Shade Gardening: Deep Shade II, 0 by stormyla

stormyla wrote:
Weerobin, How long did it take for that Bloodroot to colonize so nicely? I planted some last year in my one tree line and they came up so nicely. I love how they close up at night. They seem to bloom right as the Narcissa are ending. What is the spread on that Ainsliaea?

RCN, you should set your voles to work on that Kerria. The bark on that birch is really neat (not so)! The voles just love my river birch. Why can't they eat the poison ivy that's growing all inside of it??? Do you grow any Pulmonarias?

Doss, Last year I put in some Ligularias. I'm not sure if they were Britt Marie or The Rocket. They have beautiful bronze and purple foliage. I put them towards the back of the bed, but now think they should be moved closer to the front so the nice foliage is visible. I have some Ligularia Osiris to plant and could put them further back in the bed. Do you know if they transplant well?

I have some nice silver leafed Heuchera, but need something to put further back into the bed with greater height to break up all of the green. This section of the bed is about 20' deep. There are Rose of Sharons at the very back with tall Hydrangeas in front of them. These are all under plantings of large trees. There are also two Stachyurus Praecox back there. I love the February blooms.

I don't want to add too many varigated plants as the limited dappled sunlight gives some of the plants a varigated appearance. Every year, I thin the canopy some, trying to let a little light in. I saw a beautiful Scarlet Itea like Little Henry at Big Dipper farms and might add 2 of those. Chartreuse plants would help also. There is one dark green mid size Daphne Mezueum there, but I'm going to read up on the light requirements of some of the others. I have a beautiful Chartreuse Daphne Mezureum Bowles White growing in another bed, but it might not take to the shade. Maybe Daphne Brigg's Moonlight will.

The Dicentra Gold Heart will go somewhere in there. For closer to the front, there's semishade and I love these little shrubs, Hypericum Brigadoon. They just glow. I've put in 4 of these. This section of the bed is about 50' wide, so there's lots of room for more wonderful goodies. Hosta Sunpower is doing a great job of brightening things up. I have some small blue Hostas that are getting crispy in another bed, so I'm going to plant them between the Brigadoons.

I tried Painted Japanese Fern, but they didn't survive. Last month I added two Ghost Ferns, but the Ground Hog ate them, roots and all within two days!!! Yestderday, I added 2 varigated Jacob's Ladders and some more Trollius Globe flowers. I also underplanted the Hypericum "Albury Purple" with more yellow Trillium. Around one of the large trees I added 2 Heuchera Southern Comfort. These get quite large as do the Heuchera Brownies that are in the middle of them. Those 2 Brownies are taking up almost 6' of space!!! There are Trollius planted in among them with Aruncus behind them.

No planting today and lunch hour is almost over!!!!