Earlier this summer, our skilled Secrest team came together to create a special garden to commemorate our late colleague, Joe Cochran. In collaboration with Joe's family, we decided to carve out a peaceful, shady retreat amongst the stand of decades-old hemlocks a stone's throw from Green Drive. To celebrate Joe’s indomitable spirit and love of the outdoors, we dded a new bench and stone, each with a memorial plaque.
Following a battle with a host of formidable botanical foes, including a wave of English ivy (Hedera helix), and poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), we blazed a new trail from the edge of the adjacent access road, looping through the new garden and rejoining the access road near its intersection with Green Drive.
The second challenge was to select an assortment of plants adapted to the shady, bone-dry soil conditions at the base of the towering hemlocks. As many of us know, the term "dry shade" can be a grimace-inducing slur that sinks even the most effervescent of horticultural conversations. Some of the first plantings included a smattering of Piedmont azalea (Rhododendron canescens) for a splash of spring color and their accompanying sweet aroma. 
Behind the bench, an obscure specimen tree known as the Manchurian striped (or “Manchustriped”) maple (Acer tegmentosum ‘Joe Witt’) features curiously white and green striped bark, not unlike our native striped maple (Acer pensylvanicum). Meanwhile, a group of three young flowering dogwoods (Cornus florida ‘Jean’s Appalachian Snow’) frame the garden’s western edge.
Next came the establishment of a drought-tolerant herbaceous layer along the pathway and in adjoining areas. Shouldering this hardscrabble responsibility are some of the toughest perennials available to Ohio gardeners. First, the nearly indestructible bigleaf geranium (Geranium macrorrhizum ‘Bevan’s Variety’) was wedged into pockets unoccupied by the tangled patchwork of hemlock roots. For their similar fortitude, we chose our native Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) and three newer varieties of heartleaf brunnera (a.k.a. Siberian
bugloss) with their striking silvery-white variegated leaves and blue forget-me-not flowers in the spring. Finally, several groups of Lenten rose (Helleborus) varieties will form slowly creeping patches of evergreen foliage to shade out any weedy interlopers.
We intend to continue the development of Joe’s Garden by adding other plants adapted to this most difficult of gardening situations, such as an assortment of Epimedium varieties and false Solomon’s seal (Maianthemum racemosum). We believe that Joe would approve of this shady new refuge as a place for exploration and peaceful reflection.
In other news, we are currently working on establishing a series of directional signs throughout the main display gardens. Funded in part by the Wayne County Community Foundation grant put mainly toward improving the John Streeter Garden Amphitheater, these will help visitors find not only the amphitheater, but a range of other garden features and facilities as well. My hope is that we can eliminate some of the confusion caused by Secrest’s circuitous pathways that can bewilder new and infrequent garden-goers.
Welcome Autumn!
–Jason Veil, Curator veil.11@osu.edu