Low growing woodland plants.

[FLOrenze]

I have taken the ornamental grasses from two beds in the garden. I want to replace them with low growing woodland plants that can tolerate dry soil. I planted a Sorbus that I hope will put out runners, and I am thinking of hebes and heathers. So I want plants about the same height.

also, if I underplanted with irises, would they survive the completion.

I would have thought woodland plants tend towards damp, shady conditions? Things like wild garlic, foxglove, ferns, pulmonaria etc - not sure you get much dry conditions under trees?

lots of dry shade under trees because the tree is taking water from the ground. Foxgloves are woodland clearings rather than woodland, but wild garlic (dies down early in the year), ferns, pulmonaria are all good for shade, as are Helleborus, Epimedium, Vinca, Cyclamen

Which irises are you thinking of, OP?

A good place to look for shade loving plants is the plant sales bit on Beth Chatto's website. You can sort by the month of flowering too.

Thank you I never thought of that.

rockery irises not the flag iris.

There's also a specialist nursery in the southwest, called something like plants for shade dot com. Could provide some ideas.

Long Acre Plants

Hello. I have a garden that is almost entirely dry shade due to the huge number of trees. I have found that for a load of ground cover sweet woodruff works well. Pulmonary does well. I’ve been successful with hebes and hydrangeas but they aren’t really ground cover.
Sweet woodruff grows like a bastard. I bought one plant and I’ve dug up clumps to move to elsewhere. I must have about 5 square meters now throughout the garden.

I’d add in Omphalodes
Gallium Odoratum - but mine loves dry shade and is spreading a bit too much!
Primula and Euphorbia if it’s not too dry.

Cross post and snap! 😊

Oh and heuchura.

I have a dry shady border. It is full of woodruff, London pride, iris pixie, cyclamen, geranium (ingswersen), Jack Frost, nodding onion and violets.
They are all rampant.

my dry shady garden has lots of ferns and heuchera. also iris foetisdisima and foxgloves and more ferns.

My woodruff has voted with its feet and is now on a sun drenched south facing gravel terrace, thus illustrating that often a “love of shade” is actually a hatred of competition.

Euphorbia x robbiae, wood spurge, presumably

I own a bit of woodland and not much grows in the shady parts after the trees have leafed (it's full of wood anemone, celendine, bluebells before). The wild garlic is OK, and daffodils... native ferns and butcher's broom (which is a weird little shrub), small sedges. The only grass that enjoys it is wood melick

We have hellebores growing happily under trees.

Not heather - that grows in open moors, not in woodland.

OP doesn’t have woodland, though, just a single Sorbus, so she’s got a lot more scope

@MereDintofPandiculation ”Euphorbia x robbiae, wood spurge, presumably”

I’m not sure. I have two in my very shady, dry border that seem be OK. One was given to me years ago and we didn’t talk names, the other is Euphorbia Dulcis Chameleon which seeds itself around.

Thank you for so many ideas.I have abandoned the Heather.