Blooms In The Forest

It is hard to think of this eleven and a half acres as just one garden. The ridges and valleys break it into distinct areas. There are cultivated parts and sections left to the wild. Some sections have full sun. The forest generated shade goes from light shade to the dank, dark underbelly of the dying Hemlocks.

Other gardens live and bloom as if we were not here.

The Iris cristata is a native that was introduced to the cultivated parts of these particular folds in the earths crust. I can imagine that bits of it could be flung into the wild sections and it would prosper and multiply.


















The tiny Sedum ternatum spends much of the year hiding. When it blooms it is quite showy and the immense quantities of it in the forest reveal themselves.













Tiarella cordifolia is abundant in the moist seeps and along the stream that are the valley floors. The dense white showy racemes light up the shaded ground in groups large and small.















A Jack of all Shades. First black, then green, now brown, Arisaema triphyllum pop up through the leaf litter by the thousands.

















Diphylleia cymosa is listed as infrequent to rare in the westernmost mountain counties of NC. It isn't rare here. The flower is small compared to the huge leaf. The bright blue fruits on red stems in the fall are much showier and more interesting than the flower.













The feathery appearance of the bloom identifies this as a Thalictrum, maybe T. revolutum. There are seven other Meadow Rues in NC and several other species in the Ranunculaceae family with very similar leaf patterns. Flowers are most helpful in the forest for identifying things.














Out in the sunny meadow, a garden that is only half tamed, a completely different world of blooms awaits.