Shade Gardening: Extremely shady , 3 by DonnaMack

DonnaMack wrote:
I don't know whether this is helpful (I am in zone 5a performing like 6a but) I had a shady area next to my house with some hostas, and filled it the empty spots this springin front of it with layers of:

Bergenia winterglut
Geranium Bevan's variety
Wintergreen
Mertensia
Trillium grandiflorum
Ornithogalem nutans

I am about to add lilium martagon album.

The second pic is from very early April, and I had just installed the mertensia, geraniums and wintergreen.

I have some pretty bad photos, but it gives you an idea, and the maintenance (after acidfying the soil for the wintergreen) has been nonexistent. And except for the hostas, there was nothing there this spring. The previous owners had given up on the area and figured that nothing would grow there but hostas because there was not much light and the soil was poor.

The hostas go dormant and the mertensia goes dormant, but the wintergreen, geraniums and bergenia are there most of the year.

This message was edited Nov 12, 2013 8:00 PM