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!!

Well, I read it all (and enjoyed it)

But I will let the more experienced answer about planting and shrubs and suchlike, (seeing as I've just dug up a dead one.)

There's a lot of plants upthread that are good for dry shade, have a nosey and see what floats your boat. There's a lot of different sized plants too, which helps.

Shove - Just out of interest also desperately wants one I've been searching for suppliers of Peucedanum ostruthium and this was the only one. There's a place in Coventry selling it in their nursery but they don't do mail order and it's a bit out my way.

This is actually the place I found it on

the fogsgetting thicker I love the pictures of your garden and also love Garrya Elliptica but cant help feeling that while you have enough sun for it the site might be too exposed for it. It seems to me maybe silver birch would be nice as the leaves flutter in the wind very attractively and they wouldnt obscure your lovely view. If you do decide to plant the Garrya then I think you would need to stake it well or provide a structure for it to climb up whilst young.
My Garrya is planted under the oak and is taking ages to get going, though it has survived two winters but I am such a miser I always buy youngish plants.

mouthfulofquiz what has worked for me is to raise the canopy of said shrubs, especially the older ones, so that they provide a middle rather than a bottom layer iyswim.

For each shrub you leave a few of the stronger base stems and thin out the base then prune the canopy into a shape.

This provides more light for planting at the base

At the base in spring you can plant what you like unless your shrubs are evergreen as all the early bulbs such as snowdrops crocuses daffs tulips trilliums solomon's seal etc will get plenty of light and moisture. My hellebores do well. Drifts of snowdrops are especially attractive.

Primroses and primulas and epimediums and often the clematis montana come out before the leaves do too.

Once the tree and shrub leaves come out, foxgloves, acanthus and ferns are your friends, and in the autumn, japanese anemones.

Bedding plants wont do and neither will herbs or lavender or sun loving plants.

In high summer other people will have masses of verbena and rosemary and sun loving bee friendly plants but the shady garden will have astrantias and some species geraniums such as geranium phaeum which does well in shade. Phloxes and some day lilies can be shade tolerant and ceratostigma and fuschia magellanica. Some salvias are said to be shade tolerant such as salvia amistad. Ammi majus and ammi visnaga dont mind shade and can provide interest though a border, and some roses such as Dr Du Jamain flower better in shade. Hosta are wonderful but do need watering and protection from slugs.
Nicotiniana sylvestris is said to be good in shade but has never done for me.

Aquilegias are fine in shade.
The modern grasses such as quaking grass, and miscanthus are perfectly fine in shade.
Monty says it is best to choose a few plants and repeat them through the border so as to provide continuity and he is probably right. Piet Udolph and co choose a basic structure of a few plants and then dot the colour to add interest.

Where you have a situation on a shady base and sunlight higher up, these are ideal conditions for clematis as they like their roots in shade and climb towards the sun. Provide a structure such as an obelisk for them. or a shrub to climb into, and they will be very happy with food and water and can extend the period of flowering interest of that section.

funnyperson I can't help feeling that too.

I am definitely going to plant windbreak shrubs along the fence, and keep them particularly high at the far end. Eleagnus, (does really well round here) holly and tamarisk.
I like silver birches too, they are very elegant trees. Especially the Himalayan ones with multiple trunks, they are so beautiful.
I have also thought of a golden larch. Beautiful pink catkins, the false cones for bees, golden foliage, and the nitrogen-fixing bacterium for the soil. It would fit in well with the hawthorns already by me. And it would tolerate the wind!

Mathiasella bupleuroides 'Green Dream' looks interesting for a semi-shaded spot, although looks like it might need some winter protection for a cold garden.

Excellent idea about changing the shape of the shrubs to make a bit more light to come in...
I did lob some lavender in the last year too - all dead now!
I'm going to go back to b and q tomorrow and rescue those ferns that they had in the reduced section.... I love a bit of plant rehab.

Yes, the changing shape of shrub thing came from a mumsnet gardener friend who came round, and then rhubarb came round one day and was really ruthless with Mme Carriere, and I now have a whole sunny bed where previously nothing grew in the deep shade cast by a very vigorous Madame Alfred!

