I have a difficult situation in the front of my house which faces west. I live in an older neighborhood with lots of large, sun-blocking trees. One half of the front gets almost full sun (no trees) and the other half is shaded by a large tree and also blocked by the entryway so, of course, gets almost no sun.
Last year was my first year in this house and the garden looked terrible. The soil is poor because it appears the previous owners just added new layer of wood chips on top of the old every year and did nothing else. Not realizing how shady that dark side was, I planted random partial-shade plants and nothing grew. The sunny side wasn't as bad but looked odd with flowers growing (pitifully) in front of only half the house. I have spent the past year digging, adding peat moss and whatever mulch I could find in preparation for a better year this year.
I have been searching for plants in the red/burgundy/pink range that will grow in shade. I've ordered several ferns and Lobelia 'Monet Moment' for my starting point. On the sunny side I've already ordered probably too many plants to actually fit there but the basic scheme is in the red tones.
Any suggestions to help get some balancing color on the shady side? Thanks.
Midwest shade plants for half shade/half sun area
I have mature maples that give me fits in my front yard. One thing that works well for me (so far anyway) is to plant spring bulbs under them. They come up and are colorful before the trees leaf out and make all the shade.
Hi, arachide--I have a similar situation (one shady part and one sunny part of the front) and so I used the spring bulb approach under the trees just to have flowers that thrive in that area (and the other side of the yard) for at least the early part of the gardening year...There is also a shade loving Forsythia recently introduced that might work for you (sorry, not red!)...
Here's the basic advice I followed for my Spring shade garden...
http://www.bulblady.com/bulblady/Oct2004/shadegardenshine.html
I liked DvB's idea of the bulbs picking up the colors in the shade plants and ferns in the garden...I would have never thought of that subtlety myself.
I also consulted Marge Talt's Shady Garden articles about "Planting under Trees" extensively. http://mtalt.hort.net/articles/index/article-index.html
especially with how to amend soil properly (I finally purchased a truck load of "mushroom compost and top soil" mix and just added it as a thick top layer to plant in) .
I know many people will say don't bother to try to plant under the trees, but I just had to try! They say if you put down good dirt/compost the tree roots will make a bee line to it and take up the nutrients, but, nevertheless I went for it as you are....Anyway, Marge Talt could make it work! So can we!
Not many 'red' shade plants come to my mind except the impatients and coral bells. I went more with the whites and creams--hydrangeas, variegated liriope, violets ... I also introduced certain hardy geraniums (not pelargoniums) which come in the darkish pinks to purples--again not red, and some like the shade, others don't, but they will bloom and bloom... ;-)
Well, you can see I am jumping all over the place--but thinking of your garden in two time frames (or more) might give you more flexibility in color and plant choice---spring bulbs and hydrangeas/azaleas first. Then, as summer arrives the hostas and other foliage/shade lovers with red impatients (or other flowers) for accent to complement and balance your sunny side plantings...
I will be curious to know what you will do...and will want to see some pictures! t.
I mentioned the Hardy Geraniums (above) and here's a link touting some of the most popular and readily available in the States...
(Also you may already know 'Psilo' here on DG who is quite an expert on them and who is located in the UK.)
http://www.bulblady.com/bulblady/Oct2004/realgeranium.html
The hardy geraniums are becoming quite popular here in the states...
Hi arachide- i'm putting in a vote for geraniums too- though only certain ones bloom in real shade- I have some G. phaeum that are very shade tolerant- there's one called lily lovelle that is a pretty color- though more purple than burgundy- there are some that are more burgundy or pink-Herronswood Nursery is offering several selections this year, G phaeum varieties can be hard to find. Some astilbes take quite a bit of shade, they're pretty reliable. The deep burgundy leaves of some of the heucheras might add color....I love lobelias like monet moment but have found that they do like some sun, and need that rich soil to thrive-- though lobelia syphilitica will just grow anywhere! except....it's blue! Astrantia is sort of a modest type flower, but might work.. or some of bleeding hearts.. it will be fun to see what you come up with- maples are relentless- their roots go everywhere, and grab all the moisture, it can be tough!! s.
Wow! You guys are great. How nice of everyone to respond with such good suggestions. I like the look of geraniums and actually I think the darkish pink/purple color will probably work if I add some things with that color on the sunny side (yes, any excuse to buy more plants!).
