BLOOMING TIMES
SHADY
CHARACTERS Got a shady garden? Assume you can’t grow anything interesting? Not so, says Flo Whitaker. Many plants prefer life in the shade
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o long as they’re sheltered from the worst weather, hydrangeas revel in damp, light shade. Climbing Hydrangea petiolaris will disguise an unappealing wall and offers a long season of interest, with crisp white flowers in early summer, good autumn leaf colour and self-clinging, (noninvasive!) cinnamon-coloured stems. Honeysuckles are natural woodland dwellers that enjoy life on the shady side and the vast clematis family contains a few shade-tolerant types, including the long-lived, hard-working ‘Elizabeth’ – an appropriate planting choice to commemorate this Jubilee year. For neatly clipped hedges and topiary, nothing beats Yew, (Taxus) or
Box, (Buxus), particularly in confined check the label for height and vigour. spaces. Tiny-leaved Lonicera nitida If space is limited, consider a standard makes a dense hedge and thrives in ‘lollipop’ specimen in a large pot. Hollies deep shade, but grows stout with age, often require another holly nearby to so requires more room. Euonymus cross-pollinate and produce berries, comes in many forms, however, there are self-fertile including silvery and forms available, including golden variegated types the excellent and reliable that will illuminate ‘J.C. van Tol’. gloomy areas. Some hardy Berberis, with geraniums revel its tiny, nectarin light shade. laden flowers ‘Rozanne’ and is a real bee ‘Orion’ make magnet. This is large, vigorous a thorny plant, clumps, whereas best kept away Geranium from pathways phaeum quietly and suchlike, but creeps through the it can be loosely border and bears clipped to make dainty flowers in a good security or gothic purplish shades. vandal-proof hedge. For containers Hollies, (Ilex) endure and bedding plants, most situations but stalwarts such Shady stalwarts such as shady prefer slight shade. as violas, fuchsias violas, fuchsias and busy and busy lizzies, Some can potentially become very large, so lizzies are hard to beat June 2022 | SUSSEX LIVING 83
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