I like the foliage texture differences in my shady areas.
That's why I like to throw in grasses.
But there are lots of others, like this hosta next to syneilesis.
Shade Garden Inspiration - Show off your garden!
Weerobin, that's one beautiful planting of Syneilesis! We've had it planted in one spot by the front door but the dog trampled it last year. Hoping it recovers and springs back to life this year, but we're doubtful :( Where did you buy yours? We've been desperately looking for more and did place an order with Hillside Gardens last year but it's hard to find!
Noreaster, have you ever tried Aruncus 'Misty Lace'? http://www.greatgardenplants.com/?pageId=154&sourceCode=DGarden Looks very similar to Astilbe when in bloom and the flowers last much longer!
Wow, I really like that Aruncus....I've always avoided it because of it's large size, but that cultivar sounds perfect for my small garden. I prefer the airier astilbes, so that really appeals to me. Now I have to figure out where to squeeze it in!
That Syneilesis is really cool looking too, Weerobin.
Noreaster, that is a beautiful combination! Astilbes seem to hate me, but I've thought of trying aruncus to see if it fares better. I definitely like that feathery look, and the large size isn't a problem for me. I've got plenty of space, just not lots of light.
Weerobin, your shady grasses look lovely. I've had good luck with liriope, so I'll likely try that again--looks nice pretty much all season, and I think it's cute in bloom. It's also, at least in my experience, not at all picky about soil and seems just about impossible to kill. You've gotta love that in a plant!
Noreaster - what a beautiful garden. I love astilbes too and although they don't bloom long, their texture is a lovely contrast to the hostas.
Weerobin. That's a beautiful combo with the Japanese Blood Grass. I love that stuff too.
I agree with KaylyRed! Astelbies seem to hate me also. But the Goats beards really go wild in my yard. Love them. Mine has gone to town! Divided them three times now. Nothing coming up in my yard yet. Oh I do have crocuse open yeah! And daffy and tulips coming up also. ;) Ronna
RCN, I'm not sure where I got my syneilesis. It's been several years ago.
I saw it listed this year by Plant Delights and Keep It Green nurseries.
By the way, I just ordered from Keep It Green for the first time this year.
Their plants came early, bare root.
Frankly, caught me a little off-guard, but I got them in the ground this past weekend.
(We just happened to have a decent weather weekend - the first gardening of the season for me...
I had a blast!)
I've always been leery of bare root plants, especially requiring early planting.
But these were very handsome plants with really big root systems; I have a really good feeling they'll do well.
I plan to order from them again next year.
Weerobin - thanks for posting about http://www.keepingitgreen. com. I've never heard of them and they're in Washington. There are several things here that I've been looking for.
Beautiful and inspirational shade garden views, everybody. I have really avoided more hostas because of the slugs I have - I just can't keep ahead of them. I saw 4 slugs today for the first time. One native, that supposedly only eats decaying matter and three of the European. Those tiny ones can clean a newly budding plant out before they're big enough to see. Arghhh!!
Kathy
Doss, Marie, WeeRobin, Bernie, Noreaster everyone!
Ya'll stuff is just amazing!!! Love it all!!
Thanks for the link - I've already emailed them about the Syneilesis but haven't heard anything yet. Price is better than Plant Delights :) I'm not crazy about receiving bare root plants either, but since it's still early in the season I should have time to get them potted up!
We put a small 30 gallon barrel pond in several years when the tree was smaller!! Now the roots have lifted one side of the pond. So consider situating it a good distance from any tree base or major roots. We wanted a larger concrete pond, but the installer said if we went with a larger one that close to the oak tree, there was a good chance it would harm the tree now if not later.
If you sink it into the ground, level with sand/gravel and line the bottom with concrete squares for bottom support for walking in to clean, and fill in the sides with larger gravel and sand. The other consideration is cleaning and draining when installing and landscaping around it. How and where to drain and/or clean it. Under a tree and you will be cleaning regularly!!!!!
Other than that, use your imagination. Start with lots of ferns, hostas and indigenous bog/creek plants. Corkscrew Rush grass makes a nice addition in or around the pond.
Chuck
katie59 and Hosta lovers with snail problems
Sluggo, sluggo, sluggo, or any of the organic snail and slug baits with iron phosphate. Green light used to make one that was cheaper in price..... The best stuff out there when used routinely. Once you get them under control with this bait, your fears and problems will disappear. It can also be ordered in bulk (10-25 lbs) online even cheaper.
Hellibores for sure, but they are slow to establish. Plant a Japanese Maple. Louisiana Iris make a nice background, and can give the appearance of grasses.
Here's a pic of my pond and shade area from today.
That's a beautiful shady sanctuary you've got there, chuck7701! I have zone envy at the moment. All I see here is brown and more brown. And today it's raining, so the brown foliage has a backdrop of gray sky.
In a month, though, things will be different. :)
Thanks, Chuck. I'm going to go broke trying to get rid of these slugs. LOL. It's nice and wet here and they love it. I have 4-5 inch slugs crawling up the side of the house in warmer winters. At least this year it was cold - I hope that got rid of a lot of eggs.
I heard the coffee grounds spreak on the top of the ground helps and that Kmart sells a slug bait with the same ingredients as Sluggo. I'm going to check it out.
Nice picture, Chuck. I cleared off an area by a rotting stump this weekend (ranunculus repens is rampant, as are our native salal and dewberry and the introduced himalayan blackberry. I'll post pictures this week to get ideas for planting from you all.
chuck, that's an incredible staghorn fern growing under your tree. Fabulous. And it's in such a lovely setting.
katie59 - Slugs - you will need to treat the first time heavy, or lightly two nights in a row. Repeat one application again in three weeks to break the egg cycle, and again in three weeks. Once you break that cycle it is easy to eliminate virtually all of them. I usually treat about ten feet into my neighbors yard as well.
