I've always loved plants and flowers. Unlike most people (or at least I presume this is unlike most people), when I think about my "dream home," it's less about the house and more about the yard space that I'll fill with all sorts of trees and shrubs, flowers and veggies, lawn furniture, and varioius garden adornments. But for now, all I have is a 12" x 12" vegetable plot in my "yard" in Queens, and lots of space but no creative freedom at my parent's house in Long Island—until now.
I've been begging my parents for years to allow me to revamp their yard (and actually their entire house, but that's a whole 'nother story for a whole 'nother blog...), and for years they have vehemently opposed the idea. But this year, it seems they're loosening up. A tad. And this past weekend my mom and I made two trips to Cipriano's Nursery. Yes, two trips. Although I tried to warn my mom that the area we were buying for was actually too shady for the sun-worshipping plants she'd picked out, she insisted that the bed next to her new fence gets at least six hours of sun a day. However, when we got the phlox, ornamental grass, and perennial salvias home and set them out in their designated spot, we observed the amount of sunlight they were actually getting. And we quickly discovered that they wouldn't be getting any sunlight at all. Just shade. And lots of it.
So my mom called the nursery to explain our situation and see if we could bring the plants back to exchange them for shade-loving varieties. The employee she spoke with was very helpful and politely told her that as long as the plants were still in their original pots and we had the receipt, we could bring them back. This same employee (I wish I had gotten his name, but for all intents and purposes let's just call him Steve) greeted us bright and early the next morning when we returned to the nursery to correct our plant-purchasing faux pas. Steve, along with everyone else that helped us (we require a lot of help) must have thought we were a little crazy. But nobody said anything (at least not to our faces).
When my mom spoke to Steve on the phone, he suggested that we look into getting Astilbes, hydrangeas, bleeding hearts, and hostas to fill the shady bed. We decided we'd move three of our hydrangeas to the bed in question as they seemed to need more shade and space anyway, and we bought three each of: red astilbe; beautiful large-leaved, dark green hostas; and pink bleeding hearts to fill in the rest of the space.
And then like instant replay, we loaded the plants into the car and drove them to their new—and this time hopefully, permanent—home, and got to work. With a little help from my dad, who dug out and moved the hydrangeas, I planted all the new plants and watered them in good. So far, so beautiful. The plants look happy and healthy, and with all the rain we got last night (and are supposed to get this week), I think they'll settle into their new digs just fine. I'll keep you posted on their progress. Now I'm thinking about what I can do with the sunnier bed next to the patio...hmmm...
Recommended reading:
101 Shade-Loving Plants
Success with Shade-Loving Plants
Kristin_Z
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