My favorite plants, part 2

When I think about it, I have a lot of favorite plants. Ultimately, I only want to have plants I love in my yard, although it's always a "weeding out" process. Sometimes I get plants that end up too big, too aggressive, too weak. Or I just decide they are ugly. So out they go; some to be replanted in better spots, some to be given away, and some headed for the compost pile.

Welcome to my jungle.

Here are a few more plants I really love in my garden:

Japanese Forest Grass
(Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola')

In the morning and evening light, this plant just glows. Its bright green color looks good with any other color. I especially like it with purple, but this blue hydrangea looks good next to it. (I tried to get rid of the blue hydrangea, dug it up, gave it to a friend, and for some reason, it came back up. I decided it earned the right to live.)

Hardy Fuchsia

I think Hardy Fuchsias are some of the coolest plants you can get in our area. As the name suggests, they will live through the winter, throwing up new growth in the spring, and getting flowers at the beginning of summer. They flower continuously until fall's killing frosts.

These are not for the most part the big round budded ones we used to pop in our mothers hanging baskets. Most of them have smaller, although equally bright flowers. Keep your eyes out for these in garden centers and nurseries. There are a lot of varieties to choose from. If you fall in love with them as I have it might be worth a trip to Flower World in Maltby, near Snohomish, WA. Flower World is huge, and if you are a plant collector it can be a dangerous place.

Every spring they have small starts that cost around $1 of over 120 varieties of Fuchsias, including small starts of hardy ones. Considering these small starts will grow quickly once the weather warms up, it's a lot cheaper than buying the $7-12 gallons that you can purchase later. An added plus if you go to Maltby is visiting Maltby Cafe. This is possibly the best breakfast place I have ever eaten in. They make all of their own baked goods daily. I recommend the Eggs Benedict. Yum. But I digress.

Ivy and Creeping Jenny under my grape arbor.

Creeping Jenny, Variegated Ivy, Mints

Since I probably made it sound like I hate all English Ivy yesterday, I'll admit that I have a couple of variegated varieties in pots and they are great. These aggressive growers are great in pots because they don't take over the world, but they do take over the pots and "runneth over" quickly, which is what you want. These add to the lush look under my grape arbor, and they do well in the bright shade there.

Lungwort

Silver-leaved Lungwort

(Pulmonaria)

Maybe I'll write a posting some time on plants that slugs don't like. I'll bet it would be my most popular one.

If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't plant a single hosta in my yard and instead, I would plant a variety of Lungworts. They would serve all of the purposes of hostas without the drawbacks. OK, I'm really talking about slugs and snails.

I hate slugs and snails, although I prefer the snails, since they are easier to pick off. But no matter how hard I try to remember to put out "Sluggo", check every morning for the slimy destroyers, it seems that by mid-summer my hostas have become something resembling tatted lace.

Lungworts have large leaves like hostas, grow in part sun to shade, and have beautiful, often bright blue flowers in the spring, that last for months. After the flowers die you are left with the substantial leaves until fall frosts kill them off. Lungwort leaves are various combinations of green and silver: sometimes green with polka dots (my mom used to call this plant "Boys and Girls" for the plants habit of starting out with blue flowers, which turn to pink as they age.) Some have mottled combinations of green and silver, like a girl with freckles that are so many that they start to meld together. Some have solid green leaves (I have a variety like this. It has dark green leaves and the most beautiful true blue flowers in the springtime.) Others are solid silver, as mine is above. And there is everything in between.

Their true beauty is that they have slightly fuzzy leaves which slugs and snails aren't fond of. While my hostas are already quite lacy, my lungworts look great, and I know they will continue to do so until late fall.