Northern Shade Gardening

Here is a foliage combination that is one of my favourites right now in the garden. The fern is Adiantum pedatum (maidenhair fern) and the ground cover is Asarum europaeum (European ginger). I particularly enjoy leaf combinations that have a good contrast, and these two perennials play off each other with different weights, leaf shapes, plant shapes and reflective qualities. They make a terrific pair in the shade garden.

Adiantum pedatum and Asarum europaeum foliage

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I have a group of Adiantum pedatum ferns behind a group of Asarum europaeum plants. These perennials are under the shade of a deciduous tree. When a breeze blows, the delicate looking fronds of the maidenhair fern sway back and forth above the sturdy ginger. It’s a delightful foliage combination that I enjoy immensely.

Adiantum pedatum is such an ethereal looking fern, because the thin supporting  stems are wiry and black, so they blend in with the soil. This makes the fronds appear to be delicately floating above the ground. The fronds radiate out, with the leaflets forming a circular pattern. The leaflets are a light green colour, turning blue green when they’re older, and making a good contrast to the black stems. Each subleaflet has a scalloped side, that looks like its been carefully cut into with a number of snips. The maidenhair ferns are about 45 cm (1.5 feet) tall, so they rise above the ginger.

In contrast, The Asarum europaeum ginger has solid, thick leaves with a circular shape. The foliage is held very close to the ground, covering the soil. This European ginger  grows about 15 cm (6 inches) tall in my garden. The leaves are highly reflective  of the small amounts of light that make it under the tree canopy. The foliage of these perennials looks rich and attractive in dappled light with their shiny leaves. Although they have the low growing decorative leaves of a typical groundcover plant, they don’t have the fast spread of other groundcovers.

In the shade, I like to plant ferns next to plants with heavy, thick or solid leaves. The contrast adds some excitement to the plantings. The maidenhair fern and European ginger make an especially nice foliage combination.

There are some closeup photos of the foliage of other shade plants in this previous post.

Do you have any particular plant combinations that you are enjoying?

Here are some further additions to the shade bed between the evergreens. I wrote about starting this shady garden bed two weeks ago. There is an hour or two of light hitting different sections of the garden, and some dappled light falling at different times during the day. I’ve been planting more perennials on either side, curving around the tall conifers.

Aruncus aethusifolius with cone droppings

On the left I’ve added a group of Aruncus aethusifolius (dwarf goatsbeard). With its delicate texture, this perennial looks good next to the large, solid textured Brunnera leaves. In this photo you can see the reddish colour of the newer stems, which is very attractive. The new small leaves in the middle are a light green, but the other leaves keep a fresh look. With these neat mounds of attractive foliage, this plant is looking good even before the cream coloured flower plumes decorate the top.

In the upper left corner of the dwarf goatsbeard picture you can see the recent cone scales that are getting dropped as a squirrel works its way through the cones. This squirrel frequently sits on a horizontal branch of the pine above when snacking. These ones are new since I planted the bed, so with enough of these leftover scales, this bed will be self mulching. :)

Epimedium 'Lilafee' nice red tinged foliage

On the right I’ve enlarged the group of Epimedium grandiflorum ‘Lilafee’ (lilac fairy barrenwort). This perennial should do well in the drier section of this shade bed. The new leaves on ‘Lilafee’ are tinged with red, which looks especially nice with the other foliage plants.

Epimedium 'Lilafee' nice red tinged foliage 2

As the leaves mature, they become a more solid green. Here they are a few days later, with the red tinge fading to the edges, and new red leaves emerging.  There are flashes of red on them off and on as they send up new growth.

Hosta 'Ginko Craig' nice foliage

To the right of the Epimedium, I’ve added some Hosta ‘Ginko Craig’. It was Shady Gardener who suggested this low growing Hosta for this garden bed, and I quite like the way it looks here. This Hosta has medium green foliage with a narrow white margin around each leaf. The little flashes of white add some spark to this extra shady side of the garden bed. This Hosta is similar to ‘Francee’ in colouring, but it is lower growing, with narrower leaves.

Hosta 'Ginko Craig' flowers

The flowers on ‘Ginko Craig’ are similar to ‘Francee’, except they are a light to medium purple, instead of lavender. They have faint stripes on the inside, which are only noticeable close up. I added this Hosta just for the leaves, but the flowers are actually pretty, and don’t detract from the foliage display of the plant. The flower stems of Ginko Craig are short enough to fit under the lower evergreen branches, so this perennial fits the space well.

