Hi,
I have a 12ft by 5ft, shady moist area near my house.
The thing is on the fenced side, it is a door to a long skinny greenhouse(Empty).
It also is a shady green covered net greenhouse.
I would like to do a special garden there because it is special as my wonderful 9 year old Rottweiler named "Damela" passed away there. (R.I.P)
I love colour, tidy ferns, cacti and succulents.
Thank You,
Debi
Degarotty,
I couldn't help answering your post even though I have no specific plant recommendations because our zones are so different. I have a memory garden for a very special dog, Micki, who we found curled up and abandoned by a garbage can in a local park. He was so perceptive he knew exactly where I was going to plant next and would lay down with his toes inches from the spot. If anyone was sad 75lbs of Belgian Malinois (mix) would gently climb onto your lap until you felt better -if that took 2hrs. he would stay for 2hrs. Of course after that amount of time you decided to feel better or you'd never move your legs again.
I planted many native spring ephemerals in his garden, fleeting but recurring, and a beautiful scented shrub, Fothergilla ,for rememberance and wonderful color in the Fall. I filled in with soft woodland plants and added added a small buddha and an offering bowl filled with stones and water for passing wildlife. Please excuse the temporary fencing, the current 2 dogs are far less sensitive to the garden and need boundaries.
I am sorry for your loss of Damela and hope digging and planting a garden will help.
I like sempervirens' ideas, and am just going to make a few suggestions in a different part of the spectrum to broaden your choices: green and gold, with some blue.
For something to rise vertically and cling to the back without competing with plants in the foreground - how about a green and gold ivy?
As a front edging flanking the entrance of an access path, perhaps a green and gold liriope on inner corners, through which the path would go. Set back inside those 2 corners, could be a pot on each side of the small path filled with succulents and cacti - I don't know which ones are shade tolerant off hand, but there is a tremendous variety of those grown in trough gardens that could adapt to a pot. Yellow primroses could be grown between the liriope and pot.
And then inside the two beds, maybe the pale yellow waxy bells of Kierengeshoma could be featured, slightly off center, for late season bloom, with Hosta 'Frances Williams (also green & gold) on one front outer corner and a late blooming white Japanese anemone with gold stamens on the other. Is there enough light for a large, pale yellow, fragrant daylily that stays open evenings and blooms late? It's blades would be another counterbalance to the other mounding plants. Ferns would perfectly complement all the other types of leaves in this garden, and some early-blooming bulbs like snow drops would begin the year in late winter, with the bones of ivy and liriope taking the garden into the winter.
Or - giving winter bones priority in the design - perhaps a boxwood could take center stage instead of the Kierengeshoma, which would take a backseat to the winter structure along with the other herbaceous plants. I would choose a plain green boxwood for contrast with all the other green and gold leaves, and associate tiny late blooming bulbs like snowdrops with it. The winter aconite could come up through hosta, and the Siberian squill could underplant the Japanesse anemone.
The liriope would also provide spikes of purple-blue flowers in late summer. More blue would come in early spring via Siberian squill. There is one Salvia guaranitica I've grown that takes a surprising amount of shade, and because it gets so tall and leggy, I would grow it like a vine at the back on a trellis: Salvia 'Indigo Spires' for blue from summer into frost.
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Scratching the above and going for something simpler, two flat panels on either side of the tiny service path could be planted to a vinca minor that has a cream, faintly blushed yellow leaf with a thin, black-green picotee edge. Either a plain green ivy with interestingly shaped leaves (there's an ivy society that would be good to look into) or the very tiny-leaved, vining euonymous could grow flat against the back, with the plain green box off-center in each panel, the pair of pots with succulents and cacti at the two inner corners at the entrance of the path, and ferns secondary to the foregoing.
Am very sorry you lost Damela, hope this helps.
Karen
Hi Debi,
I'm a bit like sempervirens with no ideas due to lack of knowledge about your zone. But I'd like to wish you luck on your beautiful gesture.
