These smaller alliums are a great addition to the rock garden

Allium Christophii – Flowers at about 2.5 feet high with large flowers that can reach about 8 inches across. Will disperse seeds around the garden.

Allium fistulosum – flowers at about 2 ft high with white green flowers. Its stems are large thick and hollow. Will produce seeds but they always grow close to the mother plants.

Graceful Beauty – small allium that grows only 8 inches tall with nice white flowers. Leaves are grass like.

Allium atropurpureum – A very dark coloured allium that grows about 3-feet tall with smaller umbra reddish purple about 3 inches wide that flowers at 2.5 feet high. Acts almost like an ephemeral as its foliage disappears by mid July.

Allium Molly – grows to about 8 inches tall and flower is yellow with wide leaves. Hard to tell that it’s even an allium. It will seed around your garden a little bit but nothing too serious..

Allium Siculum – flowers at 2 feet tall. Flowers are unusual with an unusual colour. Striking plant for the garden with large strapping leaves.

Other alliums to consider

Allium sphaerocephalon – smaller allium 2 feet tall with a much smaller inflorescence.

Allium red mohican – Interesting colour of purple, white, cream with hints of yellow

Allium Firmament – purple flower head that grows to about 2 ft tall. Flowers are 4-5 inches wide

Allium Ping Pong – Grows to about 2-feet tall with a 3-inch flower

June-July bloomers

Allium nigrum silver spring – lovely allium growing to between 2-3 ft tall with 4-inch wide umbrels that have a blueberry/raspberry colour to them. Infloresence is one of the most beautiful yet still subtle of the alliums.

Allium chloranthum (Yellow Fantasy) – Grows 14-16 inches high with a flower that is only about 2 inches wide but has a lovely yellow colour

Check out Brecks for mixes

Allium summer drummer – very tall 4-5 feet tall reddish purple with 6-8-inch wide umbels. Late bloomer in July and August.

Planting for flower photography

The vision in my mind was brilliant, despite not working out quite so perfectly in the end. However, I still consider the experiment successful and expect to continue photographing the combination of purple alliums growing up through a sea of green Ostrich ferns.

As mentioned earlier in this post, our wet spring caused our ferns to grow taller than ever and fail to fall like they usually do. The result was alliums peeking out through tall upright ferns rather than the lovely purple flowers rising above and floating over the ferns.

When the alliums finally began to appear in late spring, I took the opportunity to document the scene.

Most of the images below were shot with the original Lensbaby composer lens to impart a more creative touch to the images. The lens allows the photographer to create out-of-focus areas in the image while maintaining sharp focus areas where the photographer chooses.

Below are just a few of the images from the Lensbaby composer.

Tackling Buckthorn in the garden

Why Buckthorn is a dangerous invasive in our woodland gardens

If you’re not paying attention, Common Buckthorn can creep up on you and devour areas of your garden.

It’s not going to happen overnight, but if you have a neglected area of your garden you have let go wild, watch out.

In a few short years Buckthorn can take hold and begin the takeover.

Thankfully, getting rid of it is easier than you may think.

What I thought would be a multi-year restoration project turned out to be a relatively simple one involving a few days of work yanking out the (two-to-three-foot-high) woody plants.

These images show mature Buckthorns in late summer with the blue-black berries that birds eat and help to spread this non-native, invasive shrub or small tree.

How Buckthorn takes root

It all began shortly after we moved into our home more than 25 years ago.

Our neighbour asked me over to identify a large shrub or small tree that he had been cultivating in an area of his back garden. I immediately recognized it as a Buckthorn but thought little of it at the time.

Thankfully, that Buckthorn tree is long gone.

I suspect, however, its offspring have spread far and wide and hundreds made their way to an area of our garden that I had let go wild.

A large berm across the back of our garden under two large crabapples proved to be the perfect place for birds to drop the berry seeds and begin growing a small forest of invasive Buckthorn. A few grew to an impressive size – large enough to spread their own seeds – and the invasion had begun.

As long as I was mowing the grass on the berm on a weekly basis, it was not a problem. Once I stopped, however, the buckthorn was allowed to grow wild.

Several years ago, I attacked them with a gas-powered brush cutter that made the area look under control but, in reality, only masked the problem.

A degenerating hip made gardening more and more difficult and meant the Buckthorn took root. That all changed this spring when a hip replacement made it possible to finally tackle the forest of Buckthorn.

What I thought would be a multi-year restoration project turned out to be a relatively simple one involving a few days of work yanking out the (two- to three-foot-high) woody plants.

I need to add that our very sandy soil made the task a whole lot easier. The smaller shrubs (2-3 feet high) (1 meter) came out root and all with just a good hard tug. Larger trees in the 4- to 6-foot range (1.5 meters) needed to be rocked back and forth for a minute or two before the soil was loose enough to pull the small trees out with roots. A few larger trees had to be cut off with a chain saw at waist height. My plan is to block out all sun with plastic bags to slowly kill these last two larger trees.

Years of maintenance ahead

I first tackled a 15- to 20-foot section between the two crabapples. To my surprise, the small shrubs complete with roots came out of our sandy soil with relative ease.

A visit from a gardening crew – including two strong young fellas – resulted in a one-day elimination of our Buckthorn problem. Even larger, 6- to 10-foot trees (3 meters) were easily removed with a little rocking back and forth to loosen the roots.

That’s not to say that the Buckthorn is gone. Years of maintenance will be required to keep them at bay, but the hard work turned out to be much easier than I expected and we are well on our way to eliminating the problem.

Buckthorn’s range in the United States and Canada

Common buckthorn (also known as European buckthorn) is native to Eurasia. Introduced to North America in the 1880s as an ornamental shrub and used for fencerows in agricultural areas.

Since then, this spiny shrub or small tree has spread aggressively into wild areas including gardens where birds have dropped the seed.

Common buckthorn is found throughout the northeastern United States into the north central regions of the United States. In Canada, it is found throughout Ontario and as far west as Saskatchewan and east to Nova Scotia where it thrives in a range of soil and light conditions.

It can be found growing in woodlands and open fields where its dense stands shade out native plants. Large stands of Common Buckthorn have invaded roadsides, hydro corridors as well as damp riverbanks, forests and open agricultural areas.

Why eliminate common buckthorn

• Buckthorn creates dense stands that shade out our important native plants and shrubs. It can also alter the soil’s nitrogen levels further inhabiting native plants.

• It spreads quickly by producing an abundance of seeds that quickly germinate.

• It can affect agricultural crops in a number of ways by hosting a rust that affects oats and an aphid.

Identifying common buckthorn

• Buckthorn is among the first to leaf out in spring and the last to drop its leaves late in the fall.

• The flowers of Buckthorn have two to six small yellowish-to-green petals.

• It has smooth, dark green leaves that are finely toothed, about 2-inches long (2.5 to six centimetres long), and arranged in opposing pairs along the stem.

• Buckthorn carries short, sharp thorns toward the ends of its branches.

• It often grows two to three metres tall, but can grow up to six metres, (19 feet) with a trunk up to 25 centimetres (19 inches) in diameter.

• One of the most telling identifiers are the clusters of berry-like black fruit that appear in late summer and fall and are attractive to any bird species.

Common buckthorn resembles another invasive species, glossy buckthorn (Frangula alnus), and a much smaller native shrub, alder-leafed buckthorn (Rhamnus alnifolia).