plants for the secret garden: part 1

OK, this is the last post for the night, then I think I have caught up except for the Vacola bottles... but that story is too good to rush!

Last week, Prue asked me for my ideal list of plants for the "secret garden", so she could think about the layout - most importantly, the kind of protection it would need from the elements and sizing.

Here's the list I sent her. I know it will change, and suspect some things are just total wishful thinking, but figured I may as well start with it all.

* Ferns
* Hydrangeas, underplanted with sweet woodruff
* Rodgeresia
* Japanese anenomes
* Helleborus
* Ligularia but only the kinds with tall flower spikes (e.g.,
Ligularia przewalskii), not Ligularia dentata that has flowers I think
look like weeds
* Great plants that have catkins in winter like wintersweet,
witchhazel (especially twisted branches)
* A plant whose name escapes me but it dies back to nothing in winter and then in spring resurfaces, growing foliage that looks a bit like a large maidenhair fern, with flowers on tall stems that are quite small but kind of droopy, look like little fronds of torn material. It was
really popular here last year and I've grown fond of it, we have quite
a few in our front garden in pale pinks and whites [UPDATE: I later remembered this is a variant of Dicentra]
* Clematis x lots
* Scabiosa (pincushion plant)
* Bulbs like crocus, bluebells, snowdrops, snakeshead frittilias - ie:
the more delicate woodland ones, not just blowsy daffodils!
* Moss - not sure if it's something you plant or a fungus that just
happens, but I love moss. We have whole patches of it in our lawn now that Dave is very protective of!
* And totally off the scale... gunnera manicuta if it's possible (aka
giant rhubarb, the kind that's big enough to walk under in summer but
that dies back to ground level in winter)
* Maybe even a camellia with pale colour / white flowers?