With St. Patrick's Day earlier this week, I thought about fairy gardening. Typically, a fairy garden in grown in a shallow container, but can be grown in the ground in its own little area. If done in a container, everything is small so use plants that can mimic trees, shrubs, and groundcovers. If grown in the ground in a perennial garden, a slightly larger scale ornamentation can be used. In these miniature landscapes, fairies, pixies, and elves like to have places to hide from human eyes, so any fairy garden needs a house, rocks and some shrubby plants or ferns. They like shiny things and a bit of water. Small windchimes will draw fairies to their music. Many dwarf or alpine plants are "fairy-sized"; the saxifragas have a wide choice of colors, form and foliage. Lemon Crispum Pelargonium and myrtle make lovely fairy trees, as do dwarf conifers and lemon cypress. If this is an idea you would like to try, Garden Path will have some plants and accessories to get you started. Here is a list of a few plants that are special to fairies. Hope the whimsy make you smile!
Bleeding Heart (Dicentra) - fairy earrings
Columbine (Aquilegia) - fairy bonnets
Coral bells (Heuchera) - fairy bells
Cottage pinks (Dianthus)
Elder (Sambucus nigra) - Legend says the queen of the elves lives under the elder root; if you sit under elder on Mid Summer's Eve, you may see the King of the Fairies and his court pass by!
Flax (Linum) - to spin and weave their linens
Foxglove (Digitalis) - another flower that fairies can sleep in; some common English names for foxglove are fairy gloves, fairy thimble, and fairy cap.
Harebells (Campanula) - fairycaps; used in magic
Hollyhocks (Alcea) - fairy dresses
Irish moss - for their beds, paths or fairy rings
Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla mollis) - fairies wash in the dew captured in the leaves
Lamb's ears (Stachys) - fairy blankets
Lily of the Valley (Convallaria) - the sweet white bell (flowers) ring when fairies sing
Mallow (Malva) - fairy cups; dried blossoms are called fairy cheeses
Monkshood (Aconitum) - elf helmuts
Pansies (Viola tricolor) - heartease, Cupid's flower; used by fairies in love potions
Primroses (Primula) - fairy cups; grants fairies invisibility; eating them should enable you to see fairies
Rosemary (Rosmarinus) - the blossoms are fairy candles and fairy children like to swing in the branches
Thyme (Thymus) - wild thyme, wooly thyme, and other low growing varieties are used by fairies for resting or dancing; wearing a sprig of wild thyme will enable you to see fairies
Tulips - also used for fairy cradles
Violets (Viola odorata) - offers protection against mischievous fairies