Episode 3311

- [Narrator] On this volunteer gardener, April Moore, treats us to a tour of a southern cottage garden that has the wow-factor. Plants, pathways, and points of interest are waiting to be discovered throughout this residential lot. Beautiful. One goal we share for our garden spaces is to have year round interest. Spring ephemerals can help fill that common void of color at the very beginning of a new growing season. Annette Shrader, showcases a diverse selection of these early bloomers. And Tammy Algood, finds delight in a zoo garden that sure to peak a child's interest in plants. Join us. First, a garden where one charming area leads you right into the next.

- For over 20 years, I've had the privilege and enjoyment of watching this garden evolve. It's just around the corner and down the street from my own home, and today I'm going to show it to you with its owner Greg Lee. Now Greg, I know few gardens that have more wow-factor in the front yard than yours, and I wanted to ask you, how did you get inspired and what turned you on to gardening?

- Well, I tell you, my mother was an avid gardener and I really enjoyed spending time with her. And even at four or five years old, I remember pulling weeds with her in her garden. Of course, she wasn't able at that time to purchase many things, she just had to share items. So, there wasn't a lot of variety, but she really loved it. And the older she got, she got to where she could do a little better.

- [April Moore] Mm-hmm.

- And so she started buying me plants and I would buy her stuff. So, we've shared a lot of plants. And then recently when she passed, I inherited a lot of her garden and added to mine, so.

- Oh, fantastic. Can you point out some of these plants that you had inherited from your mother?

- Yeah, these beautiful yellow cans here. She had those.

- Oh, those are gorgeous.

- [Gregory Lee] And so also I have some penny over here that was hers. The crocosmia, I had some of that, I think she gave me that.

- [April Moore] That's the variety Lucifer, right?

- [Gregory Lee] It is Lucifer.

- [April Moore] That's pretty.

- [Gregory Lee] And it's absolutely beautiful this time of the year.

- [April Moore] Yeah.

- [Gregory Lee] Also the Ruby Slippers hydrangea there, she bought that for me.

- [April Moore] Wow.

- [Gregory Lee] Years back. And it's one of my favorites. It's really beautiful. It starts out in a white.

- [April Moore] Aha.

- [Gregory Lee] And it slowly changes color and it's getting darker now, but it'll eventually go to almost a burgundy sort of a color.

- [April Moore] Wow, that's beautiful. And it makes it even that much better and more special because it was a gift from your mother.

- [Gregory Lee] Oh, yeah. Well, and a lot of the plants that I have in the yard are things that other friends, other fellow gardeners have shared as well. And of course I enjoy sharing. There's always plenty of extras seeds and plants that you do, have extra when you divide 'em, you know? So--

- Yeah. I really love how you've given this garden, this shape with these borders. They're just so neat and it just really defines the whole shape. I just think it's just a really gifted composition. You could go pro, I'll tell you that, but in my opinion.

- [Gregory Lee] No thank you.

- This garden is full of great ideas. And one thing I wanna point out here and ask you about is these rain chains and what you have growing on them.

- [Gregory Lee] Well, I have passion flowers, a Tennessee native. It comes back every year from seed. It grows up and covers the change. It helps provide some shade for my porch as well. And beautiful. And the hummingbirds love it. I have a lot of, get some worms on it actually that turn into beautiful butterflies.

- [April Moore] Oh, yep.

- [Gregory Lee] They'll almost decimate the plant.

- [April Moore] Yeah.

- [Gregory Lee] And you think it's dead Maybe. But the plant comes back and thrives and you have all these beautiful little butterflies all over the garden. It's really nice.

- [April Moore] And I imagine the passion flowers really appreciate all that extra water for having the rain right there.

- Oh, yeah. They really do. They do well and this fern over in here, also does well and benefits from that.

- It's a beautiful way to tackle that whole problem. I love it.

- Yeah, it is.

- That's a great idea.

- The door would heat up really hot in the summer.

- Yeah.

- So, this really seems to help that.

- [April Moore] That's awesome. That's great. Now Greg, before we move on around the house, I wanted to ask you about this variegated Phlox, I've never seen one like this, and now I find out that you have an interesting story about this one and that one.

- Yeah. You know, when I first got both of these Phlox, I bought 'em together. But the center on one of 'em was dark with a light edge. The other was the opposite. And they've been here together for a long time, but now they all bloom exactly the same bloom. So, I don't know if that is cross pollination or exactly what's happened, but they still look great.

- Yeah.

- And they do well, so.

- Beautiful.

