Open House for Carolyn’s Shade Garden

                                         Photo by Will Stuart

This is an invitation for an open house to a beautiful shade garden owned by a woman named Carolyn.  It is this Saturday, September 27, from 10 to 2, rain or shine (checks and cash only).  Directions are below.  If you can’t come that day, please feel free to schedule an appointment during the preceding week, 9/22 to 9/26.

Carolyn has some beautiful plants available to transform your fall garden with showy flowers and ornamental leaves.  Don’t forget that 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.  This is the year that your fall garden will be as beautiful as your spring display!

This open house will offer blooming, specimen size:

• Pink turtlehead/Chelone lyonii ‘Hot Lips’ (native)
• Red and blue lobelia/Lobelia cardinalis & siphilitica (native)
• Toad-lily/Tricyrtis ‘Sinonome’, Miyazaki’, ‘Samurai’, & ‘Taipei Silk’
• Garden phlox/Phlox paniculata ‘Laura’, ‘Nicky’, Starfire’, ‘David’, ‘Blue Paradise’, & ‘David’s Lavender’ (native)
• Japanese anemone/Anemone x hybrida ‘Pamina’, Honorine Joubert’, ‘Queen Charlotte’, & ‘Robustissima’
•  White and pink hardy begonia/Begonia grandis, B. g. ‘Alba’, and B. g. ‘Heron’s Pirouette’ (selected as a superior form by Heronswood nursery in WA)
•  Unusual ferns—Autumn fern, Tassel fern, and Japanese holly fern
• Purple, peach, caramel, and lemon coral bells/Heuchera ‘Citronella’, ‘Crème Brulee’,  ‘Peach Melba’, & ‘Plum Pudding’ (native)
• Foliage plants like bear’s breeches (acanthus), silver-leafed brunnera, native Jacob’s ladder ‘Stairway to Heaven’, pulmonaria ‘Bertram Anderson’ & ‘Diana Clare’, and the golden-leafed St. John’s Wort ‘Brigadoon’
• Hellebores– large specimens of ‘Pink Lady’ and ‘Ivory Prince’
•  Butterfly attractors—Tartarian aster ‘Jindai’, Ironweed (Vernonia, native), Hardy ageratum ‘Cory’ (native), ‘Little Lemon’ goldenrod (native), and Joe Pye Weed ‘Little Joe’ (native)
• Chinese astilbe ‘Visions’—late-blooming, drought tolerant, and covered with buds
• And many more!

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 and similar sizes.  Please don’t drop off any pots that aren’t black or contained shrubs, trees, houseplants, or annuals.

Questions:  Carolyn’s catalogue is an excellent resource for information about the ornamental characteristics and cultural requirements of the plants I offer.  Carolyn often finds incorrect information on the preprinted plastic plant tags and recommend that you go to my catalogue first.  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 her knowledgeable open house “volunteers” in the yellow hats.

2008 SPRING OPEN HOUSES
CAROLYN’S SHADE GARDENS

OVER 250 VARIETIES OF SHOWY AND COLORFUL FLOWERING PLANTS FOR SHADE FOR SALE AND DISPLAYED THROUGHOUT
SEVERAL ACRES OF GARDENS

Saturdays 10 am to 3 pm
(rain or shine)

March 29   Winter-blooming Shade Plants
Hellebores, Unusual Bulbs, Pulmonarias

April 19   Early Spring-blooming Shade Plants
Corydalis, Phlox, Lamium, Primroses

May 10   Spring-blooming Shade Plants
Hostas, Ferns, Hardy Geraniums

May 31   Summer and Fall-blooming Shade Plants
Toad-lily, Lobelia, Japanese Anemone, Turtlehead

 (or come by appointment)

Address: 325 South Roberts Rd, Bryn Mawr, PA Telephone: 610-525-4664
Email: carolynsshadegardens@verizon.net

From Route 476:  Exit at Villanova;  go east on Route 30; pass McDonald’s in Rosemont on left;  at next light turn right onto Roberts Rd; cross Conestoga Rd at light, the drive is 7/10 of a mile on the left #325; on Open House days only, park on Robinhood Rd on the right just after drive

From Lancaster Ave/ Route 30:  Going west, proceed through the center of Bryn Mawr to the bottom of the hill; turn left on South Roberts Rd at the light where you see Verizon on the far left; follow the directions above.  Going east, follow the directions above for coming from Route 476