Tobasco, thanks for the tip to think of the multiple time frame picture and the info about soil. Last year I bought 15 bags of mushroom compost and top soil at the end of the season when it was on sale but it didn't really go as far as I thought it would. I can see I'll have to buy much more this year.
Thanks SJMS for the lobelia info. I'm going to change my original plan and move them to the front of the shady side where it gets a little bit of sun. I appreciate the advice.
I can't wait to check out the plants everyone mentioned.
a.
here's an idea--check out a landscape supply place and have them mix up part premium topsoil and part mushroom compost (whatever proportion the landscape guy recommends for your plantings--we did half and half) and buy it by the 'yard'--much cheaper--and it's already mixed together--and you will save yourself a lot of tilling. I bought it by the bag until my neighbor clued me in on where to get it by truck...
Good luck--we will want to see pictures in a few months! t.
I just saw this thread, and since I have a large shady area, also facing west, I thought I'd list some of the plants that I have growing now. First of all, let me say that I love natives, so I have lots of them. My tiny plants, planted along the walkway are hepaticus, twinleaf, pussytoes, and miniature hostas. I also have mayapples, trillium (several kinds), jack in the pulpits, shooting stars, pulmonarias, and tiarellas (also several kinds). Growing in the larger part are larger hostas, several kinds of ferns, strawberry begonias, toadlilies (bloom pink and lavendar in the fall), azaleas (native and hybrid), strawberry bush, firespike (both red and purple varieties), columbine (several colors), variegated and plain green soloman seals, false soloman seals, virginia bluebells, astilbes, bears breeches, bloodroot, meadow rue (pink and yellow), heucheras, Italicum arum for winter color, celandine poppies (okay, they're yellow, but beautiful), hardy cyclamen, and squirrel corn. Something is always in bloom there. I also have the spring bulbs and am just beginning to put in some fall bulbs. You can leave out the yellow flowers and if you keep the white flowers, you'll have tons of bloom and foliage in your colors.
For the area that is just on the border of the sun/shade areas, there are roses that can tolerate and bloom in some shade. I think I saw a thread on the Roses Forum that had a list of them. Dotti
After much research and the suggestions here, this is what I've ordered so far:
Ferns: Mexican Male fern, Dixie Wood fern, Dryopteris x complexa and Lady in Red fern (it's supposed to have dark red stems that looked pretty cool in the picture).
Astilbe: Bridal Veil (white), Glow (red) and August light (red).
Anemone: Whirlwind (white) and Max Vogel (pink).
Lobelia Monet Moment.
Digitalis: Pam's Choice (dark maroon/white).
Caladium: Pink Gem, Florida Sunrise, Red Flash.
Roses for partial shade (all pink): The Fairy, Therese Bugnet and Marchesa Boccella.
I already have 3 hostas left over from the previous owners that I will keep because they grew in the one section that gets no sun at all.
I love ferns but hesitated getting them because I have never seen a fern in anyone's yard around here so I was assuming they must be hard to grow in this area. Once I figured out it's probably because we have alkaline soil I researched amending it and came up with a combination of sulphur, peat moss and Holly-Tone fertilizer. This weekend is soil prep.
I haven't located any geraniums yet but those are next on my list to find. This has turned into a fun project thanks to everyone being so positive that it was possible to have a garden in the shade. It will be interesting to see how these plants perform because although I am addicted to gardening I'm not very experienced and this is my first venture into plants I knew nothing about.
sounds like a great start!- I bet you'll be able to grow the ferns--and people who see them will want to grow them too!! seems like for some reason they aren't so well known- maybe the latin names-nurseries are just beginning to give them catchy names like the lady in red one you mentioned..
arachide, (do you like spiders?), Sounds like you are going to make a lovely garden area. Do send pictures of your progress. I don't have a lot of shade here at this location, where I have been for 10 years. There was nothing here when I bought the acreage, except sage, grass and alkaline soil.
The first things I planted were trees. So now i do have some shade. Love hostas, wish i had more ferns. I started a woodland garden area in spring of 2003, and the trees in that area should be creating some shade this year. I bought as large trees as I could afford.
So I am interested to see how your garden comes along. our zones are similiar. DonnaS
pinns2006, Your shady garden sounds beautiful, do you have pictures. I don't have a lot of shade yet, but my trees are growing. At my other place where i lived for 50 years I had lots of shade and grew more than 100 different hostas. The only shade here when I moved 10 years ago was in the lath shade house we built and on north side of house. Would love to see some photos. DonnaS
I don't have pictures yet, but I'm trying to work on that. I'll post them when I can.
