In Which Liz Arrives Bearing Plants

I actually want to start off tonight by showing off my new macro lens.  Let's take a look at my Jim Dandy winterberry holly, which is about to bloom.

All those little spherical objects are buds that will soon be tiny holly blossoms.

The English holly down the street is already blooming.

However, having only my male holly bloom does no good.  The male and the female holly both have to bloom at the same time for pollination to occur.  Fortunately, Jim Dandy is not only an early bloomer but a long bloomer, so Red Sprite has a little while to catch up.  Which is a good thing, because though I stare intently at her every day, so far there's no budding action.  I occasionally hallucinate a single bud at the center of a group of leaves, but I think it's probably just more leaves.

If Red Sprite doesn't bloom, I'll get no berries this year, and berries are pretty much the whole point of winterberry holly.

Now I want to tell you about the plants my friend Liz brought me last night.  Liz has a house in Connecticut where she can grow plants in the ground like a normal person.  She very kindly brought me three shade-loving perennials for my collection.

First is the lamium (Lamium maculatum),  One website describes it as a "tough yet showy perennial groundcover."  Sounds like my kind of plant.

 

I planted the lamium with Red Sprite, though it may get a little crowded in there.

As you can see, I moved Red Sprite closer to Jim Dandy in the hope that pollination will eventually occur.

Second is the European Ginger (Asarum Europaeum).  It too will spread to become a ground cover.

I put it under the Dwarf Alberta Spruce.

As Liz pointed out, it's a bit leggy.  "Leggy" as applied to plants is a term I've learned only recently - basically, it means that the stem is longer than you'd want it to be.

Finally, the Astilbe (Astilbe).  There are 18 different species of Astilbe, and I have no idea which of these species this one belongs to.

Astilbe is one of the few flowering plants that really love shade.  I'll be looking forward to seeing what color this one turns out to be.

It's moved in with Mr. Bowling Ball and the New Guinea impatiens.

I am definitely running out of room.  Fortunately, there's only one plant that still hasn't arrived.