Shade Gardening: Who is beginning to take serious looks at the catalogs now?, 1 by wallaby1

wallaby1 wrote:
i have an Adiatum pedatum in a pot, which i have divide at the beginning, and again when it made 2 crowns. One of the original pieces I put between logs that make up my raised hosta bed, the others are in pots and are very hardy. Mine live under the edge of a huge horse chestnut tree, they are in about 8" pots and one of them was really big and lush last year, the stems were a dark blue/black and quite tall. I love it! I also have an Adiatum venustum in the hosta bed edge, it struggled for a long time but has really started to spread well, growing into the bed itself. It keeps some green leaves over winter here, the A pedatum id deciduous. They have been through prolonged frost and to -9C, (16F), the bed does get more light in winter when the leaves are off the tree and the soil is wetter, in summer it is probably quite dry. I also have built up a bed around the tree with old fireplace bricks, those reconstituted limestone blocks, and filled it with the gritty leaf/soil mix we dug from the brick line beck.. It hadn't been done with previous owners for 20 years, it also went in the hosta bed with more of the compost from leaves.

I have helleborus in there, with ferns, polystichum aculeatum and others. Polypodium australi does well there near the base of the tree, it goes dormant in summer, grows back in August for the autumn/winter. Also have Tiarella Pink Mist, it spreads slowly and is low growing, has pinkish white flowers in spring. Cyclamen coum do well too, getting a dry summer rest. Some crocus like shade, I have some for spring colour, they flower when leaves are off anyway. I also have a clump af carex Ogon which I divided from my clump in a pot, it is a bit greener but does well.

A path goes under the tree, and next to it I have Anemone nemorosa Robinsonia, it gets full of flower in spring and is gorgeous, but I also have Lily of the Valley which has gone rampant and I am worried it will choke it out, but it looks nice, another fern there Polystichum setisferum 'Congestum' keeps green all winter, the old fronds can be removed when new ones grow in spring. Also Asplenium scolopendrium Angustatum next to a large branch cut off, laid on the ground. At the same side, near the edge of the tree I have Tricyrtis hirta, it does really well. Then Anemone blanda just beyond that on a bank, also flower really well in spring.
Adiantum pedatum