La
Lala, thanks for bringing up zone - I was writing from a zone 7 vantage with regard to low maintenance. Debi, there are quite a variety of gorgeous plectranthus - http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/adv_search.php?searcher%5Bcommon%5D=&searcher%5Bfamily%5D=&searcher%5Bgenus%5D=Plectranthus&searcher%5Bspecies%5D=&searcher%5Bcultivar%5D=&searcher%5Bhybridizer%5D=&search_prefs%5Bblank_cultivar%5D=&search_prefs%5Bsort_by%5D=rating&images_prefs=both&Search=Search . My favorite is P. argentatus, with wooly-ish, silvery-gray, pebbly leaves and tall, thin wands of tiny ice-blue flowers that make a delicate haze over a coleus-like plant. It has a mounding habit and would complement something upright like a ginger - some of those have incredible fragrance. And a vine in back like a moonflower (I. alba), but you have so many choices - a fragrant jasmine. This would make a garden of white and silver in a tropical setting. I would make a visit to the Tropicals forum - http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/tropicals/all/ , and then DG also has forums for Vines and Climbers and Morning Glories.
ps The plectranthus can take quite a bit of shade and is hardy in your zone, as may be the jasmine and ginger. Adding some pale-blush pink and another plant with black-maroon would give more drama to the palette. If it were my garden, I would edge it all with Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens', which has low, "black", thin blades - kind of tuft-like - and the flowers are like blushed pearls up and down 6" stalks.
Hi Deb - don't suppose you could post a picture of the area? I'd also be interested in knowing what your rainfall is like - I've gardened in zone 9b-10a before, but it was a desert.
Hi all,
Bluespiral, I could have sworn that I had answered you and thanked you so much for your efforts, but it doesn't seem like it, it's not here?
My area, well..................It is hot, sweaty and storms can come up very quickly and then be gone. At the moment we are on water restrictions due to low dams supporting our towns close by. Bucket watering only, not allowed to wash your car.
So, I suppose we rely on what rain we get, that's a little of the reason I went into cacti and succulents. Although now, I lovvvvvvvvvve them. lol.
I can get a pic for you but I havent been able to go into that corner yet, due to grief when there. But, I will get a pic now and if you can just imagine a clean slate????
Here are two pic's, they were taken at 11.45 in the day time.
I would really like to use the greenhouse also, but just walking through there hurts.
So, I thought if I make up that corner, whenever I walk through it I will smile and remember my boy "Damela".
Thank you all for just being here and helping me. I do so much appreciate it.
A new friend from downunder,
Debi
Pic 1
Hi again,
Pic # 2
Debi
LOL - DDU; Debi-down-under! >smile<
The plants that we see in the picture - are any of them plants you intend to keep? It looks like maybe a small tree on the right side, and maybe the same plant on the left, as well?
Hi Pagancat,
Yes they are tree's but they help keep it dark so they are going.
It will have nothing after I cut down the tree's.
They are not good plants as I have asked through Dave's Garden and everybody said that they would get rid of them.
So I am and would like to make it look nice and "clean" looking, if you understand what I mean?
Thanks my friend,
Debi D.U. lol lol lol
Debi, my "baby" brother (43) is honeymooning in Australia right now! He's been there many times before - has lots of friends. He promised some work (he's a carpenter) to a mate, so decided to combine the work with his honeymoon. Now that's killing two birds with one stone!
PrimroseSue - congrats for your brother & bride - may they have many years of happy serendipity
Debi, I hope you don't mind my being redundant, but for any cottage gardener facing dry, shady (these will also grow in sun) conditions, I thought it might be helpful to make up an alphabetized list by function.
The plants I've mentioned have made it through very dry summers here - in early years we had no water for the garden, and last year, I only watered twice, and rainfall was 10" below (normal annual precipitation here is around 38" per year) (have added a few - probably more I'll remember after I hit Send).
