WOODLAND EDGE
Woodlanders are often early flowerers, rushing to make the most of the available light before the tree canopies fill out and cast too much shade. I had planted up a wide selection of plants and bulbs in individual pots –many more than are shown here – earlier in the year so that I had lots of options for arranging them in different ways for the final arrangement. The plants themselves are quite demure so the shape and character of the pots became key to achieving the look I was after.
How to achieve the look
Container and composition
For this selection of pale and delicate plants using a range of different containers works best. I like the way the metals have different tones of grey but are neutral enough to let the fresh foliage and clean white flowers sing. There’s a balance to the tall airy stems of the luzula arching over to bring the eye down in stages to the different levels of the flowers lower down. The low container with the holes to the right of the group was originally part of an old chicken brooder heat lamp that I found in a local reclamation yard. The darker container to its left is a cake tin I bought at a flea market and both were picked up very cheaply. The composition wouldn’t have been so effective if the pots had all been the same height or tone.
Cultivation and care
One benefit of having a group of containers is that they can be easily moved around as one starts looking tired. The anemone goes dormant in the summer but if planted out will slowly naturalise under trees. The beesia will continue to flower through the summer and makes lovely seedpods so don’t remove the flowered stems. The mukdenia’s dissected maple-shaped leaves colour to a brilliant red in autumn. Most will be happy in their pots until the autumn by which time they might prefer to be planted out in the garden in a shady spot as many of them are natural spreaders and may be outgrowing these relatively small pots by then.
Plants
1 Beesia calthifolia Heart-shaped shiny evergreen leaves with striking veining and starry, white flowers on tall, wiry stems. 30cm. RHS H6†.
2 Cardamine trifolia Evergreen groundcover perennial. Will tolerate dry shade once established.
15cm. RHS H5, USDA 5a-9b.
3 Mukdenia rossii ‘Karasuba’ Herbaceous woodlander with attractive deeply cut foliage.
30cm. RHS H5, USDA 4a-8b.
4 Luzula sylvatica Prefers damp soil in sun or part shade. 70cm. RHS H7. 5 Anemone nemorosa A native woodlander that will naturalise slowly under trees. 20cm. AGM*. RHS H5, USDA 5a-9b.