Against all good advice we have spent 25 years creating an impossible garden on an impossible site. It certainly is romantic - a grist mill and a sawmill side by side on the banks of the sometimes raging Tohickon Creek.
We are plant collectors heavy on shade plants. The property was once densely shaded before we lost trees to hurricanes, local tornadoes, and deliberate thinning of our ash forest to be pro-active against the ravages of the emerald ash borer. You will see many hosta, epimedium, rhododendron, and hosta. We love woodlanders -- both native and Asian, the polygonatum/disporum family, hosta, tricyrtis, astilbe, galanthus, hosta and Anything With a Green or Black Flower -- the stranger, the better. We also favor variegated shrubs and trees with interesting bark. And hosta.