The Road that Became a Garden

In autumn, the gardener’s thoughts often turn to planting spring-blooming bulbs and perennials. If your mind is running in that direction, I’ve got some ideas for you — all gleaned from a visit to the garden of Charles Greiner, a Master Gardener with a unique spring garden. When I visited the Greiner garden last spring, I met quite a few natives and ephemerals for the first time. But the garden’s unique origin story was equally captivating.

When the Greiners built their house  — on a lot near Beaver Creek Reservoir — there were almost too many delightful features to count. But it was later that they discovered perhaps the most remarkable feature of all:  an old roadbed. Yes, an old roadbed ran along one side of their property, and then wended its way uphill and across a creek. It was covered with a tangle of invasives, but still recognizable as a road. When the Greiners attended a lecture on early roads of Albemarle County, they learned that “their” road dated back to 1750, and was a remnant of old Three Notched Road, one of the four roads that Albemarle County constructed in 1750. It originated ten miles north at Browns Gap and terminated at Old Three Chopt Road, one mile to the south. In the 1850’s it became a “turnpike” that the adjoining property owners had to maintain while having the right to collect user fees.

Both sides of the roadbed are sloped, and once he’d evicted the invasives, Charles decided to turn those sloping sides into a garden. When I asked why, he replied, “Well, I’m a gardener.” Of course! It was an answer any gardener could understand. As I learned, he’s more than a gardener, he was trained as a landscape architect at LSU, under the iconic Robert S. Reich, the founder of the department. That we both had a connection to Doc Reich was a delightful discovery, and we spent a few moments trading stories about him. To learn more about this early leader in the field — who came from a horticulture background —  you’ll find references in the Sources section below.

Nowadays, the old road is a path through swaths of flowering plants, including quite a few that Charles and his wife brought from their former home in northern Alabama. Mature deciduous trees provide plenty of shade as well as leaf litter for the soil. The ironwood trees (Carpinus caroliniana), with their muscular gray bark, were quite the attention-grabbers.  

The flowering denizens of the roadbed include:

• trout lily
• mayapple
• Jacob’s ladder
• trillium — several kinds
• pachysandra — a variety native to Alabama
• wood poppy
• winter aconite
• Christmas fern
• fernleaf phacelia  (Phacelia bipinnatifida)
• Virginia bluebells

  

• bleeding hearts 
• native azaleas

Except for a few bulbs, almost all the plants are southeastern natives. Some are ephemerals, and most are spring bloomers, so this garden is in its prime in spring. When I visited in mid-March, a few plants had poked their heads up, one of which, mayapple, was familiar to me, as I’d written an article about it,  Mayapple/The Garden Shed. The bluebells, which I’ve coveted for a long time, were already blooming.   

 

That’s when I saw my first Little Sweet Betsy (Trillium cuneatum), which has quite a few other common names, my favorite being toad trillium. According to my research, this southeastern U.S. native is usually found in shady, moist areas of forests. It is sessile in form, which means it lacks a stalk. Its seeds are spread by ants (a process known as myrmecochory). And why do ants take up this task? It’s because they feed the elaiosome (a small oily structure attached to a seed) to their offspring. Unfortunately, we humans apparently have difficulty growing it from seed, on top of which, it does not transplant easily. Bloom color can vary; usually it’s maroon, but sometimes yellowish bronze or reddish-green. 

 

Charles pointed out a large swath of mottled leaves, which I learned were yellow trout lilies (Erythronium americanum), whose common name derives from the resemblance of the foliage to the markings on brook or brown trout. This plant is also known as dog-toothed violet, as well as a host of other common names. It was named the Wildflower of the Year in 2003 by the Virginia Native Plant Society.

The trout lilies’ delicate blooms appeared later, in April (see photo below). Like many ephemerals, the trout lily goes dormant in late spring. The root system consists of a corm (bulb-like structure) with fibrous roots. Trout lilies spread via rhizomes, often creating large colonies in the right conditions — i.e.,  shady areas with moist, humus-rich soil. This plant requires some sun in early spring, which a deciduous forest provides. If you’re starting your own colony, beginning with a corm is recommended. You have to be patient for the flowers as it often takes 4 to 8 years to mature to the blooming stage.