- I've kept them and they seem to do really well in the spot.

- [April Moore] That variegated foliage one is just stunning.

- [Gregory Lee] Yeah, I really like that. It adds a lot to the garden.

- This front garden has so much for anyone to enjoy and look at with so many beautiful, well tended plants, just massive amounts of curb appeal. Most people would be delighted just to have a space like this anywhere on their property. But then of course, I already know there is so much more beauty to be seen when we turn the corner. Now, another thing I love about this garden is things like this. This is a simple, kind of a utility path on the corner of the house. Most people wouldn't even visit. And yet you have completely landscaped this. And then it's also got this gorgeous statue, which just makes it very, very serene and just beautiful. I mean, you've really upscaled this little tiny corner of your house, it's gorgeous.

- Yeah. You can see the statue from the kitchen window.

- Yeah, it's full.

- Which is really nice as well.

- I mean the path, the way you've got these growing here and then these evergreens is just really pretty. So, we come on around this corner and you have Sundine poppies and hostas and beautiful evergreens. And then there's this specimen and it's an oak leaf hydria.

- [Gregory Lee] It is. It has probably been here for a good 22, 23 years.

- [April Moore] And that's just a single plant.

- [Gregory Lee] One plant.

- [April Moore] It's gorgeous.

- It has done exceedingly well.

- Yeah, it's beautiful. Obviously it's happy. And then even the ground is carpeted and Mondo grass intermixed with other plants. It's just--

- [Gregory Lee] The Mondo grass is excellent too. It stays green all year long. Even in the snow, it's green. It's almost like walking on shag carpet. It is so soft and nice.

- [April Moore] Yeah, I didn't realize that it would stand up to foot traffic quite that well and that's beautiful.

- It really does. It really does. Even the blue-eyed creeper there, it does a really good job of being walked on.

- That's awesome. Great ideas. This is such a beautiful serene area and it takes you back to this little seating area. And here we have this lovely Daylily, where did you get this?

- [Gregory Lee] It was my mother, so I'm not sure where she, I'm sure she purchased it online or something.

- It's beautiful.

- And then you've got lilies and this big hydrangea. It's just such a peaceful spot in the back of this garden. And it's at the back, it's not in a corner, you, it's not front and center where everybody will see it. This is kind of, I guess, part of your own private sanctuary.

- [Gregory Lee] Yeah, it is a little private garden where you can sit and relax, have a cup of coffee, enjoy the sun of nature and the birds. It's beautiful.

- It's really nice.

- Greg, I think you've managed to find just the right plant or combination of plants to put in every square foot of your property, top to bottom, front to back, side to side. Even here, along this driveway in a bed that's only two to four feet wide, you've managed to cram in so many plants, even a vegetable patch. And you've got daylilies, crocosmia, cone flowers. You've got an elderberry and then you've got Japanese ferns. So, and the castor beans.

- Yeah. You know, I grow the castor beans. They help to provide shade for some of these plants here. There used to be a large tree that provided shades. So, now in the summers I just try to plant castor beans or Cleomes, things like that, that will help provide some shade for those type of plants.

- Yeah, because you have hostas in here as well, side by side with plants that love the sun.

- Oh yeah. It seems to work.

- And the colors of the foliage all work beautifully together, and everything grows really well here.

- [Gregory Lee] It does. It seems to grow really well.

- I love it. And even at the very end here, you have a banana tree and then a plinth with a little pot on it.

- Yeah, recently planted the banana transplanted it, and some of the leaves fell off. So, it's working on getting better.

- Yeah. Well you have just made use of every inch, every foot of space on this lot, and that's amazing. What you see and what you don't see from within, in each of your garden spaces is considered and very deliberate. There's a rhythm and a flow between the spaces that are public and those that are private. It leads you on, I think it's a masterpiece of a garden.

- [Gregory Lee] Oh, thank you.

- I just wanna thank you for allowing us to come and visit your garden. It's summer, it's hot and this is just a gorgeous, inspiring garden. You make me really wanna go back to mine and sort a few things out. 'Cause what you've done here with the colors of the foliage, the flowers, something always beautiful. It's just stunning.

- Well, thank you very much.

- You're very welcome.

- I really enjoyed having y'all.

- Well, thank you. It's been a treat.

- Ephemeral, something that lives for a very short time. Your first harbinger of spring. So, I have Logan Clark, at the Plants Delight nursery in Raleigh, North Carolina. And this is his specialty. And Logan, we know that you can give us some information that we've not heard and just, and get us all involved in the spring ephemerals.

