Prairie,
nice looking plant/tree http://www.springmeadownursery.com/black_lace.htm
too bad that wont fit in that lil space i have.
anyone know of anything like that "Black jack sedum" only shorter? that would work perfectly... something 6" or so high.
Landscaping the north side
I have Black Lace(below). It is full sun.
I bought cimifuga 'Hillside Black Beauty' for a shade plant with purple lace leaves.
Al,
thats gorgeous!! i think i need to research "purple" foliage to see what i can come up with.
terese
Oh jeez - they changed the genus on that one.
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/86960/
my card says to mostly shade.
Al, I have Hillside Black Beauty (2) and also one Atropurpurea (sp?) . What kind of sun/shade do you have your Hillside in, and does it retain the dark coloring? I actually bought two Hillsides from a different nursery, thinking they were Atros. I planted them together anyway, thinking it may not make such a big difference in the end. Well, the Atro. took off like a rocket last summer and even bloomed, while the Hillsides seem have stalled out at 18 inches or so. Atropurpurea is not as dark in my garden as advertised on some sites- the foliage is more dark green for me. I just want the Hillside to catch up with Atro. as far as growth because I have them all planted in front of a giant chartreuse hosta (well, one day it will be giant;) If they eventually match the height of Atro., it should look nice. The tags that came with my plants said partial to full shade.
Oh, I have Purple Emperor sedum, and Vera Jameson, which is even shorter, both with dark foliage, Vera has a bluish cast . I saw some dahlias at the nursery with dark foliage too, and orange flowers, very bold. I want to say Party Single or something like that?
Thanks for the encouragement Diann.
Noreaster - I think if you plant different cimicifugas together, you'll actually get an extended bloom season, so it's all good. :-)
Noreaster - I just planted it. It is on the northside of the house in full shade, it does get some refelcted sun and I don't have any other light shade plants waning there.
Well I just went and scoped them out and I see that I have the start of two flower buds on Atro and one on one of the Hillsides, so that's nice that at least one of them is doing something. The Hillsides are more purple than my Atro, but still have quite a bit of green foliage. I was wondering if you needed more sun to keep the darker foliage. Good luck with yours, Al!
Terese, I had Vera Jameson sedum last year and that would probably look very nice with Sun Power.
Here it the difference between Hillside Black Beauty for me and Atropurpurea..the runty Hillside in the middle and Atro. on the right. Big difference in growth rate! These get a touch of morning sun, then high shade all day, and then they get the setting sun at the end.
This message was edited Jun 28, 2007 7:37 PM
If you only want a ground cover that's purple or red why not try sempervivums?
Terese, I was just at Home Depot and saw something called Salvia "Purple Knockout"..how about this with your Sun Power?:
http://www.waysidegardens.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10151&catalogId=10151&langId=-1&mainPage=LGprodview&ItemId=47156&PrevMainPage=newQuickOrder&scChannel=Quick%20Order&OfferCode=TH3
Noreaster..... yes, that is pretty. Doesnt look anything like the salvia i have (big bushy ones) and i did get the Wayside email of their sale .... and that was on the "cover" of the email.
I may just have to check my local HD to see if they have'em.
THANKS.
I'll also check out all the other plants mentioned.... but it will have to wait til next week as i'm leaving for Wisc in the morning.... i wonder if HD is having sales yet.... i could always use more plants.
thanks gang for all the great ideas.....
TCS: What did you end up planting?
Happy -- for my east garden?? nothing yet... i will wait until next year to do that.
for the east -- which technically, is not a shade garden (though it's half&half)
I'm still going to go Yellow & Purples. big yellow chartreuse hostas and under plant with lower purple plants in the front of them.
or if you are referring to the actual thread topic, my north garden ? [guess the topic did stray a bit]
I can go out and take new photos.... though many of my plants have been "slug munched" -- whole'nother topic threads.