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| Photo Credit: Felder Rushing |
| Rhododendrons provide year-round interest in woodland gardens. |
“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire, I won’t look farther than my own
back yard!” So said Dorothy after her fantastic adventures in Oz.
It’s good advice for gardeners, too. There are literally hundreds of plants native to your area, no matter where you live, and they can be the foundation of a wonderful woodland garden. You can choose to go completely native or mix in plants from other parts of the world as well. Either way, there are a few simple rules I’d like to recommend for creating your own woodland garden. Work with Mother Nature and not against her. If you have an area that’s in full or part shade, then place plants that thrive in full or part shade there. Simple enough, right? You would be surprised at the number of “proficient gardeners” who try to force plants into unnatural situations. Choose plants that are adapted to your site, be it an acre of woods or a tiny spot in the shade of a big tree. | Add Photo to Journal |  | | Photo Credit: Courtesy of the International Flower Bulb Centre | | Trillium can blanket a shady hillside. |
Woodland gardens are all about subtlety and gradual change. You don’t have to cram in too many plants for overwhelming bloom all yearlong. Encourage native ferns and wildflowers to re-establish themselves in your garden over time. Have patience – the plants that you find most rewarding may be the ones that take the longest to grow and spread.
Successful woodland gardens mimic the natural conditions for plants in your area. Most woodland plants prefer a rich soil that’s high in organic matter, well-drained but retains moisture for long periods and has good penetration of water and air into the soil. You may live in an area of the country that has long periods of drought, even in wooded areas. Again, the focus is for you to duplicate the climatic conditions where you live and plant things that like those conditions. This is another way of working with Mother Nature and not against her. Companion planting is a sure-fire way to create a woodland garden. Ferns, wildflowers and groundcovers combine beautifully with bulbs, shrubs, small trees and evergreens under the canopy of overhead shade trees. In my parent’s garden, I planted bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora), flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) and redbud (Cercis canadensis) with Rhododendrons, mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia), Clethra, spicebush (Lindera benzoin) and arrowwood viburnum. Varying native ferns, bulbs and wildflowers were tucked in amongst Heuchera, Tiarella and other perennials. The groundcover I chose was the native Pachysandra procumbens.
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