- Awesome. Well thank you so much, Annette, for being out here today. I'm happy to have you guys out. And I love talking about the spring ephemerals. Like Annette, already said, they're one of the harbinger of spring, a very welcome site after a dreary winter. Ephemerals itself means a short-lived time span. These plants themselves are not short-lived they can live many, many years in the forest, but the actual time they take to complete their lifecycle is a lot shorter than most plants. In the wild, most ephemerals will pop out before the trees leaf out. They prefer deciduous woodlands. So, they like that warm sun coming down on the forest floor to warm up the soil and signal them that it's time to come out for the spring. Most of these plants, you won't even know they were here within the next month or so.

- [Annette Shrader] These have the ability to come up through layers and layers of wet leaves, don't they?

- [Logan Clark] They do. We still try to go light on the mulch around them in the garden, so they aren't too hard pressed to push through. But in the wild, they're used to pushing up through inches of leaf duff and things on the ground.

- [Annette Shrader] Well, and that's what sustains life.

- [Logan Clark] Exactly. Keeps the soil healthy.

- [Annette Shrader] The Virginia bluebells is my favorite.

- [Logan Clark] It's also one of my favorites. And this particular selection's a little pinker than your typical bluebells. Mertensia Virginica tends to be a little more blue. This one starts out very, very pink and ages to a blue.

- That's what I was gonna say, they do change my great colors from the beginning of opening until they drop their blossoms.

- So, here we have Erythronium americanum. This is Subspecies Harperi. There's lots of, or not lots, but several erythronium species native to the U.S. This one particular we call trout lilies. And they're called trout lilies because of the modeling on the leaves. You can see this modeling somewhat resembles a brook trout skin. And these guys are very short-lived. The blooms on these won't last more than a week or two. And I've already seen some patches come in the go in the garden this season. But the leaves will persist for a little while. And some of these species are very slow growing. We have one patch in the garden that's about yay big and it's been there for 17 years. So, next time you see these out in the woods, think about how long it took for them to form that carpet.

- Well, I'm gonna add my part to that story. The creekbank where I grew up, I know where there's a patch that has to be, and there's no exaggeration, a half an acre. It's on the side of a large stone wall, and along that creek side, that's what I wait for every spree to go visit.

- They're quite fantastic. And that's one of my favorite parts about the ephemerals in the wild is seeing them carpet, the forest floor. It's a really stunning presentation.

- [Annette Shrader] An undisturbed.

- An undisturbed forest floor. Yes ma'am. That is correct. But we can still bring 'em into the garden and use them lovely in the shade gardens.

- [Annette Shrader] And we can buy them off of the market.

- Yes, we can. A lot of the things we do out here at Plant Delights and Juniper level is actually to try to take pressures off wild populations by growing some of these species from seed. We specialize in Trilliums especially, but also these Trillium as well.

- Okay, well let's move on because they only might have three days. This is a small package with a big impact. Tell us about this.

- So, this is Rue anemone. This is Thalictrum thalictroides. Unlike the wood anemone, which likes to spread out across the forest floor, Rue anemone, likes to keep a nice tight clump in the garden. It's one of our first blooms in the spring, and it's a wonderful garden plant. It will seed out here and there, but it keeps nice tight clump. It's not very messy in the garden at all.

- If I went to find this in my hometown, where would you find this growing?

- Like a lot of our other spring ephemerals moist deciduous woodlands typically, we were talking earlier, they like to occur on your creekbank.

- [Annette Shrader] Yes.

- [Logan Clark] I've seen them in seeps and open moist woodlands for the most part. Not anything super dry.

- [Annette Shrader] So, Logan in the early spring before there's any other greenery, we do find some of our gingers, don't we?

- We have several gingers that are native to eastern North America and throughout North America. This particular one is Asarum arifolium, is not a true ephemeral. It does hang onto its leaves. They're actually evergreen throughout the year. They'll get a little purple in the winter, but they're some of the first flowers you actually see. And they are some very strange flowers if you wanna take a closer look. And down here they flower at the ground level and they're actually pollinated by ants and beetles and fungus gnats. And when they set seed, they do share this trait with a lot of the spring ephemerals. Those seeds will form a fatty packet called in elaiosome. And this elaiosome, encourages ants and other critters to take that seed back to their burrow and disperse them throughout the forest floor.

- [Annette Shrader] You know that and reminds me of little baby birds with their mouth open to get fed.

- A lot of people call this colloquially, little brown jugs and you could see why.

- Yes.

- They look like little brown jugs.