 

Another April bloomer is Stylophorum diphyllum, commonly known as wood poppy or celandine poppy, which bears bright yellow (though sometimes orange-ish) flowers. It will re-bloom if cut back. This perennial is native to a large portion of North America, from Wisconsin and Michigan south to Arkansas, Tennessee, and southwestern Virginia, and is occasionally found in northern Alabama and southern Ontario. Like the trout lily, it prefers moist humus-y soil in a shady location, but is somewhat drought-tolerant. It is a self-seeder, although chipmunks and mice love to eat the seeds. Sadly, some scientists say that this plant’s survival in the wild may be threatened in some locations by the invasive garlic mustard, which apparently disrupts the mycorrhizal fungi associated with wood poppy — and some other native plants, as well. NC State Extension,

I had never heard of phacelia, a genus sometimes referred to as scorpion weed, but it’s a plant well worth knowing. There are apparently eight native species of Phacelia in the southeastern U.S.  Charles has one, believed to be Phacelia bipinnafitida, which is commonly called fernleaf phacelia, fernleaf scorpion weed, or purple phacelia. The latter name is the one used by the Mt. Cuba Center, which has a large colony and endorses its use by gardeners. Here’s what Mt. Cuba has to say:

Purple phacelia, a relatively unknown biennial, can be used to quickly cover a large area in a sea of foliage and flowers. The divided leaves grow to a height of 5” the first summer and linger until late fall. The following spring, they re-emerge, culminating in 12-15” tall plants covered with masses of purple flowers that last for about a month. Purple phacelia readily self-sows thereby assuring a continuous display.

—Mt.Cuba Center/Purple Phacelia

 

Phacelia bippinnatifida tolerates most soil types and grows best in part shade. Remember that it’s a biennial, dying soon after flowering in the second year. Happily, it is easy to start from seed, and seeds are available commercially. I’m still trying to decide which common name to use, but there’s no doubt that I want some for my garden.

Touring this unusual garden was a treat, and Charles was a most gracious and learned host. When I asked which of the spring beauties was his favorite, he replied, “I don’t think I have any favorites. I always enjoy seeing every single one when it appears.”

You, too, might like to add early spring flowers to your garden, especially since they’re needed by our native pollinators. To learn more about them and how to add them to your garden, I highly recommend reading Searching for Spring Ephemerals/Piedmont Master Gardeners, which is packed with useful resources.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SOURCES:

FEATURED IMAGE: Bill Sublette.  With many thanks to Bill for his photographs.

“Trillium cuneatum,” Missouri Botanical Garden

“Trout lilies,”  Clemson University Home & Garden Information Center

“Erythronium americanum ssp. americanum,” NC State Extension

“Erythronium americium,” University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture/Native Plants

“Yellow Trout Lily (Erythronium Americanum) Wildflower of the Year 2003,” Va. Native Plant Society

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center/www.wildflower.org/Stylophorum diphyllum

“Stylophorum diphyllum,” NC State Extension

“Stylophorum diphylllum,” Missouri Botanical Garden

A Field Guide to Terrestrial Invasive Plants in Wisconsin/Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources (impact of garlic mustard on native plants)

“An Old-Fashioned Favorite: Bleeding Heart,” Penn.State Extension

“Dicentra eximia,” NC State Extension

“Phacelia bipinnatifida,” Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

“North Carolina Phacelia Species,” BotanyNerd

Adding Native Spring Ephemerals to Ornamental Flower Beds/The Garden Shed/2018

Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture/History

“Moment of Silence – Dr. Robert S. Reich, FASLA, 1913-2010,” landscapearchitect.com (” . . . he could use any plant, from Johnson’s grass to live oaks, in imaginative ways . . .”)