Rutholive: the name arachide is supposed to be Italian for 'peanut', my previous dog's name :) He did love to wander through my garden although he wasn't as destructive as my current dog. Besides the terrible soil situation, I now have a dog who has to copy everything I do. I dig a hole, he digs a hole; I pick up the shovel; he lunges for the shovel; today he ran off with one my gloves which is now missing the tip of one finger area. Gotta laugh.
Today I planted 2 of the supposedly part shade rose bushes. One is medium deep pink and should get 4 feet tall. The 2nd bush is light pink and only gets 2 feet tall but sort of spreads out. I planted that right in front of the tall one. I've been watching closely the way the light moves across the front of the house at different times of the day. Allowing for the fact the trees aren't completely leafed out yet, I still think the patch where I planted the roses will get a fair amount of sun. It's a little 2' section on the far left. Closer to the house is almost completely dark, regardless. That's where I plan to put most of the ferns.
It was interesting to note that where I had previously amended the soil with peat moss and mulch I could really see a difference in the soil. Lots of worms and I could actually dig without throwing out my back. I hadn't done much to the dark, shady side and it showed. It was like digging up concrete. As much as it pained me, I actually threw out huge chunks of it. It was too heavy to lug to my back composting area and if I left it, I wouldn't have room to add anything else. I filled it all in with peat moss, manure and regular soil. Took me 4 hours just to do a 3' section for the roses. Lots of back breaking labor ahead for me.
More plants should be arriving soon. I can't wait to share pictures. Didn't mean to be so long-winded, but it's nice to talk with people who like gardening. I'm used to blank stares and glazed eyes when I start a conversation with, "So, I found out that my soil is very alkaline and I need to amend it, but I can't figure out the best way. . ." or the ever popular "Wow! Did I get a great deal on cow manure!"
arachide, Don't work too hard and get your back out of kilter. I have sandy soil which I amend with store composted manure, and my homemade compost. I do add Planters 11, an organic trace mineral product, and use organic 9-3-4 fertilizer. I try to be as organic aspossible. and am seeing more angleworms now. Good luck. DonnaS
Hey Arachide. Your plant selection sounds gorgeous. I am new gardener and I bought a house last year with a challenging garden. It is all ripped up right now. The previous owner had an Asian theme. The house is a 115-year-old Victorian I want to make a more traditional garden. I had 2 garden designers come out. Estimate #1) $100,000.00 #2) $60,000.00. I choked!!!! I live downtown so you know my garden isn’t huge. I should have left it alone for another year while I get over the stress of the indoor renovations but……Where are you getting your plants?
First of all, I want to say Hello to a couple of my Chicago area gardeners Arachide, and Poseypeddler. Now that the cold weather has gon BYE-BYE, at least I hope it has, and Spring has finally arrived, covering my gardens for the last few nights has been a task to say the least. Have you heard of The Planters Pallet?? It's a nursery located in Winfield, on Rt.38. I have been going there for the last 6 years. They have hundreds of plants, perennials, annuals, just about everything you can think of. Easy findings, meaning, they list by Full sun, and Shade...plants are displayed in Alphabetical order, so you don't have the task of trying to find what you are looking for. Just thought I'd mention this. BTW, where do you find your plantings, especially if you live in the city. It would be about a 30 min drive for you, but, well worth the trip! Happy gardening!
Hi Maxxy and Posypeddler, nice to meet you. I've heard good things about Planters Pallet but never made it out there. Sounds like I'll need to make a trip. I find most things in this area to be a little costly so I did a lot of online ordering this year. So far I've received all the ferns and rose bushes I mentioned above. Great looking plants. Sids Greenhouse in Palos is good, they have especially nice people working there and I found all my soil amendments at reasonable prices when I went a few weeks ago.
I'm new to my house, too, and the inside continues to be in a constant state of renovation and half finished projects because I can't resist my plants and gardening. Gardening is relaxing; home renovation is not :) I'll bet you can make a fantastic looking garden for a lot less. I've learned a lot since joining DG, there are so many great people here who love to share their knowledge.
Thank you both for the ideas.I'll check into both of those ideas. I have a garden plan in mind but I really need someone to install the trees and srubs. I have a man coming over on Monday. ( I hope he shows) to talk over my plan.
