5 minute read
Carol’s plants for shady spots
For a plant to thrive in shade, it has to be a shade-lover. Sounds obvious? Yet it’s so easy to expect a plant to put up with wherever you want to put it, just because you think it would look good there. With any plant, our main consideration has to be what that plant needs.
Of course, when considering new plants for any situation in our garden, we must first get to know the planting site and its soil. When we acknowledge what we have in any particular spot in our garden, we can then set about choosing plants that will thrive there.
Almost all our gardens have some shade, perhaps cast by a tree, the house or a garage at certain times of the day. Some people see shade as a problem, but for me it represents an opportunity to grow some of the most exciting plants on the planet.
Nature’s shady places, in particular deciduous woods, offer plenty of clues about what to grow in shady spots in our gardens. But they don’t totally solve the problem. In the British Isles, spring is pre-eminently show time for the woodland floor, from January’s snowdrops to June’s bluebells, exploiting the extra light while the branches overhead are bare. In other woodlands, notably those of temperate Asia, in addition to plants that are at their best before the tree canopy fills in overhead, there’s a batch of autumn flowerers – anemones, tricyrtis and kirengeshoma – that take advantage of the thinning canopy to do their thing.
One of the best examples of these is the group of Asiatic anemones usually known as Japanese anemones. Their elegant, chaliceshaped blooms in shades of pink or white are prolific and reliable without any attention. Another Asiatic perennial, Kirengeshoma palmata, produces soft yellow drooping bells on tall stems. This is a class act and proves that, far from presenting insurmountable problems, shady places offer a marvellous opportunity to grow an array of special plants.
But what about the long summer vacation, between spring’s glory and autumn’s bounty? We need to search carefully to ensure our shady places don’t fall into ignominy during the summer months. Some native campanulas flower from June to August or even September. Our lovely giant bellflower (Campanula latifolia) thrusts up tall spikes of elegant blue or white bells. And the variety ‘Gloaming’ offers pale lavender-grey bells with dark staining deep in its throat. Several relatives of our native lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis) bloom in summer, contributing elegant stature and often scent, as well as autumn leaves emblazoned with gold and russet to prolong the magic. Try Maianthemum racemosum and Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum × hybridum).
Foliage can play an important role too. In shade, Astelia nervosa will perform impeccably for 12 months of the year, forming a large clump of sword-like leaves. But it’s often mis-used and planted into hot sunny containers by those who assume its silver foliage must denote it loves the sun. In fact, in its native New Zealand home it’s a woodland plant, sometimes epiphytic – growing on trees – or when terrestrial, enjoying peaty soil.
For elegant ground cover and year-round interest, nothing compares with red-flowered Epimedium × versicolor, except perhaps its twin offspring: ‘Sulphureum’ with bright yellow flowers, and paler ‘Neosulphureum’. All have delicate new foliage that becomes glossy and hard as the season progresses, reaching its burnished best during winter. In spring, clumps are laced with stems of clustered buds and dainty spurred flowers – shear away the old tatty foliage to help these really stand out.
One of a host of woodland grasses, Bowles’s golden grass (Milium effusum ‘Aureum’) lights up my shadiest areas until autumn, going through different persona. It accompanies the first snowdrops and the hellebores, whose flowering continues well into April, joined by a host of bulbs. Wood anemones and epimediums continue the shady show, giving way to Lamium orvala and deinanthe, a herbaceous hydrangea relative, and augmented with an exciting dark-flowered form of Geranium nodosum. In autumn, the Asiatic woodlanders take over, then through winter there are periwinkles and the glowing berries of Iris foetidissima. Never a dull moment.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP • Bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)
Height x Spread 40cm x 10cm Flowers Apr-Jun • Lamium orvala
H x S 50cm x 50cm F Apr-Jun • Epimedium × versicolor ‘Sulphureum’
H x S 35cm x 35cm F Apr-May
In light shade, martagon lilies such as ‘Russian Morning’ send up tall spires of flowers with reflexed petals and long anthers. H x S 1.5m x 30cm F Jun
Surefire success with: shade lovers
What to plant: There are different degrees of
shade and different kinds of shade. The dappled shade created by a dainty tree, such as a silver
birch, apple or Cercidiphyllum, is a vastly different
proposition to a place where no direct sunlight can penetrate, such as the north side of a tall fence or building. In truly dense shade, few flowers will grow and the go-to plants are ferns. In such places you can create a sea of green, relying heavily on texture, shape and form, using ferns in all their amazing diversity.
Hostas are often recommended for urban shade, but walls harbour snails and slugs, so they may be quickly decimated. Instead, choose tougher plants
such as Brunnera macrophylla, whose heart-shaped
leaves may not be quite as big and bold, but they will last. The variety ‘Jack Frost’ has silver foliage and sprays of brilliant blue forget-me-not flowers.
Many bulbs are in their element in dry shade. Underplant perennials with chionodoxa, scillas and snowdrops to add texture and depth, or martagon lilies for a splash of summer colour.
How to care for shade lovers: As with all
planting, the mantra is emulate nature. So for woodland plants, add leaf mould or garden compost to the soil, then let them be their own wild selves.