- This plant is a little larger than some of our dainty ones. Tell us about this.

- So, this is a relative of our native Jack-in-the-Pulpit. Our native Jack-in-the-Pulpit is Arisaema Triphyllum. This is a relative from Japan. This is Arisaema ringens, also known as the Japanese Cobra Lily. And as you can see, this is a little larger than your typical Jack-in-the-Pulpit. Jack has a much bigger pulpit, and Jack is hidden up under here. If we pull it back, you can see Jack coming out. But the more common name for these in Japan are cobra lilies. And you could see why they would call it a Cobra Lilly. It kinda looks like a cobra up under there.

- [Annette Shrader] For real. I had one of these surprise me and come up from nowhere in my mulch.

- Wow. It would be quite a surprise. They emerge from these conical leaf sheaths, called cataphyll that protects them. They look like something out of Dr. Seuss, when they first pop out in the spring.

- Mm-hmm.

- And these leaves won't hang around too terribly long. After the plant is pollinated, this will turn into a lovely cluster of red berries that you'll see in the garden.

- [Annette Shrader] Now are they a poisonous berry? Can we propagate from those, or?

- You can propagate from those. I would not recommend eating them. You can eat any berry once, but I wouldn't recommend starting with this one.

- [Annette Shrader] I meant for pets and small children.

- No, no. We have three cats in the garden and they've never suffered from Arisaema poisoning. So, I think it--

- [Annette Shrader] So, this is the covering you're talking about.

- That's the leaf sheath right there.

- When it comes out, it's just a little pink sprout coming up, isn't it?

- It is. It is. It's a little cone covered in these leaf sheaths. And as that plant grows, the cone splits apart and reveals the leaves and the pulpit inside.

- And actually lots of plants have that little sheath when they come up.

- They do. They do. It's a pretty common trait in the aroids These are related to your other, aroids.

- [Annette Shrader] Mm-hmm.

- Very common morphology of an arrowwood flower. You have the spade, which would be the pulpit and the spayed deck, which would be jack in the pulpit.

- [Annette Shrader] This is a patch of mayapples.

- [Logan Clark] Yes ma'am. This is Podophyllum peltatum. It's our native mayapple. Some people call maypops. One of the reasons they call 'em this is because they usually have one single flower in between their two leaves. And this will be a white flower around the time may rolls around, will develop into a single fruit. And this fruit is poisonous to humans. But I've been told it's a favorite snack of box turtles in the early spring, early summer.

- [Annette Shrader] What is the lifespan of, when the foliage itself disappears?

- You won't even know these were here by the time June rolls around.

- Okay.

- They do like to form these running patches or colonies is what they're usually referred to. And they are super tough plants. I've seen them push up through kudzu on the side of the road.

- [Annette Shrader] So, are they going by runners or only by seed.

- [Logan Clark] Runners underneath the ground.

- While we're standing here, let's talk about just how vast are the numbers of plants in the spring ephemeral world?

- As far as native spring ephemerals go, I usually think about 10 different genera across the Eastern U.S. But there's obviously quite a bit more out there. But the real ones I think about are usually trilliums, trout lilies, mayapples, there's just a wide variety. But those are the ones that really stand out to me as some of the first signs of spring.

- So, let's clarify, the bloom itself is three days and less. The foliage is longer.

- The foliage is usually longer. And the bloom can vary between a couple days. Like something like bloodroot might only bloom for a day or two. Where something like this mayapple might bloom for a week or more. It's the foliage and the complete lifecycle that the ephemeral is usually referring to. They'll only last a few months above ground. Like I said earlier, a lot of these plants, you won't even know they're here by the time summer rolls around. I also encourage people to plant them with ferns as well. Most ephemerals are pretty shade loving. They want a shadier spot in your yard. So, ferns are an excellent companion planting for ephemerals too.

- Without a doubt, most people recognize this spring ephemeral toss about this Trillium.

- So, this is Trillium delicatum. We have a very large collection of Trilliums here at Plant Delights. But this particular one is a pretty rare species. It was actually newly described as science in 2019. It used to be considered part of Trillium decumbens. But I think this lovely flat shape against the ground is a really cool feature in any of the spring ephemerals, but also in your garden too.

- I sometimes find these nestled up against my oak trees. Now this is what?

- This is Dentaria laciniata. This is also known as toothwort.

- [Annette Shrader] Yes.

- Annette, we were talking about earlier, this truly is one of the first members to come out of the ground during the spring.

- [Annette Shrader] Yes.

