Shade Gardening: shady problem, 3 by cathy166

cathy166 wrote:
The aegopodium is beyond my control. It grows under slate tiles, around and into the tree roots, and it must be handled with gloves.

I take almost no credit for the shade garden. It was pretty much the gift of the former owner and some volunteers, many yet to be identified. Most of the flowers are yellow, and they bloom early in the spring before the leaves in the trees are full, when they are getting more sunlight. My favorites are the epimedium (red and white) and the trout lilies.

The best part about this garden is that most of these plants are easily ignored in summer's high heat and require less water.

I think our earliest plants in the not much light/dappled shade category are the trilliums and toadshades, great harbingers of spring flowers, probably gifts of flying friends. The one easeist-to-grow and I'm-always-pulling-it-out plant is polygonatum (Solomon's Seal). It spreads by strong runners and is also happy is soil that is rocky or laden with tree roots.

This message was edited Feb 18, 2012 9:17 PM