I only lightly treated twice last summer early spring and august, and several years ago I had them so bad large Marigolds disappeared overnight, and you couldn't set a beer on the ground. As long as the main ingredient is iron phosphate. Naturally occurring in the soil, just not in high enough quantities to affect them. Disrupts the digestive system and they die in three days.
Doss - Thanks, the Stagmeister wouldn't cooperate to turn and smile for the camera. Just moved it to that side from the right, and still working on adjusting the chain to get it to face the back patio. Two years ago the basket got top heavy, busted the original small chain, so I started hanging it sideways. Started it from two little sprigs about 7years ago - it does favor that shady spot.
Kalyred - And I thought I had zone envy for the Florida year round growing climate! Would much prefer not having the winter freeze/summer heat wave to deal with. Waiting for all the rest of the summer plants to shoot up now.
I will never forget the first time we went to my husband's family's cabin near Quilcene, WA. Fluorescent orange and green slugs 6" long! At least I assume they were slugs, although a lot more attractive than our much smaller, slimy dirt colored ones.
Our native ones are very pretty.
But we have the European brown and orange ones, as well.
http://oregonstate.edu/dept/nurspest/banana%20slug.htm
Shade beds are some of my favorites. Like doss, we have a sloping urban lot. Two mature trees and a long north-facing side created large partial sun/bright shade beds. There's a French drain alongside the house so the bed shown here is only 4' wide.
This is the north side of the house, upper bed, a few years ago. Late last year I reworked it, so it's currently a work in progress:
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Brunnera 'Jack Frost' and a palm which has since been taken out. The statue is a 'kirin', a mythological Japanese dragon-horse
This bed looks very different if you're at the top looking down! When the callas are in bloom they are magnificent:
At groundlevel, many plants are fighting it out. I overplant, so have to prune back regularly. Here the brunnera fights to keep its head above the bacopa and plectranthus, while bearded iris and alstroemeria foliage add some nice contrast in shape. This bed is so shady the alstroemeria almost never flowers, but the variegated foliage is so pretty, I keep it where it is:
Lovely gardens jkom. I love the callas. Mine are blooming right now and they are so 'spring'!
These two plants were very pretty, but neither survived our cold wet winters. This is Lysimachia congestiflora and a New Guinea impatiens:
I agree, Doss. I love to combine callas with either my purple bearded iris or orange clivia, as I did here:
The lower second bed on the north side has to live on run-off from above. I use soaker hoses, with an occasional hand-watering for the new plants I'm always putting in, LOL. I may have posted this one before - I love the combination of bearded iris, rosy oxalis siliquosa, and variegated aucuba:
What great plant combinations you come up with jkom. I love that callas with just about anything!
I also like the way variegated aucuba goes with hellebore. Color, shape and texture complement one another perfectly.
The next set of photos is in the lowest part of our property. It's shaded by two mature trees, a walnut and a maple. Thus, it gets winter sun but summer shade. The trees suck up moisture and nutrients in summer, and to make it worse it's the coldest area during our rainy winters. All of these make for hard conditions; even broom (cytisus) has had to struggle here.
Here's the silver maple bed:
The bed around the walnut is one of the largest I have - certainly the curviest! Here's the front of it, looking towards the back of the property (the green slat fence is a schoolyard below us):
If you move to the right of the photo above, then turn around to look up towards the house, this is what our slope looks like. It's a good workout to weed this property!
"Shade" in CA, even Northern CA, can be misleading. It's more like 'partial sun' elsewhere, because the UV index is so high here. Even our cloudy days can be very bright indeed! So the nasturtiums keep blooming in this area even into early summer, because the trees start to leaf out by May, keeping the soil cool enough for them to survive. Here they are in all their early glory, though - a previous April:
I really love lamium maculatum but it just isn't xeric enough to survive our dry summers without help, and our chilly winter rains make it retreat so drastically that it's failed to return for me after a couple of winters, despite my planting it in several places. I really love the "Pink Dragon" form of it, though, so I may try it in a pot to see if that will help it survive:
jkom51, are the impatiens in full shade?
The lamium survived for me in pots but not in the ground. I don't know why though.
Your beds are so beautiful. What is your secret for such lush plantings under trees, especially the walnut?
doss - I have a variegated lamium that I can't get rid of. I literally stuck one piece in the ground (I had ripped it off from a piece at my brother's). When I learned the next season that it did too well here, I started to take it out. I'm still ripping. I think it loves our moisture here . . .
Smokey, the New Guinea impatiens can take some sun, but I think it's warmth that really keeps them around. Thus it can be difficult around here because our nights cool off so drastically. I have an Impatiens sodenii and it's in full shade.
Katie59, your lamium may be lamium galeobdolon, Yellow archangel. It is handsome, but also an extremely aggressive variety of lamium and considered invasive in some areas. Other lamiums, including all the maculatum varieties, are very well-behaved in contrast.
jkom, your beds are stunning!
Yes - I Googled it and I think you're right!!
Yellow archangel - eek - that sounds scary. I think you've convinced me to pull with renewed vigor. Of course now it's battling it out with the Bishop's weed in one spot in the bed - I'd better be careful or between them they'll get us all . . .
I have seen it in other wetland areas in the woods around me and I see from the following article that is had, indeed, become a problem in these parts.
Ihttp://www.arthurleej.com/p-o-m-April03.html
The bed to the right is in shade, the one to the left is in sun.
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