Andromeda

Here's a full shot of the bed around the front of the house where my recent understory planting was done, specifically to show the size of the Andromeda. This shrub still holds the remnants of a cardinal nest built and abandoned last spring, perhaps because of prying kitty eyes from the dining room window.

 


Here's a close-up of the growing flower buds.

Budding andromeda. 

Understory Project

Outside the dining room window is this wonderful Andromeda bush...tree...thing. The "feet" of this behemoth appear in the upper left corner of this photo. It's as high as the eaves, and quite lovely with its off season blooms of white bell clusters (just forming now). Around the base of it is a nice established plot of vinca, with a hydrangea by the step and an assortment of lily of the valley appearing throughout. But just off the porch was a large empty place, where this evening I added a trio of honeybell hostas, backed by a trio of yellow daylilies.

 


On the other side of the andromeda, I've begun adding a semicircle of smaller hostas, which will spread around in front of the adjacent evergreen shrub, and serve as a backdrop for a bed of impatiens, as I planted this year. Behind these first hostas, (between the "feet" of the two bushes) I've also transplanted some ferns from the back garden, at this time of year a bit battered and hard to see in this photo.

Of course the best part is imagining what it will look like next year...and five years from now. This is the time of year to be re-imagining, to be directing next summer's stage show. There's lots of transplanting and re-arranging I'll be hoping to do in the next couple of days, as we are forecast to be receiving the (hopefully faded) remnants of Hurricane Ophelia...and a good soaking rain will be just the follow-up to a change in location.