She has a very deep shade garden, absolutely no shade at all, can't get alot of things to grow there has hostas already, wants something colorful, dones't have to be a flower, just colorful foilage. got any ideas. she's tried japanese painted ferns she said they don't spread well at all. she wants something that's going to multiply so she can move them other places too.
got any ideas? thanks in advance
kathy
question for a friend
Lilly of the vally? They spread fast and have a wonderful smell when they are in bloom.
Epimedium, hellebores, mahonia, camellia, anemone nemerosa, trillium, sanguinaria, viburnum, fatsia, bergenia, snowdrops, cyclamen, erythronium, jeffersonia, hydrangea, pulmonaria, corydalis, pachysandra, lamium, tiarella, tellima, pieris, adiantum (fern), polystichum (fern), asplenium (fern), dicentra and hedera are all worth considering!
Hey, I've got plenty of the yellow flowered lamium, Archangel I believe its name is. Spreads like crazy, beautiful leaves, and flowers in the densest shade. It will take over, though. LMK - I'll be glad to do this for postage.
I had that yellow lamium it never spread for me, just up and died this wiinter too, wasn't really impressed with it's behavior, LOL,
thanks for the tips guys i'll send these to her
OH yes, she doesn't do the internet thing too, and alot of these plants can only be found on the internet, she doesn't trade either, so she'd have to be able to find this at lowe's wally world or our nurseries around here.
Vinca minor, otherwise known as Periwinkle, more than just spreads; it is considered invasive in some areas. I have seen it at Lowes, but not at WalMart. It has pretty blue flowers and is a pretty plant. Could be the answer to your friend's problem. Dotti
I've got tons of that stuff, didn't know it would grow in deep shade that well, I can give her all that stuff she wants LOL thanks
For color in the shade, variegated forms of euonymous can really light up the dark - there are golds and silvers. We planted the plain green Euonymous kiautschovikia (sp?)(aka E. patens) in the dark, rooty shade of a huge paulownia tree years ago when our well did not yield any water for the garden, and it has done very well.
It espaliered itself vertically against a horrible stockade fence and made a beautiful wall of green as a background for vinca, bleeding heart, ferns (they self-sowed so don't know their name) and epimedium which also did fine under those conditions (dry and very shady). The bleeding heart, without water, would go dormant in summer, but always returned every spring to bloom (as do so many woodland plants like bloodroot and spring beauty).
But, you could grow green and gold euonymous and echo those colors in similarly variegated hosta (H. Frances Williams for example), liriope, and ivy. We've done that at the end of a garden walk where the sprinkler doesn't reach in summer at a blue gate. The purple leaved Viola labradorica selfsows around at the edges.
To set off the green and gold variegation, you do need a solid green - for us, it's a yew hedge.
Also, going back to the idea of a woodland garden in paragraph 2, cimifuga species are wonderful shade plants - the native C. racemosa blooms for us around late June, but the Japanese cimifuga 'Elstead' blooms in late August into September. The towering white spikes seem to float in the darkness.
Another great woodlander is variegated Solomon's Seal (Polygonatum odoratum 'variegatum'), and there is another native woodlander that can give a nice grove effect in full shade: Rhododendron maximum. Both can do okay "dry between rains or consistently moist but not boggy". (Most rhododendrons don't do too well in full shade.)
Under pines on ridges we often see Pipsissewa.
Yes, japanese anemones do flop in full shade, but if you grow a swirl of ferns in front of where they flop, the effect can be very pretty.
And then there's aster divaricata for woodland shade - we see it in autumn in surprisingly dark places on dry hillsides where we walk.
So, it might be a good idea for your friend to find a book in the library on woodland ecology/habitat. On gardening in the shade, George Schenk and Helen van Pelt Wilson are particularly good.
We did hand-carry buckets of water at first to establish these plants when we planted them, and then mulched. We have naturally water-retentive clay-based soil which we amended with humusy peat.
PPS - Given that there are so many wonderful things you have to choose from, pay attention to which species are invasive. Even in full shade, some can be surprisingly rambunctious.
thanks so much for the helpj
kathy