MsKatt I learned from a trick from 'Making the Most of Shade' by Larry Hodgson for planting hostas with mature evergreens. My hostas didn't do well because of the intense root competition. You dig a planting hole about twice the needed size and line it with newspapers. Soak the newspapers and then plant as usual. The newspapers will keep out the tree roots and by the time they degrade the hosta roots are established enough to compete. Hope this helps.
Perennials for Shady and Part Shade Gardens
Awesome, dahlianut! I'll give it a shot! I would imagine it would work with any other perennials I put in that area. Good idea.
Teresa I hope Chris will replace those sorry. BEV
I'm doing that for most perennials I'm planting under my big trees now and adjacent to my 7 foot cottonyaster hedge. Exception was yarrow because I wanted it to struggle to stay in check and hopefully not spread as quickly as its prone to.
Thanks Bev .... but that was summer of 06 they died... so no chance of that.
it really is a cute plant though...
I have had that happen too. BEV
Hey Bev and Teresa!! Glad I found this thread. I have mostly shade in my back yard and I tried to force sun loving things last year - which of course didn't work lol Now I planning on enjoying the shade and concentrate on growing the shade lovers in the back yard. DH is going to dig up most of the front lawn for my sun loving plants . Do hostas normally die down in winter - will they come back in the spring?
I don't know how well they will do down there because they have to have a freeze & warm cycle. Here is my shade garden not finished yet. Will be glad when it is mature. BEV
Ems_
there is a thread in the hosta forum [somewhere] where there is a list of hostas that do well in warmer climates.
Ems -- sorry i got cut short on my last post... [downloaded some 'updates' now the PC is not working well... thank heavens for the kids laptop]
anyhooo... here is the link to HOstas for Southern Gardens.... http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/738133/
i found it in the "Sticky" for Hosta Resources -- the first thread in the hosta forum.
hope it helps
Terese
Hello people! I am loving this thread. Just wanted to warn you, Terese, I have Heuchera Lime Rickey and it hasn't done very well for me. I found out later that some consider it to be unreliable performance-wise. Although I had it planted next to HEUCHERA Smoky Rose which did very well in similar conditions, Lime Rickey was constantly dying back/regrowing and never grew to any size at all. I finally dug it up this past season, divided it and transplanted it to another site, hoping it would like that area better. I only have 1 left and that one was very small before winter set in. I'm hoping it will survive the winter as it was pretty expensive when I paid for it and I liked the color very much.
I have since heard that heucheras with villosa in their name fair better since they are crossed with a strain that grows native in the u.s. and has a reliable root system. I do have other heucheras that aren't a villosa strain that do well in my garden, but after 3 years Lime Rickey isn't one of them. Some heucheras that have done well for me in amended clay soil (which isn't watered often as it should be!): Heuchera villosa Caramel, villosa Tiramasu (which is a bright green most of the season where I have planted it), heuchera 'Velvet Night' (gets huge for me), heuchera Silver Scrolls and Heuchera Mocha. Basically, the plants in my garden have to "take care of themselves" for periods of time. ( I have 2 kids ages 4 and 18 mo.)
There was a really great Dave's Garden article a while back about heuchera. I just love them for my shade garden because they're usually very reliable and grow like crazy. The critters usually leave them alone, although I wondered if something was nibbling on my Lime Rickey. Here's the link of that article:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/532/
I really like Thierry Delabroye's new heucheras. So far they haven't been a risky investment for me, and I will try Citronelle this year as a replacement for Lime Rickey. --Steph
Irish... thanks for that link.
at home, i have two Heucheras.... Plum Pudding and Peppermint Spice ...
I had read somewhere that the Plum Pudding does well in the sun... so since i had 3 of them, 2 went in Eastern Exp and the 3rd was put with the hostas on the north side... well, the 2 in front did horribly ... and i felt like a bad 'mom' subjecting them to sunshine... moved them to the north bed... and they have been flourishing ever since.
The Silver Scrolls is in Wisc ... it's new for me since Sept ... so i wont know until this year how it will do.
I guess i'll research them more before i start investing more $$ in them.
I do have a Heucherella, Sea Foam i think up there [in wisc] that is doing fine.
'Winter Red' heuchera does really well for me in full dry shade. 'Marmalade' is not doing so well so I'm moving it into part sun. 'Silver Scrolls' was just new this year from bare root so we will see how it does in full shade. I put 'Purple Palace' in morning sun as I read that it needs more sun to keep its colour. Tiarellas have similar foliage. 'Tiger Stripe' does very well in full dry shade for me too. I want to get more tiarellas. I love the flowers.
>>I put 'Purple Palace' in morning sun as I read that it needs more sun to keep its colour.
dahlia -- i think that is the same thing i heard about Plum Pudding ... to keep the deep color.
here are the ones that were in the sun... I will have to locate an image of them once they were moved.
found one.... they are all nice and happy here in the shade
Those look very nice with the hosta. I will have to move some of mine that are not doing too good. BEV
thanks Bev... this is a spot where they get some morning sun.... then maybe some very late afternoon sun... but nothing very strong. i think that was the key.
That is exactly what my shade garden gets. Will put them out there. Thanks. BEV
Bev -- here is that same area... time stamp is 7:45am 5.28.08 ...
that's my lil Winsome in the pot [sunk in the ground] Fire&Ice and Golden Tiara
the 2 Plum Puddings, a variegated Vinca and a few common ferns.
