Bramble Ferns in the Stepchild Garden

It's hard to believe that it's been a year and a half since I planted these, but they are filling in beautifully!  This area was six plants when I installed them in February 2009.  The Bramble Fern dies back in the winter, but comes back bigger and better than ever as soon as spring arrives.  I love the fact that they are very fine and "fluffy," coming up about 30 inches tall.  More info about the botanical name, etc., in my post of February 18, 2009.    
                                  

Wretched Excess and Bramble Ferns

An acquaintance of mine from college days (about 200 years ago), always subscribed to Queen Victoria's idea that "nothing succeeds like wretched excess" In fact, Travis believed this so much that he later developed a very successful party business from that notion. I think the older I get, the more I'm agreeing with him, particularly with reference to the wooded garden area behind my house. This is the same area that Frank regularly looks at and remarks, "What a great place for a swimming pool!"

Since I'm never going to clean a swimming pool, and only mow our little section of lawn because it was already there when we bought the place, the area behind the house is slowly becoming known as the wooded garden. I've cleared out many of the really nasty trees that were threatening to fall down anyway, and I've slowly been adding more things in. Most casual observers would probably call that part of my garden messy, but that's because I'm the only one who knows where the baby treasures are lurking!

At this moment it is raining and gray, but the forsythia is blooming its heart out at the base of the ancient sweetgum tree. Across the yard, the native azalea is getting ready to open soon, the witchhazel is covered with lemon yellow fringe, and the yellow twig dogwoods are positively glowing. I discovered the other day that one of them is the cultivar "Winter Flame (Cornus sanguinea 'Winter Flame'), but I can't tell Cricket, since she is wanting one!

So the point of all of this is that there are lots of great things in my back garden, and their ambundance is adding to my need for STRUCTURE this year. I've had some success controlling myself in the front garden, so now I'm trying to do the same in the back. That's where the Bramble Ferns (Hypolepsis grandulifera) come in! Last night at the GPPA meeting, I picked up twelve of these babies, and can't wait to put them into the ground and watch them take off!

If you're not familiar with Bramble Ferns, go to the website, http://www.fernridgefarms.com/, and check them out! They'll grow up to five feet tall, spread themselves out, and just fill huge spaces with their fluffy green fronds. I'm hoping that it's going to create a consistent backdrop for some of the specimens in the wooded area....if not, it's going to be my own little version of invasive bamboo!

I'm already excited to discover that they prefer ditches and slopes....now I don't have to fill in that old ditch in the back! I'm going to call it my "ravine garden"

A "Sense of Place" in Gardening

I'm finally able to wrap up some things from the Southeastern Flower Show, though my garage still contains a giant tub of plants sitting in moist soil that came out of a number of different containers; one of tomorrow's projects is repotting those things to utilize them in some cool summer display.

I spent much more time at the show this year than I typically do, which gave me the opportunity to really look at some of the awesome exhibits in great detail. The show was smaller this year, but I felt it was much more appealing in lots of ways, as well.

On one of my many forays into the bookseller's booth, I picked up a book called "Great Gardens Great Designers," which starts out talking about how people changed their style of gardening in England at the turn of the last century; specifically they were responding to the Victorian collecting of exotics, and moving in a direction that was geared more to native plants, hardy plants, etc., that were more typical of England. The lightbulb went off for me that this is the same pattern we're seeing now, and it's why there was a certain comfort in this year's display gardens at the SEFS.

It was a treat to see so many gardens that were realistic for Atlanta, and weren't a collection of exotics that need to be disassembled in September to be crammed into the greenhouse for the winter. It seemed that many of the designers featured more of the things that do really well here -- lorapetalum in a million forms, lots of conifers that have proven their value here, azaleas, rhododendrons, gardenias, and such. It was also great to see very little turf being used in the display gardens....let's face it, there is nothing easy about growing a great lawn in Atlanta! What a radical idea to promote plants that actually do well here! Why not have a garden that identifies itself as an Atlanta style, rather than tropical, Mediterranean, or desert?

I was very proud to have only purchased two new plants for my garden at this year's show. First I got an amazing pine (Pinus densiflora "Aurea") with chartreuse needles that is going to be amazing against a backdrop of magnolias and hollies in my garden; second, I got several "Bramble Ferns," which are native. Anyone who know me is clear that I'm not one of the native plant geeks, but this fern is just beautiful, growing about 3 feet tall in and around camellias, pines, azaleas, etc. It's my new filler plant, to bring some sense of order to my wooded area......as if that's possible.....