Shady characters - a permanent home for shade garden suggestions!

[shovetheholly]

Because we get the question about what will grow in the shade so often, posts about it sometimes don't get many answers. So I thought I'd make a permanent thread that we can point people to when this comes up. I know some of you have written the same thing 10 or 20 times before, so hopefully this will save the repetition!

I'm hoping we can post some pictures of shade plants here so that people can see what they look like. A lot of them aren't all that familiar. Plus, I love pictures!!

I've been looking at epimedium, they are lovely! I really like the burnt orange/caramel varieties - I can't help but notice that a lot of shade loving plants have lilac/mauve/blue flowers. I like them very much, but being cool "recessive" colours, are more likely to "disappear" when the light starts to go. Fortunately there's plenty of white ones to help pull them out a bit.

I've added Pulmonaria rubra "David Ward", it's a variegated lungwort with deep pink/reddish bells, liking that a lot.

I'm going to put Garrya over by the house wall on the shady side I think. He can go against the fence. That would be under holly tree branches of my neighbour's, it's not very well lit but it's more sheltered. The field behind was very frosty this morning, but my garden seems to avoid the worst of it.

Garrya ellipta prefers a sunny site, Foggy... sorry. It does like wall protection so south- or west-facing wall would be ideal. Still, at least it's not fussy about soil fertility.

Oh, thanks, Noodles. Drat - they all want the sunny side!

Can't I shove it in anyway?

The shady side was actually in the late sunlight for first time this year, although that will end when the leaves come out on the trees next door.

Epimedium x rubrum prefers dry shade - making it a gem for planting under trees - so it may have sulked failed to thrive in your soggy soil Shove. Plus it does take a season or two to establish, so it may have been particularly sensitive to wet in that initial period. I'm a sucker for buying sad individuals from reduced sections, but they are more of a risk, aren't they...

These wet winters we're having are not helpful either.

Noodles - dammit, I suspect my garden is just too wet. I've seen it growing strongly in the botanic gardens, but they have more varied conditions.

Fogs - while it prefers sun, it will tolerate a bit of shade but not full, dark shade! (RHS lists it as suitable for north-facing aspects and partial shade, but there's north-facing and then there's north-facing. : www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/95309/Garrya-elliptica-James-Roof-(m)/Details

My house is slightly at an angle to next door's, and it means that I get a sunnier north-facing side and a shadier one. It's not a wide garden but conditions on the east side are much soggier, wetter and danker than conditions on the west side. Even the weeds that grow each side are different. It's astounding how much difference just a few metres can make!

I always think that if you see something growing strongly in conditions around you, it's worth a punt (is that sea front where you saw it close by?).

Yes, it is only a couple of miles away really. As the crow flies.

My back garden faces south west, I have lovely sunsets across the field behind. It's just that when it gets windy, it's relentless. It comes off the sea and over countryside to me. I toyed with putting willow hurdles up against the post and rail fence to act as windbreaks, but they're too expensive.

The real trouble is that the sunny side doesn't have much fence space to put it. I have the shed on that side, and it's paved from then on to the house. I could put it against the shed, (and would really good there) but then it's facing into the wind. Fine in the summer months, heavy going in winter...

"would look really good there", I meant.

I see from the RHS link you posted, they say it doesn't mind exposed sites, which is hopeful. I hope they've told them all that.

Actaea simplex 'Black Negligee', 'Atropurpurea', 'Brunette', 'James Compton' and Actaea matsumurae 'White Pearl' all liking part to full shade.

Very nice bottle brush type flowers, I love the contrast of purple stems with the tiny white flowers of 'Black Negligee'...

I think I would be tempted to have an afternoon at the seaside and have another look at the Garrya that's thriving... what aspect is it in, is there any unexpected shelter nearby that might act as a windbreak?

I like the idea of putting a windbreak around it. Am wondering whether there's something you can do with a broken-up pallet for cheapness. I saw a TV programme where someone had faced an entire home office in planed down pallets, and they looked lovely.

I'm currently trying to get some Actaea seeds to germinate (they were packaged as Cimcifuga racemosa atropurpurea, which is the black form with stunning white flowers). They are a faff to do. Three months at 21 degrees C (in our tiny kitchen, DH harrumphing), then three months in the fridge (at which DH will harrumph more loudly), then more time at 21 degrees (at which point DH may well throw them in the bin). They had better bloody work after all that!!

