GBDW: Plants For Shade

Brunnera 'Jack Frost' - a spectacular introduction to my shady border in 2008

Say the word shade to a gardener and you're likely to get a long face and a pitying look in return. Yes, the planting palette can be a little tricky in a shaded situation, but it doesn't mean that the border can't look spectacular. I've still to get it totally right, but I treat shade as an opportunity to have a different look to part of my garden. And in the height of summer, a shady spot can be rather a relief can't it?

I have 2 shaded areas as both the front and back of the house is bordered by public land, which has a native hedgerow and trees planted along its entire length. This gives us privacy of course, but it does mean my Eastern facing borders are shaded for much of the day. The trees are deciduous, so at least there's a fair amount of constant light in late autumn through to late spring. I garden on a clay soil (and in Zone 8), so at least moisture isn't a problem, except for a lot of the front border as it's on a steep bank.

Both front and back gardens are geared towards a winter/spring spectacle. Bulbs are in abundance - this is where the bulk of my snowdrops are, plus winter aconites and daffodils of course. In the back garden I have a winter flowering honeysuckle - Lonicera purpusii 'Winter Beauty' which adds a fragrant touch to a dreary time of the year. After bulbtime I have a mass planting of Dicentra spectabilis which has the neat trick of hiding a lot of the dying daffodil foliage. Pulmonaria is in flower from December through to April and they make a good combination with both daffodils and Dicentra, plus their speckled foliage is an added bonus. I also have a sprinkling of Anemone sylvestris and Convalaria majalis as their white flowers brighten up the oncoming gloom in April. After that the accent falls on foliage - Hostas and Houttuynia 'Chameleon' are both good doers. The latter can spread a bit further than needed, but can be kept in bounds easily enough. Of course, my ever trusty Heucheras can't be ignored as a choice for shade - 'Green Spice' does particularly well in this situation. Our native foxglove, Digitalis purpurea pokes through the gloom in June/July and two roses 'New Dawn and 'Rambling Rector' still manage to bloom in profusion and form a neat incentive for prying children not to climb the fence into our garden!

Apart from the bulbs, the front shady border is totally different to the back. This is where children play football (soccer), so I have chosen shrubs that are tough as old boots to withstand anything that comes their way. The builders planted an irregular, massive row of Cornus 'Elegantissima' which I relocated to the bottom of the bank (see picture). This Cornus may not have the best red bark in winter, but an annual prune keeps the stems at their brightest. It comes into its own during the summer as its variegated foliage brightens up the gloom beneath the trees. My own choice of shrubs includes Weigela florida and Potentilla 'Manchu' both having white flowers which lifts this area considerably. I've also found Kerria japonica 'Flore pleno' does well beneath my silver birch tree, often flowering from December through to May. I'm using the prolific Cotoneaster dammeri for bank stabilisation - it's tiny white flowers in spring echo the Potentilla and its red berries in Autumn are attractive as well as being a good food source for the birds. In places it's interplanted with Sedums and Euonymus as you can see in the picture on the right.

The Hardy Plant Society stand at Chelsea last week had much to inspire on the shady plant front which I also included in my Great Pavilion slideshow. I fell in love with Podophyllum 'Spotty Dotty', a moisture loving shade plant. Graham Rice has lots more information on his Transatlantic Plantsman blog. The same stand revealed Cornus canadensis as ground cover candidate in the more lightly shaded areas, plus the spectacularly striped Convalaria majalis 'Albostriata'.

So I suppose my basic 'rules' for shady gardening can be summed up as: make use of the less shaded times of the year for a flowering spectacle; use lots of interesting foliage for the rest of the year; and use white (flower or leaf) to brighten the area at any time. If you bear these 3 simple things in mind, your tricky shady area should always have something of interest and those pitying looks from your fellow gardeners will turn into smiles of pleasure.

Garden Bloggers' Design Workshop is hosted by Gardening Gone Wild.