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SHADE
BY
Occasionally I
hear “I can’t grow anything in my yard because it is too shady!” There
are a number of plants that prefer shade. Many of them we grow for the
leaves rather than flowers. Some of my favorites are:
Coral Bells
(Heuchera sp.), a short spreading plant 6 to 18 inches tall, sometimes 2
feet wide. The blooms are
usually tall and slender but not very big. My very first one was “Palace
Purple” with deep purplish leaves that has been living under a
Redbud
There are ruffled leaves; many
have prominent veins that add color. Some leaves have silver coloring,
some bronze, and some green with red veins. For me
CORAL BELLS behave much
better than COLEUS and their
blooms are dainty and prettier. I have lost some of them in winter so
not all are perennial in
COLEUS (Salenostemon) is
another shade plant I must have. It has just as many wild colors, is
easier to propagate by simple stem cutting in water, but can grow much
taller. I do not like the
blooms so try to cut them off as soon as possible. They also make the
plant unshapely. Two of my favorites are Sedona (orange) and Lace Net
Stockings which is very dark green and red with outstanding “lacy”
markings. Just before it freezes I like cuttings in a vase for a water
bouquet. Some
COLEUS can now stand a great
deal of sun so read your labels!
Since we have
had the scare of mildew on
IMPATIENS, I have been trying to find substitutes for short, shady
plants along the edge of some of my paths.
FIBROUS BEGONIAS have done
quite well. They come
in red, pink, and white with either light or dark green leaves.
Like IMPATIENS they are filled with water and among the first plants to
be killed by frost.
If you want a
large clump of white 8 inches to 12 inches of blooms that dry and last
all winter, then you can choose
BERGENIA for me is a little
fussy-it likes high or light shade. Sometimes it is called PIG SQUEAK. It has
spectacular stems of 8 inches to 12 inches covered with bell shaped
blooms of purple or red in early spring. When I get to the bed in spring
many of the older leaves are dead and have to be cleared out. Some of
the big, thick rhizomes are in these leaves and easy to break.
The clump has spread very slowly.
The
ANEMONE (wind flower) group
has many varieties, some of which like shade. I have a very aggressive
short (12-15 inches) with white flowers that bloom early in spring.
It looks its best in shade but plan on using your hoe after a
year or so. Another
ANEMONE I like is the
Japanese (var. japonica). It is a taller of 2 1/2 to 4 feet with pink
tinted blooms. In the right
place such as high shade and damp soil, it will spread blooms in the
fall. There are some
ANEMONE that are not hardy here so read your labels!
My very
favorite is a grass that likes shade and water. It is
JAPANESE FOREST GRASS (Hakonechloa)
and located under the big
COTTONWOOD
Mertensia
species, called VIRGINIA Copyright 2014
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SHOULD I USE
BY
Regular readers
to this column know that I do not like the styrofoam
A convenient
alternative is to purchase a “rose collar” and fill it with mulch, soil,
or compost. A “rose collar” is a plastic collar about 12 inches tall
that goes around a bush or shrub and then snaps together. They work
fine, are easy to use, do a neat job holding your mulch in place, and
take very little storage space in the summer. Prune your bush to about
24 inches then finish your pruning in the spring after the leaves start
to come out.
Remember, mulch
in the winter after the night time temperatures are consistently in the
mid to low 20’s to keep the ground cold, and to avoid the freezes and
thaws. Then mulch in the summer to keep the roots cool and the ground
from drying out. Copyright 2014 |