This is the aspect; it's fields bordered by hawthorn trees and scrubby stuff. The sun sinks to the right, so it's south westerly?

Most of the time it's fine and frost isn't too much of a problem, it's the lack of shelter from the sea gales...

I might take a wander along the sea front soon and see if I can find it. It's been so many years. There are tennis courts along there between the houses and the prom, it may have been behind those.

I'm a bit at three months in the fridge! Best of luck with them, they do look wonderful plants.

What a fabulous place to have a garden!

I love your wiggly border. What's in front of it (where the camera is)? Wondering if you have room for a shelter hedge and then plants in front...

There's a patio and a shed, shed has oak tree overhanging it.

It's made more complicated by the fact that we used to have a stream running through the garden, at the bottom of a four foot ditch. It has now been piped in and covered over by 20 tons of crusher run and probably 15 cms of topsoil. The pots by the fence are sitting on the concrete headway and it's about 8 feet wide. So that's a lot of ground where I realistically can't have deep rooted plants. That extends to the side of shed, which is where Garrya might like best to go, but can't.

I'm feeling a bit more overwhelmed than excited at the moment, luckily I've got lots of soil improving to do, so it's keeping me busy and not thinking too deeply about Getting It Right...

Aargh, I'm filling up your shady thread with my stuff

Nooooo, I'm loving your posts! Please do keep writing! Also I am of your lovely space!! It's going to be brilliant. Just tackle it bit by bit and you'll be amazed one day that it's suddenly almost done.

One of the wonderful things about your garden is that gorgeous view. I look out onto the back of flats, so you can only imagine how envious I am. I'd be so tempted to do a kind of mini-Capability Brown on that, and frame up the 'prospect' (love that old word) with strategically placed shrubs.

The Garrya... could you plant some taller things to break the wind in that corner right by the lower fence? (Viburnum, maybe??) You'd then have a sheltered nook, and you could put the Garrya by the more solid fence panels on the side? Or would the roots be a problem there?

Aw, thank you

It is a nice view to have; I want to keep all the plants on the shady side quite low or unobtrusive, (but clothe the fence with climbers) because of the view from the patio doors. I can keep ones with more height nearer the middle.

I've got a variegated pyracantha and a couple of plain smaller ones I got from Morrisons last year. They are going in that far corner as intruder deterrent - the other side is a council owned bit so anyone could climb round. I'm going to build up that corner bed and put plastic sheet against the fences so I can really build some soil height. I'll have some nice holly too, as a windbreak/barrier on the post and rail fence . And as a deterrent to the horses in the field leaning over for a nice snack. And some Tamarix, I had thought it would be too wispy as a windbreak but I've been told otherwise by my DSis

I love gardens with different levels, but this one is flat as a pancake . I do want to add some height with small trees or upright conifers. I always wanted an arch to grow roses over, but I can't see where I'd put it that doesn't look out of place or 'plonked there'. I was going to have small/low shrubs round the patio to 'fence' it in and have the arch leading out, but I can't get very close as the patio foundations come out further. Oh well, a nice job for DH, bedding an arch into concrete, he'll be thrilled not

Hahaha! See, I am envious of the flatness of your space - I'm on a slope, and I'm constantly falling over when I'm weeding!

I like your plan for a rose bed! And the birds will love you for planting those pyracantha.

Not tempted to terrace it and have a set of steps?

Pyracantha grows well round here, they like the clay soil.

Just found Kirengeshoma palmara in a book,looked it up on t'interweb, nice yellow trumpets for a shady location -

Carol Klein loves Kirengeshoma here

Adding it to my ever-growing list of shade plants...

I have some of that! I first saw it a while back at the Piet Oudolf garden at Scampston Hall, which is a plantsperson's paradise. So many wonderful, and very unusual plants, and I mean things I've never seen anywhere else except Kew! Unfortunately, I visited off-season- one of my main goals this year is to get back and see the perennial beds in their full summer glory!

One day, I would love to have a bit of garden that I would call the 'space garden' and plant with a whole range of things that look like they've come straight out of Barbarella, basically stealing loads of the ideas from Scampston but using them in a less traditional layout!