Hey there, fellow chicago-and-environs-ans: I'm new to all of this too and find myself amazed at how useful this site has been: i live in a condo that faces north and west with another building right by our courtyard - a veritable box-canyon, as one neighbor said. We've had some luck with Astilbes and are toying with azaleas right now - moving them around in their containers to make sure they like the light (then we'll grapple with soil). we get some dappled shade for part of the afternoon - actually discovered some sunny spots caused by reflections from the condo windows! which have gone to good use with our perennials.
Other reds in our garden: we're mostly doing purples, but have a good start on celosia and some 'scarlet' verbena - we'll see if they last out our chilly spring. Just for the hell of it I planted bloodleaf, which is gorgeous pink-veined and shimmery but i don't expect to last, and the coleus we have is actually quite magenta in parts (dragon black or black dragon, i've seen it both ways).
Speaking of ferns, we had three or four growing uncultivated in the shade of our (as yet unidentified) big old tree - I believe they are cinnamon ferns, which grow wild in these parts where it's wet enough, and I bought a couple more of them. Under our trees we have quite a bit of pachysandra and English ivy - it's filling in nicely - no sense wrestling with grass in a box canyon.
Hope to hear more as things progress...I need all the help I can get!
Hi fiatluxury (great name BTW)
Interesting plants you've got going for your condo and I'm glad to hear you have ferns doing well. I planted all six of mine and amazingly they seem to be doing great so far. That has me really excited. I added sulphur and iron sulfate to (hopefully) make the alkaline soil a little more on the acid side and it seems to be working. The Lady in Red ferns look so pretty and almost dainty that I run outside "just to check" whenever it's really windy. This is my first go round with Astilbes and I've never seen those around here either. If you've had luck with them that gives me hope.
Everything is so new and small it's hard to tell what's going to make it for the long haul. At least nothing has died yet. LOL. My original plan for the front was to be purple but since nothing did well last year I changed the whole scheme. Next year I will have a huge purple iris to divide if you're interested. I will probably also be giving away my Jacob's Ladder, Balloon Flower and Columbine - all in shades of light purple. They are just too dainty to go in the backyard where the dog will trample them.
Well Chicago gardeners----when can we see some 'before and after' pics? Or at least some before pics? Your projects sound fascinating and exciting!
Love your plant list--you have some interesting additions to your garden--and please try the ferns--very fashionable these days--and you can be a trend setter on your block!
Here's a pic of part of the shady section (the foreground) we are working on--just bought some ferns and a 'Jack Frost' Brunnera to put in near the Oak Leaf Hydrangeas..
Some pics of your projects, please?!
and another shady section that needs some ferns, I think...
Tobasco,
You garden is beautiful. It looks so "put together" and peaceful. Ferns would be wonderful under those big trees. One of mine is supposed to get 4 to 5' tall and would look great in your yard. I'm embarrased to show mine. It is so hard to visualize since I basically took out everything (big woop, a diseased bush and a raggedy hosta or two) that was there before and am starting from scratch. Of course I am now second guessing everything I chose, too. Right now it is a bunch of little sticks and skinny little fern fronds that I am so excited about. What a dork.
I will confess that I received a disposable digital camera from a friend and took pictures last weekend. However, it's one of those where you have to bring it back to the store when you've taken all the pictures and then they develop it. I had to restrain myself from using all 24 pictures on twigs and 1" plants and save some for use in a couple of weeks when the weather warms up and the twigs are actually distinguishable as varieties of plants.
Thanks so much for your interest. I am going to post after the 2nd set of pictures. You might be sorry you asked. LOL.
yes, Tobasco, I agree that your garden looks lovely and welcoming!! and I like the rock stairs too...I long for something a little more naturalistic but since i'm only one unit of 12 - and we have a regular old sidewalk - looks like i'll be sticking with what i have for awhile (besides, WAY easier to shovel when the snows fly. ) I have "go get camera, idiot" written right on my to-do list this week, so hopefully i can document for you (and my mom, who's in Champaign and working with a lot more sun, lucky dog!)
