Plants for a Shade Garden
To have a good looking garden, it is necessary to manage your watering in a productive manner.
The first active step is to ensure your plants have adequate water and this means that you do have to provide them with enough water to grow and flower.
Do it with a house-hose, an eaves trough bucket or overflow from the swimming pool (pool chlorine doesn't hurt garden plants) but do water your plants.
Generally speaking, I find I have to apply at least one and a half inches of water a week to keep the shady perennial garden looking good. In a dry year, I'll go to two inches.
Half of this is absorbed by the tree or trees providing the shade. And the other half is made available to the perennials. Remember that those trees have very greedy roots and will outcompete perennials in your garden just as they do in nature. You have to water if you want real success in the shade garden.
A Garden Video on Shade Gardens
Alchemilla
Lady's Mantle is green-flowering plant for light shade and even into sunshine where the dew sparkles on the leaves
Blue Hosta
Blue hosta, paired up with golden leaved varieties are highlights in my summer shade garden
Symphytum (Comfrey) Axminster Gold
Pulmonaria
Lungwort is among my favorite spring bloomers and with variegated leaves there's summmer-long interest
Backbone Shade Plants
Some must-have perennials for the shade garden with links to the how-to-grow articles
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Here's What Others Have Asked
Click below to see questions from other visitors to this page...
Mystery Disappearance of the Bleeding Heart! My beautiful bleeding heart plant did not poke out it's pretty head this year It is in partial shade (about 3 hours of late afternoon sun) and in moist ...
Bleeding heart cutting
A big stem broke off..can I grow a new on by putting in water or do I have to put it in soil?
Doug says a bleeding heart can be started from cuttings ...
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Hosta's and Mulch
Is is alright to use cedar mulch with hostas? I was told you can not use cedar mulch with hostas. Is this true?
Doug says this will come as a serious ...
Persistent Tree Roots I have large fower beds, some have areas within 15-30 ft of some large 60 yr old maple trees. When tilling the soil 15 yrs ago, I was amazed at the ...
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Plants in shade in Florida
What kind of plants will grow in complete shade under a big oak tree?
Doug says that he's not a Southern gardener and really can't advise you on those....
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foxgloves stopped blooming My foxgloves were beautifully bloomed when I planted them about a month ago and now they have all brown buds on them and no flowers. What went wrong? They ...
Foxglove Seeding Mid Summer I was wondering if I could seed Foxglove now (almost mid July). I didn't realize how much shade I would get in the one spot of my flower beds and planted ...
Pruning Bleeding Heart
When do you cut back foliage? After blooming, fall, summer?
Doug says he doesn't cut back the foliage on this plant. It doesn't really need pruning ...
Perennial geranium leaf spots These plants come up every year but before they bloom often get a rusty look on their leaves, like they are drying out but aren't. What can I do to prevent ...
polemonium in a pot?
can polemonium be grown in pots?
Doug says that any perennial can be grown in a pot.
Area with no sun I have a small corridor type space between garage and house. About three feet wide by 6 feet long. There is no sun and very little light in this space....
shade perennials for a cutting garden What are the best choices for the pacific northwest in a perennial garden with only morning sun. Also, the plants need to be upright and not lean out over ...
Can't find English Cowslip under sun or shade.
Title pretty well covers it. Won this at a Horticulture mtg. and it says to plant now. Wasn't til I got home, I realized I didn't know where! Thanks
...
Choosing perennials for shade and blooming all summer I live in zone 6 and would like suggestions for partial shade perennials that will climb a chain link fence and flower most of the summer. I would also ...
how to grow a helleborus x hybridous plant I just bought a helleborus, it is flowering and has Huge leaves but all of them are starting to turn brown. I was told to trim it. When and how far down ...
Bleeding Heart Yellow Leaves I have several bleeding hearts in my garden, but some of them are beautiful green leaves and others get yellow leaves and die off. I know there is a variety ...
Care of Jacob Ladder
Can you please tell me if there are any special precautions that should be taken to Jacob Ladder upon the winter season?
Would it be possible to pot ...
when to plant perennials in the fall
should i plant the heucheras, japense fern, etc right now? i found the plants to buy but wanted to make sure... thanks
Doug says that perennials in ...
hosta aerial plantlets
at the end of the season comes and the tall chutes from the hostas are flowerless they grow new leaves if planted will those grow?
Doug says he's never ...
Hosta for full sun
please tell me what are the hosta plants that do well in full sun
Doug says that almost any hosta will grow in the full sun. It will *grow*. Now ...
Heuchera and Astilbe in the shade of trees
I have several heuchera and astilbe which have been growing in the shade of a pine tree and a maple tree for about three years.
They have expressed ...
Astilbe Doesn't Bloom Properly I have grown Astilbe in the past, with good success. I recently moved and have cultivated a small shade garden. It is actually on the south side of my ...
Something is eating my Jacobs Ladder I planted 3 Jacobs Ladder plants this spring. Something seems to be eating them, one of the plants is almost gone and the other two are showing signs ...
Shade Perennials Zoning
Hello,
I have a very shady spot in my backyard and I'd like to fill it with perrenials. I wonder wich ones I can use as I live in a 4a Zoning area. I ...
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