gardening: observing, planning, designing, and editing
There are three natives in this yard that develop good-sized seed collections, which start getting distributed in July: twinleaf, trillium, and false Solomon’s seal. These plants did very well setting fruit this spring, but the nonnative Solomon’s seals, which seem to like similar habitats, did not.
Twinleaf seedpods are very silly—eventually they split open at that manic smile of a seam, ready to dribble seeds nearby.
Purple greets you at the entry to the garden. The Baptisia australis, also known as blue false indigo, that first poked above ground May 1 is in full bloom. Disturbingly rare this year are the bumblebees that usually adorn these plants.
I have a soft spot for Solomon’s seal. I love the way it arches, the coolness of the leaves, the flowers, and the berries. They bloomed well this year, and two of the species I have set fruit very well. Continue reading “Solomon’s Seal, Flower to Seed”
I never thought of Solomon’s seal as a garden plant—it was a plant from botany field trips into the woods in college, so I was struck by a neighbor’s planting of dwarf Japanese Solomon’s seal, Polygonatum humile, several years ago. They had planted it in a shady little patch of earth on a street corner with road on one curved side, and sidewalk on the other two sides. At about 6 inches tall, it is a very nice orderly little plant for such a small space. They stand sturdily upright, about a leaf-and-a-half’s distance from stem to stem—with a great texture, and serve as a very nice ground cover.
