Shrubs for shady border

[SmellyBeard]

Hi all. I want to fill a mostly shady border with low- maintenance shrubs/plants. The soil seems to be clay and stony when I dig down.

I would like perhaps 2 climbers - which ones do best without much sun? I want to cover some of the wall as it's rather unattractive!

I would also like to put in a few evergreen shrubs so the bed isn't completely bare in winter. I quite like a fern-y style which drape over the ground. I also like bushes which have flowers in spring/summer.

Basically I am clueless - any suggestions on where to start?

I had a tiny clayey, stony, north-facing garden at my previous house. Daffodils did pretty well, also snowdrops, & for summer colour I had a couple of astilbe plants, very pretty colours, & it was all very low maintenance. (I basically just removed the dead stems when everything had finished their growing periods.) I also had a few patches of harebells which did ok. I bet ferns would do well also.

Hebes always seem to do well anywhere and are green all year?
Aldi has small ones just now in various shades for a couple of quid I think.

For your wall cover I would plant pyracantha and for shrubs, euonymus and ferns. For colour, Lily of the Valley, Forget me not,Astilbe Dicentra and Lanium.

Also lots of Cornus especially Midwinter Fire.

I have 3 Mexican orange blossom shrubs against a north facing fence on clay soil.

They do very well given that they’re in shade a lot of the time, especially in winter. They’re evergreen and with 3 flushes of flowers in spring, summer and autumn, they’re a great addition.

Thanks all. I have some daffs currently in there so once they have died down I will get going.

I actually have a hebe in a pot but it's gone a bit twiggy looking. Does that mean it's dying? It's one with purple leaves.

Just prune your hebe back to a few shoots. Don’t cut into the old wood, leave about an inch of green shoots and it will be fine.

Climbing hydrangeas tolerate shade well and are recommended for north facing walls. They’re self supporting, and produce large lacy caps of white flowers. The usual “go to“ climber is ivy, which you can get in variegated forms as well as plain green, and it’s evergreen, so still covers the wall even in winter.
At ground level, hostas are very easy perennials for shade and produce lilac coloured flowers on tall stems as well as attractive foliage. If slugs are a problem, spray the hostas during the growing season with water that has had a couple of peeled garlic cloves boiled in it and then cooled. I make up a 2 litre bottle of it in spring and it lasts all season.
Ferns can be beautiful - you can get red or silver ones as well as green, and many different shapes of frond. They like damp shade.

Fatsia japonica

Fuchsias do well in shade - you can get hardy perennial varieties. Good summer-autumn colour. Ditto annual begonias.

There are some climbing roses suited to north facing aspects - Mme Alfred Carriere is one option (it's white but flowers reliably and copiously so I'm told) but you can find others if you google. David Austin always gets good reviews for quality.

Hydrangeas love shade.

I have ferns and ajuga (bugle) as ground cover. You can get ajuga with different leaf colours - I have some variegated ones as well as dark purple and green/purple veined. I love the blue flowers.

Euonymous seem to cope well with shade and you can get silver and gold varieties.

Foxgloves adore shade and will flower in their second year. Shake the dried seeds around and you should get new plants as the originals die back.

Hellebores love shade and provide winter interest.

If you need more inspo "garden on a roll" manufacturers usually do a border for shade which contains some good ideas.

For evergreen shrubs in north facing spots, I love viburnums - especially as they flower when not much else does - and sarcococca, which smell incredible. I have a few of each because they're also tough as old boots, which they need to be in my stony, north-east facing garden.

I bought plants from this company Their website has lots of suggestions for shady sites

Wow, thank you everyone. I feel quite excited about getting going now.

What about photinia 'Red Robin' OP? That tolerates shade and has red leaves around this time of year, and white flowers in summer (although not loads of them).

We have a climbing hydrangea on our shady wall, and a clematis -although it does get some sun in late afternoon/evening.

Virburnum is lovely, as PP said.

I know you didn't ask about bulbs, but cyclamen are shade-loving and they're lovely and bright. Although I think you'd be best holding off on planting cyclamen until autumn...

Although I think you'd be best holding off on planting cyclamen until autumn... Best bought in growth, dry corms can be difficult to get started again. So not at the moment because you'll be busy planting other stuff, but maybe next autumn, winter or spring. Cyclamen hederifolium flowers in autumn, C coum takes over from December and carries on to March.

Ivy will cover a wall quickly but it will also grow like mad, root into anything it touches, suck all the water out of your soil (which is a real PITA with stony clay) and potentially damage the structures it is on.
I hate it with a passion!
Climbing hydrangeas are a nicer suggestion.
Or a row of foxgloves, which will grow tall and hide your wall?
Or, if you're not bothered about thuggish plants, honeysuckle? Also grows like mad but at least it is pretty and smells nice.

When I had a shady, stoney, clay garden, I had great success with ferns. You can pick them up in garden centres all shapes and sizes and I love them. Just make sure they are hardy ones suitable for outside, not something like a maidenhair or staghorn. They love water.

Things like Pieris like shade and have beautiful colour leaves and flowers through the cold months but they need to be grown in acidic soil. If yours is not you can put it in a pot with ericaceous soil and water with rainwater.

Just think about what grows in a woodland. Those will be the kind of plants you need.

Ferns love water* is what I meant to say

Watching with interest as i have exactly the same issues. A north-facing dark corner with heavy clay where nothing grows except moss and even the grass has given up! Some great ideas here. DH loves ferns and i think they'll do well as it's always wet esp at the moment! I do have an Acer Palmatum i'd like to try and get established there but not sure it will thrive.
I'm not the op but thanks everyone

@BooseysMom Let me know what you end up planting!

@SmellyBeard.. thanks. You too. We can compare notes and share our experiences. Good luck x