Zinnias in pots
the low end, four hours, I would look for plants requiring shade. Within the designation of shade there are variations: dappled shade — the shade and sun patterns filtered through the canopy of a tree and dry shade — an area that is shaded with only limited moisture like the area under a large dense tree or under the house eaves.
Any plants Linda selects should balance both the limited light and whatever soil moisture conditions are present.
Personally, I love a good edge-of-the-woods garden. One featuring two or three ferns, airy maidenhair (Adiantum spp.), Japanese painted ferns (Athyrium niponicum), maybe an evergreen one, like wood ferns spp.). Color can come from foliage: variegated brunnera, heuchera or maybe hosta. Flowers for shade include: astilbe, toad lily, bleeding heart, lungwort, hellebore. Other shade favorites are lily-ofthe-valley, snowdrops, monkshood, ligularia.
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The nurseries are opening so now is a good time to go over some shopping basics. First, know your garden. How much space do you have? What are the dimensions of the beds and what is already planted there? What kind of light does it get? Is the soil alkaline or acidic? Is it evenly moist, dry, rich, sandy?
In our garden, I know that there is very limited full sun; the soil is moist and has a high organic content. It is slightly acidic and there are very steep areas. So, I shop the shade and part shade sections for most of my purchases. I also know that I prefer perennials in the beds and as the base plants in large containers. Fragrance is important to me, so I like to add things like heliotrope, tuberose, lemon verbena and other scents to the containers on the back deck.
Look for healthy plants. Check for pests, disease, and fungus. Look for good structure and shape. Remember that you can make many plants fuller by trimming back the stems to encourage branching. While a root-filled container may be tolerable for an annual, look for a nice distribution of roots on the perennials.
When you are looking at plants that flower, it is often best to enjoy the blooms but select the plant with buds.
Some plants only have a very limited bloom time and if they are already in full bloom when you buy them, your display window will be limited in the garden. There are a few plants that I actually look for the blooms. Wisteria can be very temperamental, sometimes they just don’t bloom. So, I always buy wisteria plants with a few blooms. When you are looking for a specific color scheme, you may want to buy plants with some open blooms to be sure you get the right effect.
Sometimes the perfect plant isn’t the best choice. An example is leggy tomato plants. If you buy leggy plants, you can remove the lower leaves and plant the transplant deeper or bend the lower stem and bury in a shallow trench. Tomatoes will sprout roots along the stem at the positions where you removed the leaves. This can give you a better root syste than that of a less leggy specimen.
Sue Kittek is a freelance garden columnist, writer, and lecturer. Send questions to Garden Keeper at grdnkpr@gmail.com or mail: Garden Keeper, The Morning Call, PO Box 1260, Allentown, PA 18105.