This message was edited Dec 31, 2008 12:17 PM
That's a beautiful bed tcs. I have variegated vinca in the Great Book of Lists. Is it as fast spreading as the non-variegated?
I like that bed. I had some non variegated vinca growing up my tree in front but got rid of it and have some of the variegated in it's place not quite as fast growing and prettier. I have two Fire & Ice which I love. On plantfiles it doesn't know if it sets seed so I will put that it does and I have some growing in my aquarium but they are all white which will not make it so will fill that in if they die. BEV
I have the non-variegated in two beds one full shade, one evening sun only and it's behaving pretty well. I took it all out of my mom's garden though (zone 7b) as it was too agressive. Thanks dragonfly for the info on the non-variegated.
I also have it in a small bed with other flowers but when it starts to go where I don't want it I just pull it like weeds or break it off. BEV
dahlia ... i have the variegated vinca in a few spots all over the place.... bought them as a buy-one get-one in sets of 6 ... so i started with 12 lil plants 2 yrs ago.... about 3 of them are spreading quickly... the others are not... i do not know the reason for this... I think i have 3 or 4 in that north bed.... 2 of them are growing, but not out of control... i basically planted them to keep weeds at bay. plus, most of them are in areas i do not mind if they spread.
I like variegated foliage in the shade tcs. I want it for looks alone LOL. Thanks.
oh -- then you may love Jacob's Ladder... I'll have to dig up it's scientific name....
since i've gotten it, its tripled in size... bought them in summer of 2006
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/54252/
Brise d’Anjou Polemonium
this is another one i really like... well, i guess i would not have bought them if i didnt like them.
I have alot of non-variegated ones. I have the variegated 'Stairway to Heaven' in the Great Book of Lists and have just added that one. STELLAR! Thanks.
Dahlia ... I dont know if you can order plants from the US... but i just snagged the Brise d'Anjou for half off
picking up 2 [for Wisconisin] for $4.47USD each from BlueStone Perennials.
http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/b/bp/POBDP.html?id=xcnwo23P&mv_pc=410
Uggg, i just noticed they are only hardy to zone4.... so that probably would not work for you.... bummer.
Thanks tcs I can order from the the US and I can do zone4 but I usually not worth it as we need a phytosanitary certificate to bring live plants into Canada and visa versa.
I grow a lot of shade/semi-shade plants. A lot of them have been mentioned here. My ferns esp. Christmas ferns do well in the deep shade as well as a couple of others. Some do not put forth fertile fronds and do not grow as large as in other places, but still look nice. My hostas only do well in semi-shade. One thing I have not seen mentioned is the Lenten Rose. It is green all winter and blooms VERY early spring or even in the winter. It is growing in dry, deep shade!! Rather than buy, I can trade most of these when they come back this year, even the Lenten Rose, I have small ones growing.
debc
I'm always game for a trade!
LOL!!! Me too!! Please take a look at my page.
debc
Deb, do the Hellebores bloom their first year? I planted some last Spring and I keep checking them about every week or so to see if they are showing any signs of blooms!!!
Doug
I'm not sure if they do or not postmandug. These are the first small ones I have had. I have one quite large plant (that blooms every year)and three divisions that came with a trade and they appear to be large enough to bloom. Guess I will find out for sure this year.
I didn't start here until year so didn't get to trade a lot of things that I could have.
Some of my plants are wild collected. I heard a loud noise outside two days ago and went out to see. My neighbor was having the big backhoe, bulldozer and dumptruck come in again ALREADY this year!!! They started cutting back the hill again until it started snowing and did the same thing again this am. I asked my neighbor last fall if I could get the plants from the hill and he said yes. Guess a bunch will just be lost this spring because I can't even see most of them and they will certainly be gone before they come. Besides that, the ground is still frozen. He is leveling the entire woody hill in front of the Jefferson National Forest here. What a shame and guess I will have to really get going to save anymore this year!!
I took two pics yeaterday that show what he is doing. Of course, it is his property and he can do as he wishes. Just wish I had more time. As soon as I get the pics downloaded from my camera, I want to show you what it looks like!
Debbie
Nime are just blooming now Doug but our spring has been unseasonably warm and early. Whether or not your hellebores will bloom will depend on how small the plants are when you put them in though.
We have had one of our typical see-saw weather weeks.
From single digits just a few days ago to 60's today.
So I took advantage and did a yard survey.
My hellebores are beginning to stir, though most still look pretty ragged.
But my hellebore foetidus is strutting his stuff already.
It's about 2 1/2 foot tall.
The flowers are more peculiar than pretty.
But the foliage is great.
Re hellebores from seed: I usually buy my perennials as plants. I know this can be rather expensive with perennials like hellebores. The following is for the Oak Ridges Morraine in southern Ontario (zone 5a). A friend of mine, who grows perennials from seed on quite a large scale, said that hellebores are one of the best garden shade plants. They are tough, when established, and even tolerate shade which is dry (as noted by estrail1rides above). He said, from fresh (green) seed, they germinate very easily and take 3 or 4 years (why the plants are so expensive) to develop into flowering plants. Germination from dry seed is extremely slow and may never occur. They flower at the end of April/beginning of May. I believe that they flower on old wood and therefore the tops of the plants may need winter protection. My friend has warned us, locally, to keep them away from woodlands as they are likely to become invasive.
I just seeded hellebore in mid January. I can be patient. Seed is cheep. Of course I ordered some niger plants too ^_^