Shade Gardening: Good shade plant combinations, 1 by sempervirens

sempervirens wrote:
It took me awhile to get back to this thread but I 've been reading everyones suggestions with delight.

doss, You did ask ,way back in the thread, how much shade the heuchera "Autumn Bride" can take in my garden. I have it placed in areas from partial sun to shade. I haven't tried deep shade yet but your question has encouraged me to try a plant in the darkest shade in the garden next spring where I grow the native wild ginger as a ground cover.

I have given myself the extra challenge of trying to use as many native plants as I can( first choice plants native to my immediate area, then including some from a little further out). I am not rigid about this choice and am using cultivars and incorporating existing plants, especially if they provide winter interest. Hellebores are invaluable for winter interest (and of course not native for me) and I do have a few cultivars with white veining on the leaf and white flowers to continue the green and white theme. But the plant I have come to appreciate immenseley, at least it's my favorite this year, is the cultivar of Jacob's Ladder ( polemonium reptens) "Stairway to Heaven". I just bought another one to replace a really large Hellebore I moved to my neighbor garden. The color on this plant is variable depending on the season. Right now it is a modestly variegated green and lighter yellow green. In the spring the leaves are very rose and later green and white.

Oops, the photo is from another one of my favorite combinations, bleeding heart and variegated wood phlox. The bleeding heart is having a second blooming now . The wood phlox (edited to add this is a cultivar called "Montrose Tricolor" ) has a tiny bit of pink in the leaves now that the weather has turned cooler.

This message was edited Oct 13, 2008 9:32 AM