My Summer House Garden in Spring
The sunken garden behind my Summer House is filled with spring growth.
I began this formal garden more than 10 years ago and have added many different kinds of plants and trees ever since. It is a kind of room walled by a tall hedge of boxwood. The focal point is the great old ginkgo tree at the back of the space that was original to the property. Over time, I've planted American and English boxwood, smaller ginkgo trees, smoke bushes, Siberian weeping pea shrubs, peonies, hostas, lilies, and so much more. I am so pleased with how well it has developed.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- The former owner of my farm, Mrs. Sharp, occupied two houses on the property. She called this the Summer House, where she stayed during warm weather. Adjacent to it is the Winter House which had a better heating system and where Mrs. Sharp was comfortable during the colder season. Today, the Summer House is used both as a library and as a place for entertaining. And out back is this beautiful sunken garden.
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- Here is a view from the Summer House terrace. When I first designed this garden, I called it my Boxwood Room. It measures 60 by 120 feet and is surrounded by a tall American boxwood hedge. And because the Summer House faces a rather busy intersection, the wall of boxwood also provides a good deal of privacy. The garden’s focal point is the old Ginkgo tree at the back of the garden.
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- I planted smaller ginkgo trees along both sides of the footpath. The ginkgo biloba is one of the most distinct and beautiful of all deciduous trees. It prefers a minimum of four hours of direct, unfiltered sunlight each day. The ginkgo has a cone-like shape when young, and becomes irregularly rounded as it ages.
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- The ginkgo trees are just beginning to show leaves. The leaves are unusually fan-shaped, up to three-inches long, with a petiole that is also up to three-inches long. This shape and the elongated petiole cause the foliage to flutter in the slightest breeze. Ginkgo leaves grow and deepen color in summer, then turn a brilliant yellow in autumn.
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- In this garden, I also have six weeping Siberian pea shrubs with cascading weeping branches that bear pinnately compound leaves. Soon, small yellow pea-like flowers will also appear.
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- Ipheion uniflorum, commonly called spring starflower, is native to Argentina and Uruguay and features grass-like foliage and solitary star-shaped flowers on six inch tall stems. Flowers range in color from almost white to violet blue. Flowers have a mild spicy fragrance, and the foliage when bruised emits an oniony aroma.
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- This trout lily is ‘Pagoda Dogtooth,’ It produces up to 10 clustered, 12-inch arching stems that bear yellow, nodding flowers with reflexed petals.
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- This bed is filled with Leucojum vernum – the spring snowflake, a perennial plant that grows between six to 10 inches in height and blooms heavily in early spring.
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- The plant produces green, linear leaves and white, bell-shaped flowers with a green edge and green dots. Don’t confuse them with Snowdrops. The Snowflake is a much taller growing bulb which normally has more than one flower per stem. Snowdrops have helicopter-like propellers that are green only on the inner petals.
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- Another perennial in this garden is Podophyllum – commonly known as mayapple, American mandrake, wild mandrake, and ground lemon. Mayapples are woodland plants, typically growing in colonies from a single root. I have lots of mayapple growing here. The leaves grow up to 16-inches in diameter with three to nine shallowly to deeply cut lobes. The plants produce several stems from a creeping underground rhizome. All Podophyllum prefer shade and cool, moist, organic soils.
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- This hybrid of several Asian Mayapples boasts large, vigorous, lobed umbrella-like leaves. New leaves are chartreuse with dramatic chocolate-brown spotting. Called ‘Spotty Dotty,’ this was selected for its coloring, frost tolerance, vigor, and rhizomatous habit.
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- This is the interesting foliage of the variegated Lily of the Valley. It is delicately striped in a creamy white that lightens shady gardens all season. The charming and richly fragrant plants have many bell-shaped flowers in late spring.
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- Commonly known as The Guinea Hen Flower, The Checkered Lily or The Snake’s Head Fritillary, Fritillaria meleagris is an heirloom species dating back to 1575. It has pendant, bell-shaped, checkered and veined flowers that are either maroon or ivory-white with grass-like foliage intermittently spaced on its slender stems. I have many in my gardens.
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- Fox’s Grape Fritillary, Fritillaria uva-vulpis, is a more subtle beauty. It has dusky-purple pendulous blooms neatly trimmed in yellow.
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- All the hostas are also growing quickly. Hostas are a perennial favorite among gardeners. Their lush green foliage varying in leaf shape, size and texture, and their easy care requirements make them ideal for many areas. 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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- Depending on its stage of development, the bloodroot herbaceous perennial plant is about three to 12 inches tall. It produces only basal leaves that are about three to five inches wide. Each of the basal leaves is wrapped around the stalk of a single flower as the flower begins to bloom.
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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. A perfect groundcover for moist or dry shade, epimediums typically produces oval, heart-shaped, or shield-shaped leaflets in groups of three to 50.
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- I also have more muscari flourishing in this area. These white flowers grow to about six to eight inches tall. Muscari is better known as grape hyacinths, which have tight clusters of fat little bells with a grape juice fragrance. Muscari bloom in mid-spring, and deer and rodents rarely bother them.
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- Anemonella thalictroides is an easy-to-grow, deer-resistant, durable, but dainty looking plant. The genus name Anemonella roughly translates as ‘little anemone’ because its flowers are miniature copies of the windflower. These are a light pale pink.
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- This is another Anemonella variety. It has upward-facing single pink flowers whose petals are a bit wider and rounder than their white cousins.
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- And here is one of the first peonies to bloom. Tree peonies are larger, woody relatives of the common herbaceous peony, growing up to five feet wide and tall in about 10 years. They are highly prized for their large, prolific blooms that can grow up to 10 inches in diameter.
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- The Alliums will be blooming very soon. The Allium, also called Ornamental Onion, is one of the most interesting blooms in the spring and summer garden. With a spherical shape that holds its form throughout the season, it’s one of the longest lasting blooms to be had from a bulb. They appear in a variety of colors, heights, and forms – all are highly attractive to pollinators and are very deer resistant.
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- This is Heuchera. The glossy dark maroon, almost black, leaves keep their color all season – it adds a gorgeous accent to the beds.
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- Cotinus, also known as smoketree or smoke bush, is a genus of two species of flowering plants in the family Anacardiaceae, closely related to the sumacs. They are a great choice for massing or for hedges. The stunning dark red-purple foliage turns scarlet in autumn and has plume-like seed clusters, which appear after the flowers and give a long-lasting, smoky haze to branch tips.
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- This is a view from the side entrance into the garden. Straight ahead is the tall American boxwood hedge that surrounds this area on three sides. Here, one can also see the low manicured boxwood hedges that provide the framing for the garden beds. I love this formal garden – it’s looking more lush every year.
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