The Summer That Was at the 45th Parallel, Part 2

17.11.2023 - 08:47 / finegardening.com / GPOD Contributor

We’re back with Susan Warde in St. Paul, Minnesota! Yesterday we looked back at the year in her front garden, and today we’re taking the same tour through the seasons but in her back garden, where things are a bit shadier but no less beautiful.

May 17: The back garden is shadier than the front, and the colors are subtler, but the unfurling fronds of maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum, Zones 3–8) in the foreground and royal fern (Osmunda regalis, Zones 3–9) in the top right give a pop of color to the spring garden. White trillium (Trillium grandiflorum, Zones 3–8) and white-edged hostas light up the background.

May 23: Though this tall Northern Lights azalea’s cultivar name is ‘White Lights’ (Rhododendron‘White Lights’, Zones 4–8), it is actually pink unless grown in full sun. Bare ground is exposed where I dug out quantities of gooseneck loosestrife (Lysimachia clethroides, Zones 3–8). Tiny shoots kept coming back all summer. I don’t recommend it!

May 27: This area is surrounded by a flagstone path. The small maple (upper left) is Acer × pseudoseiboldianum‘Ice Dragon’ (Zones 4–8). Hostas (the white-edged ones are ‘Blue Ivory’, Zones 3–8), ferns, bugleweed (Ajuga reptens, Zones 3–10), and astilbes (Astilbesp., Zones 4–8) crowd around it.

June 5: The back garden is mostly about foliage. Here Japanese painted ferns (Athyrium japonicum, Zones 5–9) maidenhair fern, sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis, Zones 4–8), meadow rue (Thalictrum dioicum, Zones 4–7), and three different hostas contrast nicely in a narrow garden along the garage.

June 7: Purple Siberian iris (Iris siberica, Zones 3–8) are in bloom by early June. Behind them is a large clump of narrow-leaved spleenwort (Diplasium pycnocarpon, Zones 3–8).

June 19: At this