Spring Beauty by Celine

I recently had the opportunity to visit the garden of Celine & Stan Sprague on Timberview Circle and was reminded how gentle and encouraging filtered sun can be – on both plants and the gardener. Mature neighborhoods in Greensboro are blessed with both shade trees and understory trees, but if you don’t have them – go plant some and enjoy the lasting effects.

Upon arrival, I noted once again that the mailbox garden often makes the statement: “A gardener lives here”. We want to proclaim our love of plants and our eye for design by sharing both with our neighbors and their visitors. Imagine your mail carrier’s vantage point, with the variety of displays they encounter on their daily rounds.

I noted the beautiful bark and graceful living sculpture of this Crape Myrtle. Lagerstroemia is not my favorite, but this one is done justice by letting it grow/not topping it. This is how they should look. Prune wayward side branches when the tree is young, just to shape it, and watch it reward you with an extended view of the cinnamon bark.

At left, one of my favorite Plum Yews is contrasted with a purple Ajuga’s early spring bloom. The first of several Laurels is revealed behind them. I wondered to myself whether the Daylilies have enough sun to bloom here along the driveway.

The lovely brick sidewalk to the front door is flanked by more Laurels, looking out on River Birches with their signature triple trunks. Note that Celine uses groundcovers such as Pachysandra well, avoiding the need for more mulch.

Time to ring the doorbell and have Celine show me her magnificent back yard!

Breathtaking and restful at the same time, you see the center island garden with its stone patio, and the first impression is all soft pastels bordered by varying shades of green. The modern-style chairs invite us to sit a spell and sip our tea, but there are fabulous plants to see.

I’ll let you Google who Otto Luyken was.

Just around the corner from where I shot that last shady photo, full sun provides the perfect site for the vegetable garden. The structure is a great frame for holding frost cloth or insect netting.

Looking across the border to a neighbor’s yard. This illustrates how borders don’t always need to provide privacy. We also see here a dwarf pine “candling” its new growth. And look at the placement of sun and shade plants – the pine and columbine aren’t usually neighbors for most of us, but dappled sun that changes through the seasons – and throughout the day – owes to Celine’s success with it.

Great composition here, with the finer chartreuse groundcover leaves contrasting with the longer/wider strappy leaves of Scilla and its nodding blue lanterns.

Celine uses various shades of blue and purple repeating throughout her borders, as with this ‘Daughter of Stars’ Bearded Iris.

Another Iris, name unknown, is a cherished gift from a mutual friend. I have it too! Undoubtedly we will both pay it forward.

Doesn’t this make you feel cooler, gazing on this sturdy fern? That’s because it IS cooler in the shade. I noted that it felt like the temperature dropped 10 degrees. The Selaginella “Spikemoss” bright green clump on the left is given its own space to achieve its form next to the blue pansies still hanging on. If she’s lucky the pansies will go to seed and their offspring will return in the fall.

The short bird bath allows bathing privacy – doesn’t everyone want that?

Celine’s willingness to use just ONE Dianthus impressed me. The boulder and its ornamental turtle lend permanence to this composition.

I absolutely love garden art, including this weathered concrete frog. Whatever it started out looking like, time and the elements have made it perfectly one-of-a-kind. Let’s see some of Celine’s other ornaments –

Sweet weathered perfection.

Another bird bath, visible from inside and nestled among the yews.

Fountain quit working? No worries – it endures as a sculpture.