- This is related to mustards and the mustard family Brassicaceae. And it's actually related to some of your more common weeds, also known as bittercress.

- I guess. And you know, I recognize that bloom is looking like an Epimedium, but it's not.

- It isn't. But the reason they call it toothwort is 'cause it has these dissected leaves that form these lobes like that, that some are more pronounced than others but--

- [Annette Shrader] And that encircles the stem, don't they?

- [Logan Clark] It does.

- [Annette Shrader] Alright. This is beautiful.

- [Logan Clark] This is bloodroot, also known as Sanguinaria Canadensis. It's a really cool one too, because this is the only species in the genus Sanguinaria. And it is only here in eastern North America. It does go up into Canada a little bit. This is a plant known for many uses throughout history by early European settlers and indigenous tribes. This was used as a skin treatment. The actual root of the plant has a bright red sap in it. It's very caustic. And some people would use this to burn off ulcers or treat other, or burn off warts and treat other skin irritation.

- [Annette Shrader] Another Arisaema, tell us.

- So, this is another relative of our native Jack-in-the-Pulpit. This is Arisaema Thunbergia, subspecies Urashima from Japan. And you'll see here Jack's pulpit looks very similar, but Jack got really stretched out. I mean, look at that spadix, that is just crazy.

- [Annette Shrader] What's he looking for?

- I don't know what he's looking for. You'll have to ask him sometime. But these also have a wonderful horseshoe-shaped leaf. And again, these, you won't even know, they were hardly in the garden come June, July.

- But Logan, as I walked with you and saw you get down on your knees in this garden of Ephemerals, I want to thank you that you have imparted lots of knowledge and most of all, I want to encourage people to get out there where it's happening. It's not happening inside now, we're in the close door of spring and these beauties don't last very long.

- No ma'am. Thank you so much, Annette, for coming out and joining us today. It was a pleasure having you around the garden and getting to show you around.

- Well, I can tell you this was my pleasure. I love it here.

- Oh, please come back and see us again.

- I've learnt a lot.

- What better way to get kids interested in gardening than to let them have fun making a zoo garden? What a great idea. James Newburn, here is the interim director of the UT Gardens here in Knoxville. And y'all have a zoo garden here in your children's garden that is just incredible.

- Well, we thought of this idea and we just thought it was such a cool play on the kids petting zoo that you see with animals.

- Right.

- [James Newburn] And so we've chosen plants that have animal names in their name. And then that way kids can begin to just get kind of, their curiosity takes a hold of them. And so they're wondering, well why is this named this, you know, what association does it have with an animal? And it really begins to create kind of a curiosity about nature and about plants and how they're different and how they're similar for children.

- [Tammy Algood] And the beauty of this is that once you get it started, they're all perennials.

- They are all perennials. And so this has been here like five years and so we just kind of weed it, maintain it, and we've got it every year. And each little generation that comes along discovers something new.

- So, give us some good examples of the plants that you've got here in the zoo garden.

- Well, we can start with lamb's ear. And that is a perfect plant to introduce children to, because it's aptly named--

- [Tammy Algood] Correct.

- [James Newburn] The lamb's ear is soft and fuzzy. And so we have lamb's ear. We have cat mint. Of course they're curious about cat mint, and the fact that it smells and cats are attracted to it. So, that's kind of exciting for them. We have tickseed on the opposite end. You know, Coreopsis is is called tickseed.

- [Tammy Algood] Mm-hmm.

- [James Newburn] So, that gets their little entomology insect curiosity going. We have bee balm, we have elephant ears, we have cranesbill. So, you can come up with all kinds of plants that have animal names associated with it, and then create this garden. This can be done in your own home.

- And what a great project for like a church playground or--

- Right. Boys and girls, clubs, master Gardener gardens. And so I just encourage, and like we said, it's easily maintained.

- [Tammy Algood] Right.

- [James Newburn] So, it's a great opportunity for that exposure.

- [Tammy Algood] Well, and we want to start them early and we want to get their interest peaked quickly, so.

- [James Newburn] You know, research shows that if you create an interest in gardening and nature early, whether they stay with it through their teenage years or not, later on, they will remember that and come back to it. And that's how we create adult gardeners and that's how we create environmental stewardship.

- [Tammy Algood] Perfect. So, let's create repeat customers.

- There you go. There you go.

- And have a zoo garden that's fun for kids and for grownup kids.

- Yes, yes.

- [Narrator] For inspiring garden tours, growing tips and garden projects, visit our website @volunteergardener.org and find us on these platforms.