Evergreen (or persistent) foliage for winter edging/background:
Box (tall, thin columns like Buxus 'Graham Blandy'; plain or variegated leaves; many shapes and sizes to choose from)
Euonymous species - choices of plain green or silver or gold variegated leaves; tiny or medium sized; shrub or vine. For small garden, E. kewensis makes an elegant background filigre of tiny green & gold leaves
Christmas fern is - evergreen
Herbs - essential for a cottage garden. Among our flowers, we enjoy growing Artemisia abrotanum (lemon southernwood - very finely filigreed leaves); Mint (Critterologist gave us a tiny leaved mint with woolly silvery leaves - no ID); Nepeta species (Nepeta siberica is the only catnip we can grow with neighborhood cats around - but there are so many beautiful kinds in pink, white, blue, etc.) Rue
Ivy - incredible variety of leaf shapes, plant habit, size, color, variegation
Liriope (white or dark purple flower spikes in August; plain or variegated green or gold leaves - some like to cut the old leaves back before new ones come up in spring)
Ophiopogon (I grow O. planiscapus 'Nigrescens' for its black blades and low June spikes of pearlescent flowers - many other kinds, some leaves very silky, thin; others tiny which are nice between stones)
Vinca minor (cream-yellow bordered w/thin, dark green picotee edge - any type ok)
Herbaceous plants for Summer & Fall -
Aconitum Carmichaelii - lanky stems saved by growing up through hay-scented fern - late blue flowers in Sept-Oct pretty under yellow rose 'Graham Thomas'
Alchemilla mollis - only thing with this one is that it'll hog a lot of space once it gets established. Pretty, though, with Kalimeris behind it (see below).
Anemone japonica - Sept - Oct blooming season extender for low-water, shady area
Arabis caucasica - low, silvery woolly-ish leaves, April flowers, great underplanting carpet to caryopteris for us - gets partial sun here
Asters. Aster divaricata is also filmy like gypsophila in quite a bit of shade at the end of summer. Aster 'Purple Dome' likes more sun.
Dicentra spectabilis - for us, this goes dormant after flowering, but returns to bloom every April - nice behind more persistently leaved plants
Geranium macrorrhizum - unusually drought tolerant for a geranium (well, so is G. lancastriense - nice, low carpet), but it's leaves are wonderfully aromatic. Persistent leaves into fall.
Grasses - there are some little ones, but I don't have enough sun for these. Perhaps some Carex? but don't trust those not to spread too much
Hosta (so many different sizes, colors, shapes to choose from - my favorite is the Victorian H. plantaginea with long, very fragrant white tubes in August)
Ferns - The tall, lacey one self-sowed from no where, so don't know which one it is. And then there's the hay-scented fern, which spreads perhaps too easily.
Heuchera 'Molly' - one of the "black" leaved ones - pretty edging for more transient beauties behind
Kalimeris (Mongolican Aster) - I grow the double one, has an airy effect like gypsophila, but later and longer blooming
Lychnis coronaria - woolly-ish, silvery tufts with flowers in 3' airy candalabras late May into August - grows in partial sun for us, but self-sows in quite a bit of shade. Great under large shrub roses or under a small climber espaliered at the back of a small area.
Mirabilis. We grow M. longiflora which is hardy to z5 - long, slender, white, evening-fragrant tubular flowers. Perhaps not for a small place, because it has lax, sprawling "vines" to 4' here. For me, I use it as a weaver through other flowers under a white buddleia whose leaves are stripped up to 3-4' and then allowed to pouf out - other flowers grow right up to its trunk.
Phlox paniculata - my sources say that this plant likes supplemental watering, but it did fine - maybe because we have a clay-based soil with tons of compost, peat and rotted mulch dug in over the years
Plectranthus - relatives of coleus and many different kinds - I only know about velvet, succulent leaved ones like the green, aromatic Cuban oregano and pebbled silvery P. argentatus (this one overwintered outdoors a few times). I think P. 'Mona Lisa' flowers make a lavender haze. There are others.
