Thinking About Fruit and Fragrance

When we purchased our home last year, the front southwest corner had overgrown evergreens that poked into the path. The trunks had fallen over and they were growing nearly horizontally, obviously too large for the space under a big Deodar cedar (Cedrus deodora). Surrounding it all was a thick carpet of English ivy.

This winter we had the overgrown shrubs taken out. I’m working on digging the ivy, but it’s a slow process. I don’t want to disturb too much of the bleeding heart (Dicentra formosa) growing among the ivy.

Now that we’ve removed the old, it’s time to plan what to plant in the now-open spacewhich gets afternoon sun. Up against the house the soil is well-drained and fairly dry, especially in the summer. Natalie and I both like shrubs, in part because they’re less maintenance than perennials, so they are the backbone of our plan. It won’t be final until we get plants in the ground this spring.

I’m lobbying for a mock orange (Philadelphus lewisii) on the corner against the house. It should thrive in the bright sunlight and will be covered with extremely fragrant flowers in early June. The rest of the summer it will be a nice green mass.

For bloom earlier in the season, we’re considering a deciduous azalea. The site is too dry for our native western azalea (Rhododendron occidentale) so we’ll pick another one that’s right for the conditions. I remember flame azaleas (Rhododendron calendulaceum) from the West Virginia mountains, as well as the ones my father grew in front of our home there. It’s available in the nursery trade in Washington state so maybe we’ll put it on our list. It’s another fragrant species.

We want something evergreen as well. We’ll plant evergreen huckleberries (Vaccinium ovatum), which have benefit of flowers in early spring and tasty fruit in September. We could also plant low Oregon-grape (Berberis nervosa) for early flowers that feed bees and other pollinators early in the season.

Filling out this little vignette in our garden will be low perennials. There’s already a nice patch of bleeding heart poking through the ivy and I saw snowdrops blooming there today, a sure sign spring is on its way and with it the time to begin planting.

© 2015, Mark Turner. All rights reserved. This article is the property of Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens. We have received many requests to reprint our work. Our policy is that you are free to use a short excerpt which must give proper credit to the author, and must include a link back to the original post on our site. Please use the contact form above if you have any questions.