Shade is important on a micro level too, as plants in a mixed border shade each other.

Interesting section on gardeners world this week about pruning - and I'm wondering whether I might just get a tree surgeon round to reshape our big trees to both minimise wind damage and also let in a bit more light to the ground underneath.
Love Monty!

Thinning the canopy can be really transformative! I have a medium-sized Bramley in my garden that was incredibly overgrown and really thick - thinning it out gradually (taking out about 25% a year) so there is partial shade underneath has not only helped it to crop more heavily, but has also made a lovely light underneath.

Things that grow in really dry shade under a thick canopy are a challenge. My stalwart which I go on and on about until everyone is bored is Campanula poscharskyana. Will grow even in highly compacted, low nutrient soil under privet. Cyclamen coum (NOT hederifolium) is good - see post further up the thread. Pachysandra terminalis comes in a variegated form that could work - it's supposed to be tough as old boots, though mine is still sitting in the greenhouse waiting to be planted out so I can't vouch for this. Alchemilla mollis is an old favourite for a tricky dry place too, and I've seen liriope muscari in very cracked, dried out clay in Japan (though check the variety is drought-tolerant). For a slightly less brutally shaded area, sarcococca confusa gives a lovely winter scent.

Fogs - I think I found it on ebay! Will post the link if I can relocated it!

Fogs - found it at last! I thought I was going mad for a second:

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Peucadanum-ostruthium-Daphnis-FREE-P-P-WHEN-YOU-BUY-3-ITEMS-/281967124400?hash=item41a68cdfb0:g:VTIAAOSwrklVQLHx

Ooooh, looks very healthy there.

Have you ever bought from ebay? I get a bit twitchy about it, because I associate it with second hand stuff and mainly really , I don't know which sellers are to be trusted.

This aconite, the bi-colour variety, is interesting

very fancy

Angelica gigas looks amazing for the back of a border, love those striking deep rich flower heads

Also adding to my list - Eupatorium Rugosum 'Chocolate'

That's a good one for Dry Shade.

Eupatropium looks amazing at Wisley though it looks best from about September onwards and is planted in a repeat border with grasses round the lake in full sun.
I planted some in my garden and it promptly gave up the ghost. I was looking forward to dividing it and having it round my garden to provide autumn colour but twas not to be.

Would anyone know if I made a mistake by planting clematis armandii on a south facing wall and evergreen jasmine on a west facing wall (but shaded by the house in the evening). I could still switch over if they the opposite would be better? I planted thinking about how it would look like, not shades. Thanks!

evergreen jasmine will be perfectly fine as long as it gets some sun occasionally

Oh thanks funnyperson

Sounds lovely cat!

I can't get Eupatropium going in my garden- the slugs just massacre it! I've tried twice - once with seedlings, and a second time with a plant from Morrisons. In both cases, they were gone literally overnight.

I hate slugs .

I have bought plants from ebay, though not from that seller. He has amazing feedback, though, which suggests he's trustworthy! I might give it a go when I get paid

It is a hideous war against the slugs I used to drop them down the street drain or lob them faaaaaar over the fence into the field. I like to use non-pesticides such as crushed eggshells and Slug Gone, but it is a constant battle.Well, it was when I actually had plants in the ground I think we need to entice a hedgehog to come and stay...

Mukdenia Rossii, I like this for the foliage as much (possibly more) as the flowers

Omphalodes Cherry Ingram, another one with vivid blue flowers

I'm sorry to hear Eupatorium hasn't done well for you funnyperson.

It's cold comfort knowing that sometimes things just don't do, even for the more experienced. I had a Sidalcea 'Elsie Heugh' I got from Tatton some years back, and she turned her toes up after a season or two. I never knew what the reason was.

Mukdenia rossii looks nice...

And I'd like Angelica 'Ebony' too, what a winner

Is this the Eupatorium Foggy? Says it manages in dry shade...

Oooh yes Noodles, that's it.

I can see I'll have to put strong anti-slug measures into place with it.