Our garden site is essentially carved out of a northern hardwood forest and one of the bigger challenges we face as gardeners here is managing the forest’s attempts at reclaiming the space. Over the years, trees have been removed and lower limbs elevated in an effort to allow more light to reach ornamental plants tucked in along wooded edges. Ornamentals such as astilbe, hosta and primroses- just to name a few- compete with native plants for space and attention in the understory, while the bulk of the garden’s collections of rhododendron, deciduous azalea, mountain laurel, hydrangea and other shrubs, constitute the middle layers in the vertical structure of the woodland garden.