Northern Shade Gardening

Here are some combinations of foliage and flowers in the summer shade garden. Silver leaves weave through many of the pictures. The silver looks good in the shade, brightening the shadows and catching the eye. The fine texture of the ferns looks interesting when combined with more solid, round or elongated leaves. Adding a variety of textures, shapes, and patterns makes the plantings look more appealing, with or without flowers.

The heart shaped leaves in the first photo are Brunnera macrophylla ‘Mr. Morse’ (Mr. Morse Siberian bugloss). The foliage of this perennial is almost identical  to B. macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’, but the flowers are white instead of sky blue. Like other Brunnera, it is thriving in the shadows. It laughs at the maple tree that steals all the sunshine and tries to bombard it with keys. The Brunnera have been very successful at suppressing the maple seedling growth, making them great understory plants. Mr. Morse adds beautiful white flowers early in the year, but the foliage is a winner for the whole season.

The fern behind the Brunnera is Athyrium filix-femina ‘Lady In Red’ (lady in red fern). It’s a lush looking fern with fresh green fronds that have red midribs. It puts out new fronds throughout the summer, so it’s still looking good in August. In fact, it’s looking much better than when I planted it in the spring. When I first got it in May, I put the round pot down in my backyard. Some very strong wind gusts blew it over and rolled it all along the the back path. Many of the fronds broke and eventually turned crispy brown. You would never know it now, since it has filled in so well.

The second photo shows another A. filix-femina ‘Lady In Red’, with all of the new fronds that have unrolled. The red midribs are most noticeable at the bottom and fade at the tips where the fronds narrow to a point. I like the lighter green next to other dark green foliage.

On the left is a clump of Asarum europaeum, with dark, round, glossy leaves. This great, low growing perennial looks like its leaves have been individually polished. I love the look of the ginger’s solid leaves contrasting with the finely cut foliage of the fern. Earlier in the year it had small brown flowers hidden under the leaves. This ground cover is definitely grown for its appealing foliage, rather than the inconspicuous flowers.

Behind the fern are the long silver leaves of Pulmonaria x ‘Samourai’ (Samourai lungwort). This perennial’s leaves have a matte surface. Although it had pretty blue flowers earlier in the year, it looks just as good without any flowers on it. I like the combination of fern, ginger and lungwort together in the shade.

This photo shows three P. x ‘Samourai’, with part of a clump of Asarum europaeum (European wild ginger) in the shadow on the lower right. If you click to enlarge, you can see the little ginger better. There are ten Asarum planted altogether in this area. I’ll see how it fills in next year. These plants get an hour or so of direct light in the early evening, and a bit of dappled light now and then. They thrive in this shady location, and the leaves always look good.

Here’s Heuchera ‘Mint Frost’ on a rainy day. The leaves are glistening with puddles of rain on them, and more drops landing. The mature leaves are a light silvery mint green with medium green veins. The newer leaves are a lighter, minty green with the same veining. You can click to enlarge, to see the red petioles holding out the dimpled leaves. If you are looking for a heuchera with a bit of pattern to the leaves, but not in the orange and red tones, this is a good choice. This is new to my garden this year, so I’ll be able to tell more about this cultivar’s hardiness next spring. On the upper right is another group of Pulmonaria x ‘Samourai’. The two look good together in this location that gets part shade.

This grouping of three Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’ (Jack Frost Siberian bugloss) is in front of Athyrium x ‘Ghost’ (ghost fern). The Jack Frost clump is about 1 metre (3 feet) across. The silver patterned hearts show why  it’s one of my favourite perennials. The Athyrium x ‘Ghost’ fern behind echoes a similar silver colour, but with fine textured foliage. The shape and size of the fronds show look like one of its parents, Athyrium filix-femina (lady fern). The silver colour is a clue to its other parent, Athyrium niponicum (Japanese painted fern). Both of the ghost ferns are about 60 cm (2 feet) tall now. The silver foliage of the Jack Frost and the ghost fern combination looks good surrounded by darker leaves. To the right is a group of Campanula carpatica (Carpathian bellflower). These plants have been moved around this same area 3 times in 3 years. They’ve been very good sports about it, but they should fill in a little more, if I leave them alone for a while.

Here’s a closeup of a ghost fern frond with Campanula rotundifolia (harebells). The slender flower stalks of the harebell lean against other plants in the shade. I like the look of the little bluish purple bells here and there, weaving delicately through the garden floor.

You can see by the maple keys on the ground, that the maple tree and I have a disagreement about what makes a garden.  Acer believes in a maple monoculture, and drops thousands of keys every year to turn this into a maple paradise. So far in our game of garden domination, the score is maple: 1 tree standing vs gardener: 10 000 keys defeated.

