Planting Lily of the Valley from pips

One of the oldest, to me, of the old-fashioned flowers is Lily of the Valley. Its delicate aroma puts me in mind of old brick houses, cameos and little sun-washed forest glens -- not a typical combination I know!

In any case, in thinking about what perennials to add back into the Pugsley yard, as an early 19th century farmhouse, Lily of the Valley was near the top of my list.

In our area of northern suburban New York city, you see Lily of the Valley naturalized in a shady area of people's gardens. They seem most happy under high shade, nestled at the foot of oaks or sometimes certain old, high pines. But I've also seen them under privet hedges, under flowering ornamental trees, and on the shady side of houses. I don't have a lot of high shade, but back in the back corner of the yard, in front of the compost pile, there is a row of Rose of Sharon bushes. You can see them here, in a row, just to the left of the pine tree. It's an area that does get high shade all summer and sun all winter and the grass doesn't grow well, but violets seem happy. And so after my first year in the house, this seemed to me to be the best possible location for some Lily of the Valley.

They were one of the first things I ordered this winter. You can buy whole potted plants for indoors or what are called pips. Pips were less expensive, and ultimately, I thought, perhaps more likely to naturalize successfully, so pips it was.

They came in a package of six pips in early April and I dutifully looked for a video on YouTube about how to plant them, which I found here. It looked pretty simple, and on one of the days when I suited up in my long johns to attack the north border, I took a half hour to plant them. Here's the spot:

Here are my six holes. Since I'm planting them in and among the roots of the Rose of Sharon, I didn't dig any large holes or try to amend the soil much. I want them to naturalize in the soil I've got. So I just dug six holes, each a little larger than the root ball:

Here's one nestled into its spot:

And another, smaller one:

Then I covered them back up with dirt and then with the leaf mold. I pulled any weeds I saw and watered them, and waited. And waited. And waited.

This weekend they sprouted! So I weeded around them again, and given the advice on YouTube, I will keep them watered this first summer. And hopefully, they'll settle in and naturalize -- voila, Lily of the Valley.

Local Heritage Garden 2: Seeds for a partial sun/shade garden

Snow has moved in to stay. The storm called Nemo laid down a foot that's stuck around, and we've had dustings several times since then, and cold. Cold that bloomed in icicles on the porch roof and frost on the old windows ...

and limned our early morning world in magic.

My mind has turned to summer. And so, for the first time, a couple of times this week, I delved into the world of online garden catalogs. Seeds. Glorious seeds for the garden.

I'm working on a plan for relatively small, established garden, outside the studio door, on the back of the house. It's more shady than I realized, getting good morning sun starting about 8 or 9, and then shaded by the house the entire afternoon. The dirt is black and friable, almost always moist, with a wilt in the dirt, that attacks certain plants at the stem.

The first fall I was here, in 2011, I put in daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and allium. There is a large patch of naturalized grape hyacinth in one corner, too. Here it is in spring, height of color:

And withered ... in the back of the garden (left hand, here) are old peonies that barely get one flower because of lack of sun.

In the winter of 2011, I put in poppy seeds, here, in June, you can see the poppy seedlings, about 6-8" high, coming up. I also planted zinnias and alyssum from seed. But considering that it is June, this garden is rather uninspiring ...

A  little later, without realizing how little sun the garden gets, I added black-eyed susans, coneflower and russian sage. 

By August, the zinnias had gone gigantico, dwarfing the perennials in the back, that struggled for lack of sun ... and all of August and September, there was the most magical display of zinnias in raspberry and green -- Renee's Gardens sells these varietals online and in stores. The butterflies loved them.

This past fall 2012, I added more hyacinths and allium, and last summer I let the poppies go to seed and  crunched up every seed head in the garden. I also let the zinnias go to seed and saved masses of seed heads to plant come spring.

I'll have to move all the perennials along the back of the garden that need more sun, so out again will come the black-eyed susans, the coneflower, the russian sage and peonies. I'll also take out the one experimental lavender bush I put in the front that didn't do well.

What I need are some cottage flowers that tolerate some shade, come up over bulbs (so I can continue to add bulbs every year without disturbing perennials), grow tall behind the zinnias, and bloom before the zinnias start, in May and June. So, after a lot of digging around online this week, I ordered the following late last night:

Tall for the back:

Hollyhocks, dark purple and apricot, they're biennials, so they won't bloom this year

Cleomes, rose and white

Snapdragons, very tall dusky pink ones

And a mix of foxglove, some that if I start early indoors will bloom the first year

Mid-sized, for the middle:

Bells of Ireland, something I've never heard of but looks like a green foxglove

Columbine, for late spring color in the next few years

More snapdragons

Dwarf, for the front:

Alyssum

and Anemone

I also ordered several varieties of sweet peas to train up over the falling-down bench on the edge of the patio that is more ornamental than used.

Let fly snow while ye may.