Rubeckia hirta 'Goldsturm' seedling - this one never gets any extra watering at all, but blooms for a very long time in shade
Salvia forskaohlei - blue wands around July into Sept - remove foliage after flowering for more attractive leaves afterwards
Succulents - you already know about those, most being sunlovers, but some tolerating shade
Viola labradorica - purple leaves, lavender flowers, very elegant presence in garden - self-sows into agreeable carpets saving the day from scruffier plants
Biennial -
Digitalis purpurea - white, pale to deep pink, rose - to 6' tall - survived in our driest, darkest places before we had enough water for the garden. D. 'Heywoodii' especially pretty for a woolly-ish, silvery leaf and cream-blushed-pale-pink flowers. It is not as tall as the parent species D. purpurea.
Bulbs -
Aconite hyemalis (spelling? Winter Aconite - comes up under hosta beneath a magnolia where water never reaches)
Galanthus nivalis (Snowdrops) - come up through old, giant maple roots, ferns and vinca every February - never gets any extra water
Scilla siberica - comes up under Hosta 'Frances Williams for me, but I have seen it blooming in April with rosy Epimedium grandiflorum under woody plants along a path at the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. - self-sows - very dainty effect
Allium - many different kinds - I wouldn't be without A. hollandicum 'Purple Splendor' whose amethyst globes float above emerging aster foliage like Cheshire cats' grins in early May - likes sun, but gets partial sun here
These are very low-maintenance plants that I can personally vouch for with respect to drought (most in shade but some get partial sun). I'm sure there are tons of others - the only thing I know about Australian botany is that it is so unique - there must be some incredible natives where you are.
I think I can smell some smoke coming from Pagancat's germinating ideas. A lot of plants I mentioned need smaller, more to-scale varieties thunked up for your patch.
bluespiral,
What an effort you have gone through just for me to help.
I really appreciate that and do not take it for granted.
I am really going to look into those plants you have mentioned and try to use my imagination as to what it looks like.
Would you think a plan first is needed or just go with the flow as in putting the plants in and just see where it takes me????
With much appreciation for all of your effort, Thank You,
From Downunder,
Debi
Mmmm....shoot. I've been meaning to get back to this thread for some time - so sorry, DH has been having a rough time of it.
Bluespiral's list is wonderful... to my experience, there's a lot of stuff in there that you might be able to grow through the winter times, and some as annuals. I'm hoping you can keep your area somewhat shady - it can give extra life to plants not quite used to high, consistent heat. But, of course, balancing out blooms with that is difficult - no sun, no fleurs, unless it's the kind of plant that likes it dark. If you are clearing the area and you have a choice, I recommend getting in as much early morning sun and later afternoon shade as you can. I've no idea if your sunlight is as strong as it was in the cloud & humidity-less skies of Phoenix, but almost *nothing* could handle full sun there.
That being said....
Here's some plants I'd look at for putting in for some color that are heat tolerant and shade tolerant, with low water use.
-Sanseveriera - aka Mother-in-law's tongue. We use them here mostly as fool proof house plants. They come in a lot of different variegations, yellow stripes, etc.
-Salvias - some of them, like S. coccinea will bloom in the shade - that particular one is bright red. You have to be careful with them, however - there's a number that like a *lot* of water, some that are more xeric. Salvia x superba 'May Night' has electric blue/purple blooms (will need *some* direct sun) and blooms almost constantly. Might need some hand watering.
-Ivy - Hedera helix is usually called English Ivy but probably has a thousand names. Comes in a small leaf or larger leaf, a number variegations, can climb or be used as a ground cover - there's some out now with orange leaves, too. But they're very atttractive, and evergreen in your climate. You might have to be careful about not letting it escape your garden.
