Shade Gardening: Goat's Beard vs Astilbe, 2 by pirl

pirl wrote:
We've had the Aruncus aethusifolius for 17 years. It makes a nice little clump with finely cut foliage though the flowers are not spectacular. It's at the lower front, slightly left of center, in this photo.

To the right you can spot one (of far too many) astilbes we've had for about the same time. It requires much more dividing than the miniature goat's beard, which has never been divided. There's also a lot more deadheading with the larger astilbes.

The astilbe are more showy but it's hard to beat the miniature goat's beard for a plant that's content in one spot for a very long time.

In the first photo the plants are all in full sun (with a lot of compost and regular watering) and thrive but in a year like last year, with four major heat waves in June and July, they do tend to finish blooming sooner.

The second photo shows some Pumila (low lavender) and another one in partial shade.

Purple Lance is the subject in the third photo and it does very well in morning sun only.

Visions in Red does well in shade or sun (with regular watering).

The last photo was taken at 6:37 AM and gives a totally different look than the cotton candy pink of sun later in the day.