Shade garden, tulips, plantings

Ok, I have a shady spot at my house and had no idea what to put there. Almost everything you come across that actually flowers has full or part sun requirements. So once i found out that Lilly of the Valley is not only cute but tolerates shade I had to have it. So yesterday i came across some and snatched them up along with some hostas.  All in all i got 16 lilly roots and 3 hostas (should have gotten an even number!!! i can go back). So then of course i had to plan out exactly how i was gonna plan it out. so here's what i have...

In the front are lilly of the valley in the middle, to the sides of that the flowering hostas (wolverine) and on the sides of that low growing coleus. Behind all that will be the Astilbe. For some ungodly reason i got a mix of the coleus which i shouldn't have (i think they were clearance at the time) but i'm going to pick out only the colors i think fit better with the bed - taking out all the vibrant reds and oranges and putting them somewhere else. Only the yellows, greens and deep deep reds will stay. When that devil of a company park seed finally gets around to sending me my astilbe i'll direct seed it in. The coleus i'll have to transplant so i can get only the colors i want. The astilbe and hosta are perennial in my area if i'm not mistaken  as is lilly of the valley. the lilly has rhizomes so it can spread by itself. maybe later i'll get some pink ones to throw in there too. They're supposed to be very fragrant so that'll be a definite plus. I'm wondering if i should throw in some shallow rooted, low growing seeds in there with it so they wont look so sparse... i'll have to look into a shady seed that fits that bill...  I'll probably stick the hosta and lilly in later this week when the ground warms up a bit - the weather has been so unbearably cold lately, it's ridiculous. we'll see how they look together to see how i want to do things next year. 

Valentine's day was of course a couple days ago and the boyfriend got me some pretty tulips. They just started to peek open and let me have a glimpse inside last night. I want to try to salvage the bulbs for next year so i plan on letting them go all the way till the leaves go yellow and then pull them out and store them in some bags with moss in a dark cool part of the house. I also want to collect some seed pods from them and try to raise a few from seed to see how that works out. I've read that bulbs generally only last a couple of years before they exaust themselves so if i collect a couple seeds every few years i should have them forever. High hopes i know but i'm still going to try.

Planted some of the "exotic" seeds i bought today. I don't know quite how exotic they really are... Planted some white torch ginger (etlingera elatior), gardenia bush (Gardenia jasminoides) and some golden queen double datura vines (Datura metel). All from Trade Winds Fruit company online - great purchase btw, order came super fast and in nice condition. They have some wonderful things.

I have a grouping planned for the ginger, some green aster hulk, and some aqua sapphire tower. They are all odd looking flowers. I'll put up a seperate post about it later. The gardenia is going by itself in a seperate container i think. Very fragrant as well. :)

Ha ha, sidenote: the other datura-esque one i planted, the angel trumpets, one little guy is having some major difficulties. It looks like the top of the sprout still has the outer seed coat on it! Little one is just like trapped in there. I tried to be nice and soak the top of it in water to soften it up a bit but no avail... i dont hes gonna get out of there on his own. Darwinism at it's finest. I'm gonna have to do something though or he's a goner. His brother down there seems to be doing fine though.Well at least i'll have the one!

Ok, pulled off the coat, he's good now. What a dummy tho.