It’s not all foliage in the shade garden. This is Astilbe simplicifolia ‘Hennie Graafland’. The leaves are glossy, and the feathery plumes are pink. I wrote about some other astilbe that I grow in a previous post.  The foliage of Aruncus dioicus (goatsbeard) is in the background. Being 2 metres (6 feet) tall, the leaves of the Aruncus make a pleasing green backdrop to show off the flowers of other perennials.

I like to add interest by combining glossy leaves with matte leaves, round shapes with elongated ones, feathery textures with dense surfaces, and patterned leaves next to solid coloured leaves. You can see some other shade perennial combinations in this fall post.

Do you have any plant combinations for the shade that you particularly like?

Foliage adds a serene atmosphere to the garden. The soothing calmness of greenery is enlivened by the play of light and shadow on fronds, needles and leaflets. There is always something interesting to view when there is a variety of textures and colours of leaves in the garden. In the shade garden, this is especially important. The photo gallery at the bottom of the post shows a variety of perennial and tree leaves, and some interesting combinations.

Since the leaves are usually around for longer than flowers, it’s important to think about how they look. Placing foliage that contrasts with nearby plants, or compliments the other plants makes the garden a visual tapestry of green. A garden doesn’t have to look boring when the flowers are gone, leaves can be enjoyed for their own beauty. A few flowers might have sneaked into the photos, but mainly the foliage takes the stage.

There are many ways you can emphasize the wonderful detail in foliage. Alternating shiny leaves with matte ones, large leaves with small ones, delicately textured foliage with bold foliage, round leaves with long leaves, and smooth edged leaves with scalloped ones makes them stand out on their own. Placing plants with patterned foliage by solid coloured leaves adds subtle texture in the garden that is pleasing to view. Smooth leaves adjacent to fuzzy leaves makes them both more appealing. In the shade garden, it is  especially important to play up the difference between leaves, so there is always something to catch your eye.

Here are some photos of the foliage in my garden in June. Some of these perennials are topped with beautiful flowers at other times, and some have been planted mainly for their leaves.

You can find some more foliage ideas in this earlier post.

If you like photos of interesting leaves, there are some more pictures in this post.

Sweet scents add another sensory layer to the garden. Two of my three favourite scented flowers are blooming in the garden right now, Convallaria majalis (lily of the valley) and Syringa (lilac). The third, Paeonia (peonies), are still in the bud stage, but will soon be adding their delicious fragrance to the garden potpourri.

The perfume from the white bells of Convallaria majalis (lily of the valley) floats over this shady bed. They are getting cozy with Matteuccia struthiopteris (ostrich fern) in this photo. Lily of the valley get cozy with a lot of plants in the garden, but I forgive them this habit when they bloom with beauty and scent in the spring.

This Syringa vulgaris ‘Wedgewood Blue’ (wedegewood blue lilac) has an intoxicating scent, and its blooms are just as beautiful to observe. The blossoms are a light lavender blue colour, but unfortunately my shrub does not produce many. It is in a part sun location, so it could be that there is just not enough light to produce a multitude of buds. I’ve had it for 5 years, so I would think it’s old enough now to produce more. This shrub is a smaller lilac, growing to about 2 metres (6 feet) when mature. Mine is about 5 feet now. It is planted near my bedroom window; the plan being that the fragrance would drift through my open bedroom window as I fall asleep. There are not enough flowers for it to carry that far yet, but they smell beautiful when I sniff them at close range. I’m still hoping that eventually the scent will drift into the house too. Lilacs are a wonderful shrub to add fragrance to your garden. I have more information and photos about Syringa vulgaris ‘Wedgewood Blue‘ in this follow up post.

In this photo of the current peony bud, a ladybug looks on the hunt for aphids. I don’t know if it had a disagreement about this with the ant directly above it. I couldn’t observe it long enough to see who would win the rights to the peony bud territory.

Paeonia lactiflora ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ (Sarah Bernhardt peony) also produces a wonderful fragrance. It is in a part sun location, but it usually has many blooms, enough that the scent carries for a distance. This perennial is also planted near my bedroom window, but the smell does not waft through my window as planned either. It is definitely worth a walk to this area of the garden a few times a day when this plant is in bloom. I have to sniff its perfume, and observe its large pink overblown petals.

The flowers are so heavy that this peony needs a ring to keep it off the ground when in full bloom. I usually place a 2 tiered ring around it when it is about 30 cm (1 foot) tall. The one piece sturdy structure takes less than a minute to insert, and the foliage grows quickly to cover the support. This picture shows one side of the peony heavy with flowers from last year. Even in the part sun/shade exposure, this plant gets about 30 blossoms.

Peonies, lilacs and lily of the valley are 3 plants that will appeal to another sense in the garden, beyond their beauty. While strolling around, looking at the foliage and flowers (or more frequently bending over to pull a few weeds), I have a series of pleasant scents to enjoy.

You can read more about the  Sarah Bernhardt peony in this later post. Here is some information about Dianthus (carnation), another plant with a beautiful fragrance.