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[PancakeAndKeith]

Slug proof plants for dry shade.

Any suggestions?

Geraniums (not pelargoniums). They don’t touch the ones in my garden and I have a big slug problem Ferns as well, I have never seen a slug nibbled fern and some will tolerate dry shade. Epimediums are pretty tough too.

I have lots of geraniums and ferns just pop up where they fancy.

I’ll look into Epimediums.

I’m just so sick of planting stuff to find it eaten overnight.

most of my garden is dry shade & full of slugs.

I have lots of ferns of many different types, some solomon's seal, some heucheras, elephant's ear, hellebores and iris feotidissima. Also some kind of decorative grass (put in by the previous owner) which is tough as anything.

I do water once a week in the summer & to get new things established, but otherwise I go for benign neglect.

How shady? My Geums seem to love part shade/dappled shade. They’re under a Buddleia and doing fine. And slugs aren’t interested. Hardy Geraniums aren’t of interest to slugs and ours is actually flagging in full sun so I suspect they might appreciate some shade.

heuchera, tellima, hellebore, astilbe, rodgersia all do well in shade inn my slug-ridden garden. Other things do OK if mature enough - eg clematis if I keep them in the greenhouse till they have a woody stem of about 6ft and don't ever prune them below this level. And a friend gave me a brunnera which was eaten to the ground every time it threw up a shoot, but now in its third year has flowered and has a good set of leaves.

My experience of astilbe is that they like quite heavy, damp soil- I’m not sure how happy they are in dry shade.
Dicentra (bleeding hearts) is another one the slugs won’t touch. I also have Solomon’s seal which I love although it ends up being covered in Solomon’s seal sawfly larvae. I’ve chopped it down this year once it was covered in caterpillars, this is my new tactic.

My garden just seems to be a never-ending battlefront against pests

There is an euphorbia that likes dry shade - I think the variety is Robbiae. I've never had euphorbia eaten. Ditto ferns. What about a climbing hydrangea?

I agree that my astilbe like very damp soil.

There is an old plants for shade thread which is excellent, you may find comments on slugs if you scroll through here

Thanks for all the replies.

I got a bleeding heart this year and it did well. Bugloss has started to do well.

As for how much shade, it’s all in various amounts of shade going from deep woodland shade to shade about 50% of the time. It’s a south facing garden but with a woodland at the end and a number of trees in the rest of it.

Do Fox gloves like shade as they grow in the woods?

Heuchera does ok in shade and I think can be drought tolerant
I have some osamanthua delavayii shrubs which are doing well in the very shady dry. bed I have. They grow slowly and are easy to keep small. They get white flowers in early spring.