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Re: [SHADEGARDENS] Help Needed

 The shady area where I am>developing my garden has alot of tree roots.  I
dont want to damage the tree in any way and none of the ideas
>others have given have worked. Another problem I am having is that the
shady area is>pretty dry. >My shady area is very very shady. It only
receives reflected light in small>doses. What can I plant here to have color.

Hi Terry!
I eliminated part of your message to just address the most important issues.
First, I would ask why are you trying to develop a garden bed in such
negative circumstances? I'm wondering if the trees are maples....if they
are, you are going to have an extremely hard time, particularly if they're
Norway maples. The shade is so dense with Norways that very little can
grow....and maples have extremely invasive roots that suck every little drop
of moisture from the soil. And then you don't want to damage the roots
(which is good...it takes a lot longer to grow a tree than perennials).....I
wouldn't either, but the feeder roots are often quite close to the surface
of the soil. If you really want color here, and you are dealing with maples,
I might add pots of annuals...like impatiens. If you can get daylilies to
bloom, you can probably grow Hakonechloa macra aurea, which is a delightful
ornamental grass that grows in shade...it's variegated....and is a wonderful
addition in the upper midwest. Another thing to try would be
Epimediums....they have great foliage throughout the gardening season
(heart-shaped leaves) and little bishop hat flowers in the early spring. I'd
also try Aquilegia...and they come in all sorts of colors; they also
tolerate droughty conditions better than some other things. You could try
some of the white campanulas...my C. persicifolia is spreading nicely in dry
shade (not deep shade however). Most of the varieties come in both white and
blue, and they come in different heights for different depths in the garden.
Corydalis lutea doesn't seem to be too fussy about where it grows and
reseeds; C. ochroleuca also will grow and bloom in dry shade....both of them
bloom all summer here. Lutea is a yellow flower, and ochroleuca is cream
with a yellow blotch. If you have an area with a little more brightness, you
could try some of the true lilies....they like well-drained soil and don't
take up too much room. They would like to be fed and watered though, just as
hosta and daylilies do.
If you try these, you will probably need to stake them; they tend to lean to
the light. For the spring, you could plant Doronicum caucasicus...it is also
called Leopard's Bane. It blooms well in shady situations and has a bright
yellow flower. The wildflowers might do well if the shade is from deciduous
trees...things like trillium, jack-in-the-pulpit, Dutchman's breeches,
shooting stars, Virginia bluebells, spring beauty, etc. If you like
different shapes to add interest to your shady garden, you could add the
variegated Solomon's Seal (or the giant SS for that matter). You could try
Anemones....from sylvestris that blooms for quite a while and spreads to
some of the tall hybrids like 'Honorine Jobert' or 'Bressingham Glow'.
Tiarella corifolia is a nicely flowering ground cover; you could also try
the divaricata or stolonifera types of phlox. Uvularia (merrybells) are cute
little flowers; so are hepatica. To me, gardening is a matter of trial and
error in my own garden....some things aren't happy, so I move them. Some
things die, so I try them again....but probably somewhere else. If something
says part shade on it, I try stretching the limits. Only by trying different
plants will you find out what will grow in YOUR garden.

Alex, I thought it was interesting that the slugs like your White
Nancy...they have never bothered mine....but I have to say that I just don't
have a lot of problems with slugs in a normal year. I'm sure that some
things that I grow are rampant in your less stressful climate too. I think
that's one of the really interesting things about the plant lists...you find
out all sorts of things that are different in different areas of the
country....or even with different growing situations in your own section of
the country. One of the things that amazed me in the last couple of weeks
are the people from Great Britain who have all sorts of things in bloom
right now....I never realized what an incredibly long growing season they
have. Then I look out my window and see 10 inches of snow on the ground, and
it's even more amazing. By the way, what is a milk drop slug???? When I
visited out in your neck of the woods, I did see slugs that put our midwest
slugs into the miniature class...things that were about 8 inches long. I bet
one of those could finish off half your garden in a couple of days!

It is almost time to start planting seeds however! That always makes it feel
like spring is right around the corner. Jean Bawden-Madison, Wi
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