I plan on planting more perennials in this shade bed, as the garden wraps around the trees. The section on the far left gets more sun, so I might add some Campanula (bellflower), which should do well in the part shade there. I’d like to add some Polygonatum (solomon’s seal) behind the Hosta, for its elegant shape and variegated leaves. The shade plantings are working out so far, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it looks next year. Here is a followup post, showing some more shade plantings under the conifers.

new front shade garden dappled light

Here is a new garden bed I’ve started  planting between some conifers. The area is very shady, so I chose some shade tolerant perennials, and included some plants with cream and silver foliage to lighten the area.

This bed gets less than an hour of light in the morning and an hour or so in the late afternoon. Then it gets the dappled light you see here off and on during the day. I picked perennials that thrive in shade like this.

I started by removing only the bottom branches that had no needles on them anymore from the conifers. This made a little room at the base, between the pine and the spruce. The front of the spruce gets more light, and still has branches to the ground, which I’ve left.

I then scraped the remaining grass off of this area, which was sparse anyways. I haven’t tried to maintain grass here for a couple of years, so the grass roots were shallow and easy to remove. Next I mixed in some organic material. There was plenty already here, since old deciduous leaves had accumulated under the bottom spruce branches, and were already breaking down. Also under the pine was a layer of very light, springy material. I think it is a mixture of old needles and perhaps long dead grass. There were lots of interesting textures, like a forest floor.

Under the pine there was a little midden (pile) of cone scales. They were left by a squirrel that used to like to sit on a pine branch and methodically work its way through each cone to get the seeds within. The scales fall to the ground and gradually make a little pile. They will make a nice mulch for the end section. They remind me of cocoa shell mulch.

new front shade garden hosta and ghost fern

In the centre at the back of the garden I planted Hosta ‘Francee’, which has a narrow cream margin on each leaf. The shading is reminiscent of the dappled effect of forest light on foliage. I’ve given it a little room, since it will expand.

new front shade garden looking through

On the left side I’ve included some Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’ (Siberian bugloss) in the garden. These do very well in shade. These will have blue flowers in the spring, and the lovely patterned leaves for the rest of the season. This area on the left gets a bit more late afternoon sun, so the Brunnera  should grow big here, maybe 60 cm (2 feet) around. In deeper shade these plants grow about 30 cm (1 foot) around.

new front shade garden side view

The Athyrium x ‘Ghost’ fern in the centre will add finely cut, lacy fronds, and a silver lightness to the centre of this shady garden area. They make a nice contrasting texture to the solid leaves of Hosta and Brunnera. They might need some extra water here, but I’ll see how they do.

The group of Epimedium ‘Lilafee’ (barrenwort) with the light green leaves on the right should do well here since this is a drier shade area. Their leaves have a nice contrasting shape to the other plants, and they will have pretty purple flowers above the foliage in the spring. They didn’t have the required cream or silver coloured leaves, but they do well in dry shade, which is even better. The light green coloured leaves match the Hosta at the back. This plant is rated for a warmer zone than 3, but the one I had survived a cold winter last year, so I’m planting more of this perennial. We’ll see next spring how they did on a larger scale.

before picture under conifers

Here is a before photo of the garden bed. You can see that there is just a few grass remnants, some tree roots, fallen needles and cone scales. On the other hand, there is little grass to remove and lots of decaying organic matter for humus. The tricky part in planting is to avoid the large tree roots when digging. I planted in pockets in between the roots, which meant the plant spacing is where the tree allows.

new front garden in shade

This photo was taken on the day I planted the area, Saturday. I haven’t finished planting the garden bed yet, but I already like this area in the middle. There is a section on each end still to go, but I haven’t made up my mind for sure. I might plant some dwarf goatsbeard to the left, maybe some Heuchera too, both do well in shade. I also might expand at the back and plant some solomon’s seal, perhaps the variegated ones. The garden section to the right is the shadiest and driest, and has overhead branches at less than a metre (about 2.5  to 3 feet), so I’d like to plant some more Epimedium, but I couldn’t find any more ‘Lilafee’, which has large purple flowers held well above the leaves. I might look for a white flowered Epimedium, to go with the blue and purple flower scheme.

I’m looking forward to seeing how this garden looks next year as the plants fill in to the space. I’ve tried not to squeeze plants too tight, as is tempting to do when you see lots of empty space in the bed, but I didn’t use my ruler either.

This garden bed is not only shady, but it’s under evergreens, so it doesn’t get the spring light that so many woodland plants like. There is lots of room to expand among the conifers, so I’ll be extending the garden this year and next on the same theme. It’s easy to do in manageable sections, in the gaps around the trees. Any particular shade loving plants you think would work on the same theme?

Here are some of the additional plantings for this shade bed, in this followup post.