I often wonder why more people, especially those with shade in their yards, don’t grow galax. It is a valuable addition to any wild or shady garden.
Desirable Characteristics of Galax
Its evergreen leaves make a good ground cover for shrubs. They are round, about the size of a 50-cent piece, and a beautiful glossy green that turns a bronzy color in fall.
The flowers are clustered in dainty spires, rather like those of Fairywand (Chamaelirium). Indeed, galax flowers are like fairy wands, waving gently in the late June breezes.
One desirable characteristic of the plant is that it blooms after other spring wildflowers, thus prolonging the season.
Galax leaves have long been used in florist work. Perhaps you have seen them as an edging for a bouquet of violets. The stems are sturdy and remain in good condition for hours.
Keeping them in the refrigerator or water enables you to take them out several days later to use them again.
Growing Galax
Florists buy them in quantity from the South, where they grow wild and in great profusion. In the North, galax does not thrive as it does in its native North Carolina and Virginia, but it grows well and is hardy here in Massachusetts.
It likes a slightly acid soil containing plenty of compost or peat moss. Frequent watering will produce faster growth and larger leaves.
It will grow in the sun but is far lovelier in the shade. In deep shade, the leaves remain a good green all winter, but the galax leaves become a beautiful bronze color when the sun touches them through the branches.
In my garden, they receive very little direct sunlight. The oak trees are high above them, and there is good air circulation.
The galax plants seem to like it there, increasing each year, with each plant sending up from four to six flower stalks 9” to 16” inches high.
Rabbits like galax, so in the rabbit-infested country, place small pieces of flat chicken wire over the galax plants until spring is well on its way and the rabbits have found something else to eat. They do not like to hop on the wire, and it remains fairly inconspicuous by being more or less flat.
Use of Galax
For use, try to pick the outside leaves as they are the ones that die down after a few years. Bright new ones keep coming up from the center. Like spikes of white veronica, the flowers last several days in water.
The plants are easily divided when they are large enough by digging them up in late summer after they bloom or cutting or pulling them apart.
Set them at the same level, five to seven inches apart, using partly decomposed compost in abundance both between and around the plants.
They are well worth the effort and are a decorative feature in any shady wild garden, in a shady rock garden, or as a border at the edge of shrub beds.
44659 by Emily Seaber Parcher