Monroe County Master Gardener Association

Written by Jennie Stanger
Photos by Sandy O’Connell & Jennie Stanger:

We had a really excellent docent at Cranbrook, with lots of interesting tidbits and background about the family, art and architechture, but she did not pretend to be a horticulturist and welcomed our comments on the plants. Among us we came up with several plant ID’s like the Bottlebrush Buckeye blooming near the entrance. There was a shady walk with excellent uncommon perennials like epimedium and Rodgersia. Another large perennial had unfamiliarly large, smooth, deeply cut leaves below some yellow coneflower-like blossoms. Actually we have it in the demo gardens but there it gets much taller and less dark green due to more sunshine. There was a Ligularia similar to ‘The Rocket’, and some lovely maple-shaped foliage with tiny buds that stumped us. In the sunken garden there was another plant that stumped everyone and a real puzzler of a woody plant the docent was hoping we could ID for her. The perennial was like a small iris in its bud and delicate cream-colored blossom but the flowers were wilted enough their shape was not clear, and the foliage was more like a spiderwort or dayflower. We thought it might be a hardy orchid like Bletilla. Later, Sandy O’Connell was able to identify both the mapley foliage and the sunken garden perennial. She and I are still working on the woody plant and seeking help from our friends in horticulture.

Attached are photos of the “orchid” that turned out to be Roscoea..a Chinese Wild Ginger, and the mystery woody plant that might be an old, old climber, or a shrub or small tree. It might be something that is not typically hardy here, because the stone wall of the sunken garden would offer great winter protection. If I had that spot I would grow a fig in it .