Green Patience: The formula for Woodlanders – Philip MacDougall

Green Patience. 
Patience. That’s the formula for woodlanders. Seen as the logical perennial companion to Rhododendron gardens, chosen properly these charmers offer interest throughout the year. The cyclic element of birth, growth, death and regeneration adds flow to the static structures of evergreen shrubs. Familiar from long use in our gardens, old standbys from Europe and America have left the group with a dowdy reputation. New breeding and collections from Asia have added heaps of surprisingly good plants.  Painfully winnowed to only my very favorites, I’ll discuss the common and rare, easy and recalcitrant, with focus paid to Polygonatums and Epimediums. 

Philip MacDougall, a former member of our club, is now an executive member of the Vancouver Chapter of the ARS.  He has been described as a “plant explorer, plant breeder and rabid collector of woodlanders and rarities”.  For more see his website  Chlorophyllia.com