Garden Plant Selection
There is a far wider choice of plants for cool, moist, woodland-type shade than for the dense dry kind, but in both cases the same planting principles apply. Since shady areas are usually sheltered from the wind, plants with large, soft leaves can be selected, with special attention to contrasting textures and colors. A light touch is necessary to avoid fussiness. A good example of plant combination features the broad, blue-green foliage of the plantain lily, Hosta siebol-diana (which produces violet flowers in late summer), spreading in front of the feathery fronds of the Lady fern, Athyrium filix-femina. Place an evergreen shrub at the back, perhaps a camellia, or a Mahonia japonica for its fragrant primrose-colored winter flowers and glossy foliage, and complete the picture with a fore¬ground cover of sweet violets.
Flowers that open in shade are plentiful but try to select pale colors because they show up much better than do dark reds and blues. Subtle suffusions of pink, mauve or cream, lost in full light, are more obvious in darker areas, so use plants whose flowers exhibit gentle contrasts and harmonies of hue rather than stark differences. Furthermore, since the air is often still in shady areas, scent tends to linger. This is the ideal site for a good range of fragrant plants like honeysuckle and lilies in pots which can be moved here from sunnier areas for at least part of the day. Plants for dry shade are few and far between, and in really severe cases there is not much choice. You could train a white Clematis Montana over the offend¬ing wall, or try Euphorbia amygdaloides robbiae beneath it, with Iris foetidissima. Bulbs are the best idea, particularly beneath deciduous trees, with Solo¬mon’s seal, lily-of-the-valley and bluebells well worth trying for a delightful display.
Tags: clematis montana, dark reds, deciduous trees, evergreen shrub, fragrant plants, Gardening Tips, glossy foliage, leaves, lily of the valley, mahonia japonica, plant selection, plantain lily, sweet violets, violet flowers, winter flowers