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[SHADEGARDENS] thanks and bio

        Thanks very much to all who responded to my inquiry about using
Aconitum episcopale in partial shade.  This question highlights an
interesting point:  that diverse factors such as heat, humidity, wind,
source and angle of light, and so on can be crucial in determining
whether or not you have an appropriate microclimate within your garden
for a plant to do well in a different "shade" situation (or zone, for
that matter) than recommended in a catalogue.
        Let me introduce myself a little bit.  My name is Susan
Campanini and I have been gardening in east central Illinois for over 30
years.  Three summers ago, we moved to a new house after gardening for
over 14 years on the other side of town. Fortunately, we were able to
take divisions of many of the plants we had grown in our prior garden,
and many of them have done very well.  We've also added a great many
plants since then.
        This yard has large older trees at each of the four corners of
the double lot--a pin oak, a hard maple, and two locusts--and a large
ash outside the fence on the west side of the property.  The whole north
yard is quite shady.  The east side is sunny and is thus the home of
eight large rectangular raised beds and six smaller square raised beds
(four landscape timbers high), where we grow a large range of rock
garden and alpine plants and some small sun-loving perennials.
        Along both sides of the east fence, the beds are filled with
border perennials, roses, clematis, shrubs, and spring-blooming bulbs of
all types.  Under the maple, the pin oak, and the ash, we have larged
raised shade beds with natural log edging, filled with ferns,
rhododendrons, azaleas, pieris, epimedium, pulmonaria, tons of hostas,
heuchera, tricyrtis, trollium, Japanese anemone, amsonia, chelone,
brunnera, lamium, prunella, trillium, wood poppy, hellebores, solomon's
seal, jacob's ladder, wild geranium, some japanese woodlanders, zillions
of shade-tolerant spring-blooming bulbs, and . . . . lots of other
plants I can't think of right now since I'm at the office--with snow on
the ground outside the window!
        For many years, we grew 1500 plants or more from seed every
winter under lights in our basement, labeled everything with botanical
names, and recorded bloom times and other information faithfully in a
journal.  The move to the new place involved a lot of work with
transplanting, a house without a basement, and, overall, a carefully
thought out decision to focus on maintaining and enjoying the garden
without constant pressure for expansion and time spent on record keeping
and labeling, so we're gardening a little more informally now as a
result (good thing too, for two middle-aged gardeners with full-time
jobs and twelve other passionate hobbies!).
        Let me add a few personal notes.  My husband loves gardening as
much as I do and it's a good team because he's great at all the heavy
work and construction involved in gardening and I'm an info-hound who
loves to find out about new plants and their cultural requirements and
plan the design and color mixes. We also love animals (we have six cats,
two dwarf rabbits, and eight finches) and so have planted many shrubs
and perennials that attract birds and butterflies. 
        The Midwest is a particularly interesting and challenging place
to garden because of the wide range of climates and the
unpredictability.  I love hearing about other people's gardening
interests and challenges in other regions.  It's the other people
connecting to one another that makes the Internet such a wonderful tool
for any sort of information.

Happy Gardening!
Susan  
 
Susan Campanini
in east central Illinois
zone 5b, min temp -15F×
e-mail:  campanin@uiuc.edu
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