Shade Gardening: Good shade plant combinations, 0 by rcn48

rcn48 wrote:
stormy, which "short variegated" Carex did you get? I've always loved 'Island Brocade' http://www.santarosagardens.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCo... (my photo!) in the garden and was so excited when 'Treasure Island' http://www.gardencrossings.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.p... with white/green foliage became available. For some reason I can't get 'Treasure Island' to live! The other white/green Carex I love the in the gardens is 'Silver Sceptre' http://www.soonerplantfarm.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.p... It's doing so well (almost too happy!) in a mostly shaded spot that I'm planning to take a few divisions this fall to pop into the green and white border :)

Sounds like you got a great deal on your Dicentra - 5-8 eyes is huge! The Dicentra I want for the gardens is 'Ivory Hearts', the short one with blue-green foliage. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/103982/. If I can collect enough rocks I think it would look really nice tucked into the rock border.

We've had several of the Peach-leaf Bellflowers in the gardens over the years. 'Chettle Charm' was always one of my favorites but this year it disappeared :( 'Kelly's Gold' http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/78847/ has done well here and the foliage is still bright gold in the middle of winter!

So we don't lose the theme of this thread, here's a combination I like. Hosta 'Summer Breeze' and the glossy foliage of Darmera peltata in the spring. Unfortunately if I don't keep this area well watered through the summer, the Darmera melts and looks pretty disgusting by August :( We've got a pond that's developed a leak and one of our future projects will be to turn it into a bog garden. IF we ever do, I'm going to include some of the Darmera along the edge, it should be much happier there!