Comments on: Shady Bed Under Conifers

By: Northern Shade

Northern Shade — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:40:37 +0000

Val, it sounds like you have a beautiful place to garden. Those Brunnera have gorgeous leaf patterns, and would look great with your ferns and hostas. Have you tried Mr. Morse yet? It has the same leaf colours as Jack Frost, but with white flowers.

By: Val

Val — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:05:23 +0000

Love your shady garden. I garden in the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina and I have almost all shade as we have many large oak trees on our lot. We have lot’s of ferns and hosta’s, and I try to grow perennials around them. Also have the Jack Frost & Looking Glass Brunneras. You have given me a lot of good ideas. Thanks so much.

By: Northern Shade

Northern Shade — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 03:41:29 +0000

Shady Gardener, thank you. I’ve had a lot of fun planning and planting this shady area. Because it meanders between the conifers, it’s been easy to do a section at a time, as I figure it out. When it’s planting time in spring, I’m going to continue it across a short stretch, to the next spruce. I’m eager to see how the plants fill in next year. I really like the Ghost fern too, and it is definitely more robust than the Japanese painted fern. The light silver colour lightens the garden in the shadows. I’ve been pleased with how well the dwarf Aruncus has done so close to the trees. I hope there is enough light for the Hepatica nobilis to bloom well, since they have bright blue flowers.

By: Shady Gardener

Shady Gardener — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:32:17 +0000

Northern Shade, I’m so proud of you! This is becoming quite the beautiful shady flower bed! You have put a lot of thought and effort into it. :-) Your Ginko Craig will “clump” with more new plants before too very long that you can divide and move around to make it thicker. I love your Ghost Lady Fern. I have it too, and it is so much taller and more noticeable than the Japanese Painted Ferns (which I also have and really like!). Your dwarf aruncus look great. I have only one little plant… perhaps I will be able to divide it sometime? I’m not really familiar with Hepatica nobilis. I did a search and it looks so sweet. I wonder if it would grow here? I planted some Lilofee epimedium this Summer. I look forward to seeing what they do next year. Thank you for continuing your updates. Have a great day!!

By: Northern Shade

Northern Shade — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:34:27 +0000

Tatyana, Epimedium are great for dry shade. We’ve had a few weeks of consistently below freezing temperatures, and their leaves still look great, so they have a long season too. I wish that the cold weather hadn’t come so soon, though, as I would like to continue planting this garden area.

By: Tatyana

Tatyana — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:51:13 +0000

Hello! This is a very interesting post for me, since I have tall conifers growing on two sides of my garden. The soil under them is hard and dry. The conifers’ roots create a thick mat and steel all the water. I might read more about the plants which you planted, to see if they’ll grow in a dry/part sun place. You have done a great job with this area. Brunnera is especially attractive. Thank you!

By: Northern Shade

Northern Shade — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:53:12 +0000

Northofsweden, most of my gardening is on hold, since we haven’t been above freezing for the last week and a half. However, the temperatures are supposed to warm up over the next few days. I will try to get some of the perennials cut back, but I won’t be doing much digging now. As the perennials die back, and the snow comes, the conifers really start to star in the garden.

By: Northofsweden

Northofsweden — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:34:18 +0000

Hello! Thanks for your comment! Rocky mountains-what a dream it would be visiting a place like that. Your gardening projects looks very nice. I checked up how far north Edmonton is locaded and its much south of where Skellefteå lies. Skellefteå lies at the same latitud as Fairbanks Canada. But Sweden is benefitting much from the Golf stream and therefore its possible to live here. Since the climat has become warmer we haven´t had much less than 20 degrees celsius for a couple of years. But the winters are long and we ski alot both downhill and cross-country. Nice to here from you over there-see you!

By: Northern Shade

Northern Shade — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:59:56 +0000

Gittan, some of the perennials that I added in the summer at the front have already grown and filled in, like the Brunnera, Epimedium, Athyrium and Aruncus. Some of the newer additions are very little still, and are also slow growers, so it will be interesting to see how long it takes them to fill in and form a carpet. It’s that fourth dimension of time, that makes gardening so fascinating, and keeps me eager to see what will happen next.

Barbarapc, I’m glad to hear that the ginger might pick up the pace later. I would love to find some volunteers. I laughed as I planted the Hepatica, since there were just the little green growing tips visible. Like bulbs, it is a leap of faith to anticipate the new growth next year.

By: Barbarapc

Barbarapc — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:54:57 +0000

Got the last bit of planting in today. Next week, it will be time to pull apart my pots. I really enjoy you sharing your new treasures from little nubs with us. It’s all looking very good. My gingers took at least 3 years until they started to spread – and now I’m finding volunteers all over the garden. Will be interested to see how your Aruncus does – mine seemed to be a bit water piggy. One of my favourites under my pine is the Polygonatum variegatum – gives me a bit of height next to the hosta.