Meet Johnny Jump Up. He’s an old fashioned favorite viola-family-type thing. But I like him because he’s the first face I see in the spring and he self-seeds like a maniac. He has my front door looking uber-cute about five minutes before spring officially even starts. Which is important because none of the plants at my front door are evergreen. So, while their getting all revved up, I have Johnny to make me smile.

The second cornerstone of my shady-mini-front-door-garden is Solomon’s Seal.

Very nice foliage, eh? He comes up a few weeks after the jump ups. And since he loves shade, he doesn’t care that the Johnnys are crowding him.

So, if you look at my nine squares below, I have daffodils in the middle with a wax leaf vibernum that I cut like a tree so there’s a bit of shade. Then I have Solomon’s Seal in the four corners.

I know this looks a little messy in this pic, but people ooo and ahhh over this, swear.

In the front and back middle squares, there are hydrangeas warming up and in the side middle squares, my hostas are still hiding under the covers. And as you see, there are johnny jump-ups EVERYWHERE.

To do a garden like this, you don’t need squares. It could go around any tree. Here’s the recipe.

1 pkg johnny jump up seeds
2 hostas
2 hydrangeas
4 solomon seal
4+ daffodil bulbs

Put daffodils close to the trunk in a circle. Equally space the solomon seal. Alternate hostas and hydrangeas in the spaces. Sprinkle liberally with Johnnys.

Something will be blooming all season. Not so much in the dead of winter, though.

Ivory

PS I totally came across this by accident. I’ve been planting all kinds of wacky stuff in here for years and this year I don’t feel the urge to rip it out, so I think it’s a good one, yo.