My Stewartia Garden
My Stewartia Garden continues to thrive at my Bedford, New York farm.
My Stewartia Garden is located across from my long clematis pergola. The space was once planted with rows and rows of ferns and lilies. Many still grow here, but the garden is also filled with beautiful Stewartia trees, Japanese maples, Cotinus, and lush plants including Epimediums, Syneilesis, Thalictrum, and more.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Just beyond my charming Basket House and behind my Tenant House where my daughter and grandchildren stay when they visit, is a garden filled with lush perennials.
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- If you didn’t already guess, I named this garden the Stewartia garden because I planted several Stewartia trees in this space. Stewartia is a species of flowering plant in the family Theaceae, native to Japan and Korea. All varieties are slow-growing, all-season performers that show off fresh bright green leaves in spring, white flowers resembling single camellias in summer, and colorful foliage in autumn. Some of the varieties in this garden include: Stewartia gemmata, Stewartia x. henryae, Stewartia pseudocamellia ‘Ballet’, Stewartia monadelpha, Stewartia rostrata, and Stewartia henry ‘Skyrocket’. And do you know why I love Stewartia trees? Well, Stewart is my last name after all. However, there is no relation. “Stewartia” is named for Scottish nobleman and botanist, John Stuart, who had imported the plant to his personal London garden. He later served as British prime minister from 1762 to 1763.
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- The tiger lilies are just beginning to bloom. Native to China and Japan, Tiger lilies, Lilium lancifolium, bloom in mid to late summer, are easy to grow and come back year after year. I also have them across the carriage road in my long and winding pergola garden.
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- Hostas have easy care requirements which make them ideal for many gardens. I have them all around the farm. Hosta is a genus of plants commonly known as hostas, plantain lilies and occasionally by the Japanese name, giboshi. They are native to northeast Asia and include hundreds of different cultivars.
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- When blooming, osta flower rise high about the foliage. The flowers feature spikes of blossoms that look like lilies, in shades of lavender or white. The bell-shaped blooms can be showy and exceptionally fragrant.
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- Some of the ferns in this area include the Japanese painted ferns – beautiful mounds of dramatic foliage with luminescent blue-green fronds and dark central ribs that fade to silver at the edges.
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- In contrast are the ostrich ferns – a light green clump-forming, upright to arching, rhizomatous, deciduous fern which typically grows up to six feet tall.
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- Heuchera is a genus of largely evergreen perennial plants in the family Saxifragaceae, all native to North America. Common names include alumroot and coral bells.
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- Last year, I decided it was time to create some new footpaths around my Stewartia garden. I used large flagstone pavers placed several inches apart and surrounded with mulch. I have many stone materials already here at the farm and knew these would be perfect for this space.
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- These are the dainty leaves of Thalictrum, or Meadow Rue – a robust, upright, clump-forming perennial featuring clouds of lavender mauve flowers later in the season.
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- This is Syneilesis palmata. Over time, these plants form a sizeable patch of green umbrella-shaped leaves. Mature foliage can be more than a foot across with deeply toothed, narrow leaves – it is really an interesting plant.
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- I love Japanese maples and have many here at the farm. With more than a thousand varieties and cultivars, the iconic Japanese maple tree is among the most versatile small trees for use in the landscape. Some of the Japanese maples in this garden include Acer palmatum var. dissectum ‘Crimson Queen’, Acer palmatum ‘Shaina’, and Acer palmatum var. dissectum ‘Red Dragon’.
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- This is Pulmonaria, or lungwort – a beautiful, versatile, hardy plant. Lungworts are evergreen or herbaceous perennials that form clumps or rosettes. The spotted oval leaves were thought to symbolize diseased, ulcerated lungs, and so were once used to treat pulmonary infections.
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- The garden is edged on one side by the towering bald cypress trees, Taxodium distichum – a deciduous conifer. Though the bald cypress is native to swampy areas, it is also able to withstand dry, sunny weather and is hardy in USDA climate zones 5 through 10.
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- One of the most interesting characteristics of the bald cypress is its knees. Known by the scientific name pneumatophores, these growths are specialized root structures that grow vertically above the moist soil near the tree. It is believed that these structures aid the oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange in the roots. Looking carefully at the ground, one can see many of these unique knees.
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- The delicate puffs from the Cotinus can be seen from afar. Cotinus, the smoketree, or smoke bush, is a genus of two species of flowering plants in the family Anacardiaceae, closely related to the sumacs.
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- Astilboides is an interesting plant with huge, bright green leaves that are round and flat and measure up to 24-inches across. The effect is dramatic, and beautiful among other hardy perennials.
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- Epimediums are long-lived and easy to grow and have such attractive and varying foliage. Epimedium, also known as barrenwort, bishop’s hat, and horny goat weed, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Berberidaceae.
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- I also have several Cotoneaster in one corner of the garden. Cotoneaster is a vigorous, dense, evergreen shrub with soft arching stems studded with leathery, glossy, rounded, dark green leaves. These plants work well for a low hedge – I only wish I had planted more.
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- Asarum europaeum, or European Wild Ginger, is a slowly spreading ground cover that is primarily grown for its glossy, leathery, heart-shaped, dark green leaves.
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- Here’s another view of the handsome stand of bald cypress. All my gardens continue to be works in progress. Every year, they grow more beautiful and more lush.
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