My slope is that weird gradient that is just a bit too much to be comfortable to garden on, but not quite enough to make terracing worthwhile. I'm going to have to re-landscape quite extensively after having work done on the house later in the year, and I'm thinking of getting some proper paving/very graduated steps in then. I want to wait and see what it all looks like first, though (mainly because I'm rubbish at imagining how things will be on paper).

Thank you for the picture addition, makes all the difference It does look very exotic. Is yours grown tall?

Scampton Hall looks beautiful (well the gardens do, didn't look at the building ) and Yorkshire isn't too far away It's got a lot of formal gardens, looked beautiful in the snow.

I'm liking the sound of those low pavers. I'm thinking, the longer it takes to get round to a project, the more chances of having seen/realised exactly what you want, rather than rushing into the first idea, and then seeing the perfect solution afterwards....It's just as well I can never do anything straight away.

It only went in last year, and I'm still waiting for it to reappear (being on a hill in Sheffield, I find my garden is quite a long way behind a lot of others!) I'm hoping it's made it through the winter OK. Find this time of year a bit nerve-wracking, because I'm always worrying about whether things have made it! I actually laid flat out on my face on my lawn to see whether the crocuses I planted there are coming through yet (they are - their lateness is my fault as I was very late getting them in last autumn). I need to do a lot of moving of things soon, but I daren't make a start because I realise I have only the most imperfect of ideas where some of the perennials are!

And I like your rationalisation of slow design. Though, in my case, it's because I don't have a clue and am making it up as I go along

Lol! That's my modus operandi too - wing it so often surprising i haven't sprouted feathers.

I had a lovely Philadelphus by my side gate that I had to move in a hurry - the builders had arrived and I realised I'd forgotten to move it earlier. I dug it up and heeled it in the back garden and forgot about it again . Last year it had a feeble show of flowers, later than normal, and this year ... well, I've had to conclude it's had it. It was the only thing actually planted round the back. I took it out, and had a good deep dig of wavy border, uncovering lots of leftover tree roots and the ubiquitous brambles.

Liking the look of Primula florindae Orange Shades, and Primula Guinevere (I like the pale pink flowers contrasting with the bronzy foliage), both down for shady areas...

Hello! Really enjoyed reading this thread!

I need a couple of climbing plants and some bushy ones, for a very shaded area on one side of my house. It's quite a long bit and it's where people arrive so something that grows massive, gets flowers in summer and stays green in winter would be amazing.

I am a total novice but very keen! I did have a thread about making a new garden from scratch but I've lost it

Thank you!!

Morning! Thank you for this thread - I've been enjoying it greatly.
As an intro to my garden - I'm in a city, but have, for two years now, had the pleasure of getting to know my interesting garden!
It goes round three sides of the house... Has an open, but shady bit (aside from three hours of intense sun in the morning - when it's sunny of course!) this is where I tried and failed in my initial ignorance to plant a veg patch, now replaced by a veg patch full of shade loving Spring plants such as muscari, narcissus, native bluebells, wild primrose etc. It's really lovely to be embracing what wants to be there!

Then, to the front I have some mature large trees - an evergreen oak, scotch pine, and a couple of other more straggly looking pines which might need to come down over the next couple of years as they are getting a bit too big (council have warned previous owners about them pushing up the pavements outside the garden!!)
Under these trees I've got a nice collection of ferns, wild primrose, native bluebells, a couple of foxgloves, and a small bed by the front door with snowdrops, muscari etc. Opposite, there is an established bank of crocosmia which needs a good thinning out at some point...
Then the main part of the garden is much sunnier - I can grow lots in lovely pots here. I developed a bit of a passion for KNiphofia last year! But I also have a small water garden to experiment with bog iris. Under the trees and shrubs here is where I am finding a problem. It is a very dry shade and the ground looks so bare. In fact, it's grim at the moment. I've stuck some foxglove in at the back to hopefully pop up and enjoy the shade. And I should get a lot of Welsh poppies this year again. But... Anyone's top tips for planting under shrubs would be gratefully received. It needs to have some impact as that border is very visible from the house. The first year I was here, I spent a fortune on bedding plants which just didn't do the job!

And anyone that gets to the end of that post deserves some shade loving