-Ficus pumila - creeping fig - another climber, with neat small leaves on new growth. Rarely blooms, but it can. Both this and the ivy are very shade tolerant.
-Passiflora spp. - Also a vine. There's a lot of different Passion flowers, you might have to ask at a local nursery which ones do well in your area, but they are intensely frilly, some of them are fragrant and some of them provide tasty fruit. They will climb forever, so make sure you either care to cut them back or have something for them to go to the sky on!
A lot of the South African plants should do well there - I'm thinking of Aloes (typically orange blooms but some are yellow) Gladiolus (will need some sun) both the Dietes bicolor and grandiflora & Moreas - they have slender leaves that look like a grass and iris-like blooms (see the bicolor below) and do with little sun but more blooms if more sun. There's a guy here in California who has a site with a lot of different ones that you don't see often - I don't know if you can actually order from him but he's a good reference - http://www.thebulbman.com .
More soon...
Pagancat,
Thank you also for such an effort.
I really do appreciate every person on this site. They never cease to amaze me with the help offered.
One day I might be able to help someone.
Thanks for a mighty effort,
Debi
Aw, Debi - looking at that grin on your Rottie's face tells me you already have.
And I truly enjoy sharing what little I know as much as I do learning from the generosity of the other folks here. I hope you *do* get some of these ideas in the ground!
Dont forget Debi, that you can go to the landscape forum, the garden tour forum and a while back there were some awesome cottage garden photos on this forum. When I first started, I just randomly put plants in the ground. But I have found, it is so much easier to have some sort of photo to go by. Find something that you absolutely love and that makes you feel good when you look at it. For some people, garden design comes natural, but for me, I really needed some sort of guide. I found this picture in a magazine, and I just love it. I probably can't do everything in it, but at least I can pick one area that I love and start there. I can't grow all of these plants that are pictured, but with research and going to a near by nursery or garden center, there are some substitutes that will have the same effect. Good Gardening to you.
Also, you said, because of water shortage, you would be growing Cacti. This is a link to the Cacti/suculant forum where weedsgalore has just planted a garden. Enjoy. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/794721/
Hello,
We live in a coastal area so I don't know very much about arid plants but my echiverias do much better in part shade/ mostly shade and I also just planted an very interesting little plant called Campanula vidalii. Supposedly good for dry shade but with beautiful delicate "cottege garden" bell flowers. It doesn't bloom for a couple years though so this one would take patience but I think it is so unique it would be worth the wait.
Care is as follows:
"This is a very distinct and rare Campanula that is easy to grow and is tolerant of neglect. Good-looking, evergreen, upright, glossy foliage bears beautiful, 2", pink waxy "churchbells" in profusion in late Summer. Nice in a pot and it takes FULL, DRY SHADE (sun will burn it). To 2' tall."
Low to Avg. water Perennial
USDA zones 9-10
from Annies annuals
I will look into some california natives that so well in shade as we have very dry summers usually no rain and our zones are 9 and 10 generally.
Just down the street from me is the most beautiful garden in town.It is dedicated to the gardeners son, who passed away. Good luck on your memorial garden.
Lydia
Here's another one that's nice that might work.
Incarvillea arguta
"Oh - this picture does not do this beautiful Incarvillea justice. You can see it at the U.C. Botanical Garden as a 3' tall & 3' wide bushy perennial, bearing hundreds of large, soft pink, flaring trumpets at a time in summer. Lovely, finely cut lush foliage. I think it is gorgeous & guarantee you will too!"
Sun - Bright Shade
Avg. - Low water
Perennial or Sub-shrub
USDA zones 8-10
Annie's Annuals
Sign List
Hello Wonderearth,
You are right on.
They are both very beautiful and I will have a look around my local nursery to see if they might have these plants.
Thanks you guys, you are all appreciated very much,
Debi
DownUnder LoL LoL
For more unusual plants I always look online or ask if my local nursery can order them for me : )
