Category: Helleborus orientalis

Carolyn is opening her shade garden to the public on Saturday, October 3, from 10 am to 2 pm, rain or shine (checks and cash only).  The following information about the open house is from Carolyn herself.

Please don’t arrive before 10 am. If you can’t come on Saturday, please feel free to schedule an appointment on Friday, October 2, or during the week after the open house.

Parking and Directions: Directions are attached. If you are coming on Saturday, please take a moment to review the parking instructions included with the attached directions. Complaints from neighbors about the parking situation can be avoided by following these simple guidelines.

Now that summer is over, it’s time to think about transforming your fall garden with late-blooming flowers and beautiful ornamental leaves. Fill in spots left by dormant plants, screen tired hosta, add flowers, include hellebores for winter interest—enjoy your garden year round. Fall is the best time to plant because soil temperatures are elevated into December, but new plantings don’t have to contend with hot weather and drought (that’s why bulbs are shipped to our area in October). The plants that I plant in fall are some of the healthiest specimens in my garden. Make your fall garden as beautiful as your spring display!

This open house will offer blooming, specimen size turtlehead, toad-lily, garden phlox, Japanese anemone, hardy begonia (pink and white), and much more. We will also have unusual ferns (including the much-requested holly fern) and plants grown for leaves as well as flowers such as purple, caramel, and lemon coral bells. There will be a good supply of the plant everyone has been asking for—Geranium ‘Rozanne’ (flowers continuously and copiously from May until frost)—and of the 2008 Hosta of the Year ‘Blue Mouse Ears’.

Hellebores: Hellebores have been in demand the last few falls so I have potted up some beautiful, large ‘Blue, White, and Pink Lady’ hellebores for the sale. My own double white plants, ‘Double Integrity’, are huge and ready to sell, and I will also offer the mixed color ‘Double Queen’. I have potted up some very nice specimens of ‘Honeyhill Joy’, a vigorous Christmas rose-Corsican cross with shiny dark green leaves and white, outward-facing flowers. There will also be a good supply of the early blooming (November) and vigorous Christmas rose cultivar ‘Jacob’.

Reusable Plant Crates, Boxes, and Pots: If you took a plastic crate at a previous open house, don’t forget to reuse it on Saturday. Please continue to bring cardboard boxes–we always need more. I am happy to reuse my pots but only if they are black nursery pots with a 100, 200, or 400 on the bottom. Please check the bottom of the pots before bringing them as unusable pots are creating a trash problem.

Questions: My catalogue is an excellent resource for information about the ornamental characteristics and cultural requirements of the plants I offer. I often find incorrect information on the preprinted plastic plant tags and recommend that you go to my catalogue first. Email me to request a copy. Printed copies will be available at the open house. If your question is not covered in the catalogue, please feel free to consult one of my knowledgeable open house “volunteers” in the yellow hats.

Stop by on Saturday and see my gardens. The manicured look of spring has been replaced with the bold and rangy (weedy) look of fall. You can see my collection of toad-lilies in bloom and my wildly self-sowing hardy begonias, as well as unusual ferns, hardy cyclamen, Japanese anemone, phlox in all its many colors, ornamental grasses, and many other fall beauties. I look forward to seeing you then.

Thanks, Carolyn