Perennial Planning Garden

A picture of the garden (edgers are not in the ground yet) but all baby plants are planted.

A map of the garden for future reference.perennial-planning-garden-map

Details of the plants from my mom:
Valerium: Gets tall, likes sun, tolerates shade. Balls of small white flowers with a vanilla like smell. Blooms in JUNE.
Mountain Bluet (centraurean): medium height, mounds get bushier. Prefers sun, deals with anything. Blue hairlike flowers, blooms in MAY.
Epimedium: small heart shaped leaves, low growing mounds, shade only! Small redish-pink star like flowers in early MAY.
Dark leafed Geranium: gets bushy, medium height. Prefers sun, handles shade. Small, burgandy flowers in MAY.
Chives: purple, MAY (the more sun the better it does but it survives in shade)
Begenia: Shade only – small red flowers in late summer. Small low growing.
Daisies, Rudbeckia, echinacea: Prefer sun, bloom in July (and Aug).

Pictures of the plants from my mom’s garden to see what they look like.

Valerian:
valerian This gets really tall.  It’s blooming right now, in the shade and the sun.  In the sun it is taller than in the shade.  In my new back garden some are almost as tall as I am.  In the back part of the wedding garden, behind the apple tree where it is shady, it is waste high.  Now in it’s third year, it has filled in that area there where it used to be a blank middle.
Mountain Bluet:
mountain bluet Some of my centaurean (mountain bluet or bachelor button) was blooming for the pig roast, some is blooming now.  It depends on the amount of sun it gets.  It alo might rebloom if you cut the blooms as they are spent.
Dark Gernanium:
dark geranium This blooms mid-may or end of May. depending on how the weather’s been.  If you clip the flowers it sometimes blooms again the next month, too.  I forgot to clip yours so that will take away from the roots your trying to establish (it will be trying to make seed if you don’t clip the flowers off).
Epimedium:
epimedium This blooms first, in early May.  Then it becomes a full-bodied plant with heart shaped leaves
Chives:
chives this is how big chives can be if they get full sun.  In the shade they stay shorter and in smaller bunches.

Some other information from my mom on Shade Loving plants for next (and future) years:

astilbe (pink, red or white, feathery plumes in mid summer)
anemone (pink flowers in August), can come in white

columbine (aguilara) is common, I just don’t have enough to give you. Hard to describe, deep purple or light pink, blooms now.  My friends have lots.  Our rabbits eat most of mine.

giant sedum (distinctive form and texture, not flower, turns red in Autumn)
foxglove (biennial) (tall spikes of bell shaped flowers, usually maroon or yellow varieties.)  You would need to let these reseed this year, and also buy more next year, to ensure mature plants every year.

heuchera (tall tiny flowers in early summer, interesting foliage varieties available) low growing, doesn’t get too big.  Makes small colorful foliage patches if you can invest in a few, instead of using coleus every year.

thalictrum the plant gets tall and interesting.  The flower shoots go in cool directions, then get heads of hundreds of small purple flowers. The light purple flowers last a long time  (July?) and coordinate pleasantly with the soft green foliage, like the color of your dresses.  I love mine, but they were expensive treats to myself.

snake-root cimifuga (better foliage than flower) dark purple foliage.  Late summer it gets white plumes.  August or Sept.  It takes a few years to mature and it is hard to find a nursery that carries them.  I haven’t been able to find any for the last two years.

The last two are probably too expensive to get for a garden you are not investing in.  All the others are common.  Any of them would look good in sets pf 3 of used in pairs.  I’d keep the list as a references and grow the garden slowly.  Home Depot probably won’t have much compared to what I’m used to seeing at a garden nursery.  It will depend on what you can get.

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