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shady plants
petryn2012
Posts: 2
in Plants
we are redoing over the whole garden - a nice long project.
part of the garden is an extremely shady area - & as novices we would love some suggestions as to what to plant in that area.
thanks for all your help
0
Posts
Hi Petryn, There is a lot of plants that do well in shade but is it dry shade or damp shade ?
I would have a look on the "Plants for Shade" website - it has all the variations eg dry shade, damp shade etc
Happy gardening............
My garden is on the dry side, so I'll give you a list of all I have growing in the shady areas and you can look them up, some like hostas like wet, but will grow in dry places so long as it's shady.
Aquilegias, Pulmonarias, Hostas, Brunnera "Jack Frost", Alchemilla Mollis, Geranium Phaem "Samobor", Geranium Chatto - in fact a lot of geraniums will grow in partial shade, Tiarella, Polygonatum (Solomon's Seal), Astrantia, Bergenia, Hardy Cyclamen, Dicentra Eximia, Dicentra Spectabilis, Hellebores (Christmas or Lenten Roses), Heuchera, Lamiums, Rodgersia "Chocolate Wings", Thalictrum, Saxifraga Stolonifera.
There is a good selection of pretty leaves in that lot and many different varieties of the same plant with a lot of them. Have fun Googling.
Ferns, ferns, and more ferns!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/sep/21/alys-fowler-plants-for-shade?fb=native
You might find this article by Alys Fowler of interest as well.
Having looked at Alys Fowler's article I see I forgot foxgloves - easy to grow from seed and they seed themselves. She suggest vinca minor - be wary, mine is spreading like a weed and smothering other plants. I've had to dig lots out.
thanks for the helpful advice -certainly plenty for us to work on
I have a north facing garden and so have a similar problem.
Having been to the local library i randomly found an expert on the subject of shady gardens - Beth Chatto.
So my suggestions are either get her book ... "The Shade Garden: Shade loving plants for year round interest"
or
take a look at her garden if you live near colchester essex!
She has a website you can google but the book is much better representation of her efforts
If you are looking for shrubs, then Skimmia are small shrubs (they grow to approx 2 - 3 foot) which love the shade and have the benefit of very late flowers and bright red berries (you only get berries if you have both a male and female plant to cross-pollinate, but all will flower happily) which provides interest late into the season. A larger shrub (but slow growing so be prepared) is Sarcococca Confusa (also known as Christmas Box, although the leaves are a lot bigger than traditional box) which will grow in total shade and dry soil. It flowers in the winters and has goreous-smelling white flowers. Hope that helps.