Oh! And any suggestions on what I could plant around a tree. I would like something ferny--or just some simple, pretty annuals would do. My fairy garden is looking sad and empty.

Hmm. Does it get any light? Is it N,S,E, or west-facing? What kind of dirt? Do you have deer problems? (Deer adore hostas. . .) I had a nice collection of hostas before. . . won't be having them here. BUT there are so many varieties, they just go on and on. I think what you're describing sounds like a nice home for hostas. Also astilbes--they like it moist, but do best with some nice morning sun. Love astilbes. Other things, as someone here reminded me. . . begonias! Color for a green area. AND of course, coleus. There are some spectacular coleus. I'm fond of ferns, too dry at my house for them, and there are some nice varieties of those, too. There are some hydrangeas that do great in heavily dappled shade. . . love hydrangeas. . . I'm thinkin'.

Nancy, our house faces the north. That front flower bed gets very little sun. I'm home tomorrow, so I'll watch to see about how much it gets. I've not seen a deer in our neighborhood. Our house is right in the middle of the neighborhood--the wooded areas are along the outsides. The fundraiser catalog says this about the Hostas "an assortment of tried and tested Hosta varieties that will provide a natural and effortless display of foliage and tall flowers to enhance the shadier areas of your bed or border."

How big do Hostas get? I suppose it would depend on the variety.

A chance to plug my favorite hosta place. . . I've been following them for about 25 years. And they have a great little "newspaper." https://www.hostahosta.com/Gossip.pdf Check out some of their hostas, Hazel. . . :) Annabelle hydrangeas grew great for me in heavily dappled shade. . . My current endless summer (and they aren't really, but certainly do bloom for quite a long time--on new wood AND old wood). I adore spiderwort--Lisa, really, it does well in shade? I've grown it successfully in partial sun. Never tried it in shade shade. Oh yeah, forgot impatiens. . . especially New Guinea. . . I never had really great luck with bleeding hearts. Think I had them in shade that was too dry and/or deep. A very normal placement of hostas is around and under big ole trees. . . They do good.

My hydrangeas get some morning sun and heavily dappled afternoon sun.

Yews (densiformis, hicksii, and spreading), Columbines, Huechera (coral bells), Cherry laurel, Holly Fern, Wood Fern, Japanese Painted Fern, impatiens, ivy (English, needle point) money wort, hosta, oxalis, Jacob's latter, if you have some dappled sun Indian hawthorns, torenia, camellia, and oak leaf hydrangea just to name a few :)

Nancy, my spiderwort is in a partial shade area (or was until I chopped down the tree!) But I believe they will take full shade.

So...the fairy garden is cleaned out. It's just a ring around a tree (an elm tree I think). The elm trees roots are shallow (is that the word?), so I need some suggestions on plants/flowers that can be planted around a tree like that. It will have to compete with tree roots. Annuals are fine. I really like ferns in a fairy garden. I just don't know what to plant there. In the past, I planted some succulents, but they didn't thrive.

And thanks for all the suggestions for our front flower bed.

No ideas from me. . . I know! Google them and see what some others have done. Impatiens? lacy ferns of some sort, smallish ones? Maybe a couple miniature hostas? I don't know good fairy flowers. . . :)

Lisa, now you just made me go look up spiderwort and who has them for sale. . . found a variety. Thanks a lot! :) Agghhh! Really. It's a sickness, isn't it!

Nancy...I can bring you a start :)

That would be wonderful, Lisa! (I had not yet hit the order button! LOL Right now I have carts with plants on 3 different sites that I haven't hit the order button on . . One of the comes to $90.00 and some odd cents. . . so I'm trying to be reasonable and making myself think about it! )

By the way. . . if any of you have wants for plants, list them. It's possible (not likely) I could have some. Right now I have day lilies and bee balm that I have more than enough of. The day lilies I have are very pretty-- but only bloom from about June 20 to July 20. Big orange/variegated. Don't have any idea what their name is, as they were hand-me-downs from a neighbor. But they're big and grow like crazy. The bee balm is red. And I have a lot of mums. That's about it for my meager offerings. . . but would be happy to share them.

Nancy, I would love some bee balm.

Also, I've googled fairy gardens, but they all look different than the look I'm going for (Our fairy is very picky!) OR they are in other growing conditions-- other states, types of trees, etc. Sigh. I'll just buy some inexpensive plants and pop them in around the tree and see what happens. I know stuff can grow there, because there are weeds/grass, etc. It's just so rooty.

I always end up buying bee balm, It is the only thing that never germinated when I winter sowed. I had one last year, but the chickens and my husband have done such a number on my perennial bed I don't know if it will come up this year. The chickens tore a chrysanthemum plant out of the ground! I even had a tomato cage laying there hoping to protect it. I should lay some chicken wire on the ground so if they get in there they can't scratch.

My daughter is living in our rental house. (Where we lived when she was born.) She wants to plant flowers in the front (north facing) yard. Everything I suggest she doesn't like. Taking notes from this thread, thanks.

I really think oxalis would be cool in a shady fairy garden!! Maybe a mix of green and purple!

