A garden fit for Mom

This moment comes to every gardener. As my 83-year-old mother, Eleanor, often jokes, "I can get down on the ground OK. I just can't get up."

Time for a redo.

Not of Mom. She may have arthritis, and her knees and back may be stiff, but she's a trouper. Widowed for 11 years, she still lives independently in Philadelphia, tootling around town in her 21-year-old mint-condition Volvo, enjoying a rich family life and a full social calendar.

No, it's the gardens in front of her lovely Tudor home that need a makeover. Built in 1925, the house has traditional foundation beds that, over the 45 years she's lived there, have grown tired.

And the property itself has evolved. Once very sunny, it's now heavily shaded, ringed by mature evergreens, a rambunctious Japanese maple, and a row of American hollies along the drive that began life in 3-inch pots and now tower over the landscape.

So Mom is up for a change. She seeks plants that work in shade and are longer-lived and less labor-intensive than the hundreds of annual begonias, impatiens and geraniums she buys every year.

"It's just too much," she says.

This spring, she'll have some threadbare creeping juniper pulled out of the front. Other stuff stays: the ancient lavender rhododendrons and pink azaleas, the arborvitae, andromeda and viburnum, a weeping cherry, and a dogwood planted in honor of her first grandchild, born in 1975.

All else is in play.

In that spirit, we head off one recent morning for our appointment at Waterloo Gardens in Exton to "Ask the Expert." The expert is Paul Lewsey, one of two nursery sales associates who do free, one-on-one sessions for people with gardening problems that don't require a full-service landscaper.

"Some people just have a small area that gives them trouble," Lewsey says.

This is the third year of Waterloo's no-obligation program. It's one of a handful in the region to recognize that while staffs at most garden centers and big-box stores readily answer questions, it's usually on the fly. And just try cornering someone for in-the-aisle advice in May or June, when these places rival Filene's Basement on sale day.

Lewsey, a native of Kent, England, does four to six "Ask the Expert" sessions a week during the summer peak. The pace is slow at this time of year and drops off again in July.

We were asked to bring photos and measurements showing plantings; house dimensions near the beds; and location of downspouts, overhangs, walks and steps. Lewsey also wanted to know about exposure, soil, sun and shade, and whether deer or privacy were issues.

Mom's front beds have a northeast exposure with a little sun and fabulous soil from years of mulching. She has rabbits, squirrels and groundhogs, but no deer - or privacy concerns. The bed's taller plantings deal with that.

So we arrive with digital photos, a messy sketch loaded with numbers, and a long list of ideas from catalogs. It sounds so simple, but designing a garden, even when you know a little about plants, is daunting.

(You quickly realize that, indeed, that's exactly what you know - a little.)

Mom loves Lewsey, a lanky, modest fellow, from the get-go. "We couldn't have a nicer person to deal with," she whispers, as we follow him to the nursery.

He tells Mom that shade perennials won't be as colorful or profuse as annuals, but that she can still plant some annuals for pop. And that most shade perennials bloom early, so we should pick plants with interesting texture and shape to last the season.

"When you purchase a perennial that's going to spread," he adds, "the first couple of years you'll have gaps. You'll have to wait for them to reach maturity."

Mom gets the patience and maturity part, but she doesn't want to wait till she's 90 to see some growth. "By the second year, you'll see some spreading," Lewsey assures her.

He suggests low-growing lamium, hellebore and tiarella (foamflower) in front, followed by groupings of slightly taller lady's mantle, heuchera (coral bells) and hosta. Then, just in front of the big plantings already there, lady and cinnamon ferns, Solomon's seal, astilbe and cimicifuga (cohosh).

He tosses in a single oakleaf hydrangea, one of Mom's favorites. "Although I never met a flower I didn't like," she explains.

Mom learned to love plants from her father, a pharmacist fascinated by their medicinal properties. He grew a little of everything in huge beds behind their three-story frame home along Main Street in Ephrata, Lancaster County.

Incredibly, Mom still remembers what grew where. "Sometimes, you remember a long time ago better than what happened yesterday," she says.

The list runs to almost 50 plants, everything from larkspur, phlox, delphinium and wisteria to "cup and saucer" flower, hollyhock, dahlia and Japanese lantern. Her sister couldn't be bothered, but Mom followed her dad around the garden, soaking up information.

She had her own little plot by the tool house, grew parsley in a cold frame, and even kept a journal. "In those days, you traded flowers and seeds with friends and neighbors. You didn't buy anything," she recalls.

After she married my father and had children of her own, the whole family - especially the only daughter - helped in the garden. We grew hybrid tea roses and gladiolus, and each year planted zinnias, marigolds, scarlet sage and snapdragons.

Out back were peach trees and raspberries, corn, tomatoes, peppers and carrots, and three kinds of beans, which were blanched and frozen for delectable eating all winter.

So Mom's no slouch in the garden. She even schlepped us kids to the Philadelphia Flower Show from the time we were toddlers, and only stopped going herself a few years ago.

Which makes it all the more important that she have a beautiful, manageable garden at home, one that she can enjoy every single day. We'll be heading back to Waterloo to buy her plants in early May.

Mom's excited because she knows that flowers, especially new ones, make the world go 'round, no matter how old you are.

It's a lesson she's shared (with varying success) with three children and seven grandchildren. Soon, she'll share a new garden with her first great-grandchild - born last fall and named, appropriately, Violet.

A second "great" is on the way.

Virginia Smith blogs about gardening at http://go.philly.com/

kisstheearth

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