Your beds look a little more structured than ours are - I think maybe my initial thought for your tree-areas (pachysandra) wouldn't look as good as fern would, esp. something nice and light or striped (is that a Red Lady 'Pictum' you have, Arachide? that would be nice in Tobasco's treeshade)....but what other green groundcovers have you thought about? Something like Canby Paxistima, maybe? would anything silver grow under there? I think silver is so dang cool in the shade, but i've yet to experiment, myself (we have some dusty miller, one of which i think was victim of some overzealous midnight waterer...) I've dubbed the whole courtyard the Leafy Bower and would love some silver, pale blues and dark purples in among all the glossy dark green foliage going on in there. I also aspire to get some honeysuckle going on our fence, to block out the neighbor's ugly back yard.....it would get some sun, but not much. Any better shady flowering vines I should know about?
As I said, I'm just getting into this, so I'm dealing with some prior attempts that didn't do anything worthwhile - someone went absolutely berzerk with lilacs and now we have about 8 which are all gangly, ugly, refuse to flower and take up space that could be much prettier! I might need to start compelling other owners to agree with me they should be ripped out, anyless anyone has any suggestions for making them do their stuff (i love lilacs in full bloom, but the rest of the year there's not much to them...so if they aren't ever blooming, there's REALLY not much to them!) Trimming? fertilizing? help!
But the birch tree is nice, and a few of the berberry trees get enough sun to actually turn that cool redpurple color, and we have a row of what I'm pretty sure is Bridal Wreath spirea that is kicking butt right now......Arachide, I don't think you are the only dork on this list! Thank you for the offer of purple-trades - I guess I'll have to let you know when i figure out what the heck I'm doing, but the offer was most generous and appreciated! (we have a couple of dogs in the building, but they ignore the garden beds...they head right for the gateposts.)
enough rambling for tonight! i'm sure i'm not the only person in these forums to echo your sentiment about sharing this with like-minded souls - with everyone else I know, here is How To Kill The Conversation In Five Words Or Less: "Shady zone 5b perennials, anyone?"
Thanks for your comments, everybody, as I, too, have a hard time engaging my family in Shade Gardening banter!
We just started planting and remodeling our garden last year (new house to us) and I too have put in some plants and now I wonder 'What was I thinking?!'
My pictures aren't very good but they give you the idea of the spaces we are trying to work with....
'before picture'
have a great gardening day. t.
Just wanted to say hi to my fellow Chicagoans. I too have an area that gets vitually no sun along the front of my home. I've kind of ignored it while getting the gardens in the back going but now I'm ready to tackle it. This has been a great thread for ideas. Please let us know how you progress arachide.
Hi little_wing. The good ideas everyone gave on this thread got me over my shade phobia. I'm using the last of the disposable digital camera film (on the garden, of course) so I should have pictures soon.
The ferns and Astilbe are doing better than I ever thought they would. They have been really maintenance free, other than watering. Other things are getting eaten by bugs (bad this year) but both of these seem to be unappealing to them. I made an accidental "color echo" (great thread started by Tabasco in the perennial forum) by the Lady in Red Ferns and the Astilbe. The red on the fern really echos the slight reddish tinge in the foliage and flower on the Astilbe.
The Fairy and Marchesa Bocella rose have been pretty indestructable, too. Both have blooms and bugs seem to take one bite and leave them alone.
For really low maintenance and great color I recommend Caladium. This was my last minute impulse purchase because I was afraid nothing would bloom there and wanted to be sure of some color. Everyone that stops by loves these. They have absolutely no bug problems and are growing up to be huge. I ordered them online and started them in pots indoors in May. Great filler and splash of color.
Let us know what you decide to plant. I'd love to hear what does well for you and what ideas you have.
I haven't looked at this thread for some time. Sounds like you allare really getting your gardens going great. Still waiting for more photos. Donnas
Great to see so many neighbors on here! Most of my areas are shady, since we have a lot of large trees. It's hard to say what my favorites are, but I like the toad lillies, pulmonarias, phlox, columbines, huechera, astilbes, and lobelia (blue). I like caladiums, too. I have pots of them on the front walkway. We actually have a lot of full sun, but it's not in the sprinkler zones and dragging a hose over there would be brutal. They want over $1000 to add a zone to the sprinkler system, so I'll stick with my shady spots.heat and lack of rain this year have been a bugger this year. Even with extra watering, I have been fighting droopy plants, and some of my hostas aren't doing so well.
I am putting in a drip system to water the garden. It is quite affordable and easy to put together. Jamie did one, I'll see if I can find the thread.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/508389/
Here it is. I don't have any photos of mine yet.
hmmm.. that's a thought. I smell a fall project.