Oh--maybe a couple rocks in it, Hazel? LOL I told GDW I didn't have many plants to give away yet. . . and he said, "We have rocks." Indeed--we have rocks! Anyone want rocks?

hazelinok, if you sprinkle seeds in there, that would be ideal, you wouldn't have to dig among the roots. If you like groundcover, the ajuga will do well under a tree and they do have a short blue bloom, and they spread, so you wouldn't need very many.

Nancy, oh my goodness...if you are coming to the Fling, ask before you buy anything! Some of us probably have some! I am trying to get a head start on potting up some items. I will probably regret it by the end of April :) but usually I wait too long and then they haven't settled in well yet when I bring them.

Thanks for the great ideas!

...and Nancy, I might want some rocks. I just spent money on rocks. :)

Oh no!! Tell me how big and what shape. . .

Ha ha ha! Picturing Nancy with a truckload of rocks for the spring fling!

LOL

Nancy, I pulled a rock prank on Tim's best friend, Ken, who lived here in OK at the time we still were in Texas. He had to put in a big tinhorn to create a roadway over a creek so he could get his tractor into his back pasture without bogging down in the muddy creek. He then spent weeks and weeks scavenging his land, which had some rocks but not enough of them, for rocks to put around and over the tinhorn.

I always sent tomatoes to work with Tim to give to Ken and his other co-workers, and I'd put them in zip-lock bags, So, when I found out Ken needed rocks, I got a couple of big rocks (one about the size of a football and another about the size of a basketball) from my brother. I bought a giant ziplock at The Container Store, put the two big rocks in the bag, and Tim took them to work to give to Ken. It was hilarious, and Ken told Tim "Be sure to thank Dawn for sending me the rocks". We howled with laughter over that one, but he did carry home those rocks and use them around the tinhorn. Sometimes if you need rocks and don't have any, then every rock counts.

Dawn

Will pot up lots of little red bee balms, Hazel. Lisa. I'm growing hollyhock zebrina--but that's a biennial, too, isn't it? And so I had ordered some plants online so I can get them in, as well. But in the rose campion discussion, I have been a little disappointed that I don't have rose campion plants, either, just little seedlings. Do you have any of that? Also what was in my online "cart" was some giant phlox, some regular phlox, echinacea purpurea (although I finally have a bunch of those going, thanks to my wet paper towel accident), and some "Sun Sparkler Dazzleberry (?) stonecrop." However, upon further reading, looks like deer find sedum to be very tasty. Is that true, for you all? Don't need more deer magnets. . . I was going to use it in my rock-garden-to-be, but the deer would most certainly be finding it, as it's kind of toward the back area on the away side of the lot. . . creeping phlox, maybe; creeping thyme might be better. . . And then some cacti and more wildflower things. . . Any ideas, anyone?

Oh, Hazel. . . there's always bishops weed, too, for the bare root space around the tree. . .

Hungry deer find almost everything tasteful, but you never know what your deer will eat. I have found it to be a learn by doing process. In wet years with bountiful natural food available, they really don't eat much (except in spring when there's not much native food available yet), but in hot, dry years they will eat everything, including plants they normally don't touch.

Our shade around the house is dry clay inhabited by free-ranging chickens so it it tough for plants to survive there. Beneath holly shrubs, we mostly have purple wintercreeper as a ground cover....and a snake hiding place.

Nancy, I don't have any rose campion this year. I do have seed so I can start them again! Sometimes they self seed, but I guess they didn't this time. Well, I'm not much help, I don't have any other of those plants, but maybe someone does :)

LOL--no problem, Lisa! Worth a shot, eh!

Hazel, I'm so glad you posted this! I'm in the exact same boat. My front north-facing flower bed is only about 4' deep and gets late afternoon sun for about 2.5-3hrs in late summer. You girls have given me some great ideas! Currently I have a ton of Hostas, hueschera, painted ferns, and I always add begonias or pansies depending on the season. I also love astilbe! And I'm hoping to add Lily of the valley and some hellebores when I get a little spending money! (Those plants are pricey!)

Lisa, if you are offering Lily of the valley plants I'll be happy to give them a great, loving home! I'm bringing tomatoes and peppers to the SF, and hopefully some other flower starts like yarrow, and toothache plant. The plants are the easy part, now what food to bring!

You girls are making me nervous about picking up chicks tomorrow. Edmond is voting to legalize "urban chicken" next week so I'm jumping the gun, but free-ranging doesn't sound very safe for my plants lol guess I'll be building a larger run than I planned ha

Go with chunnels! I so want to so this when I get chickens. Simple tunnels you open or close around the perimeter of the garden. Love this idea and someday I will have them.

Yay for Edmond!

amunk...can you private message me? I live in OKC, you could come get some now. They are popping up out of the ground and I am afraid they are going to burn up.

Amunk, congrats on your chicks. And good for Edmond.

If you want instant ground cover go with Vince, I have clay soil and shade, vinca is invasive like mint but survives and flourishes.

Yay for Edmond. Congrats on the little peepers, Alexis! I do like the idea of chunnels and may do them some time. Our current chickens are spoiled since they are used to free-ranging all over the place, so they might not take too well to chunnels. If we ever have to start over with new chickens, that would be the time for us to build chunnels.

I think they are so clever and would be ideal for me. I have my main garden situated in a corner south and west and it runs 75 feet by 200 with an old hog pen in the middle. I could use the pens for a coop with a little remodel and run the chunnels from there. Now if I can get my son on board.