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?

Hydrangea paniculata ‘Grandiflora’ (PG hydrangea) and Hydrangea paniculata ‘Little Lamb’ are reliable flowering shrubs for a cold climate. They have lavish, showy flowers with an extended blooming time compared to many shrubs. Their tolerance of part shade is an additional bonus.

Hydrangea paniculata ‘Grandiflora’ (PG hydrangea) is a lovely shrub that is very eye catching when in bloom. It has a fairly nice shape and good foliage. However, the large panicles of white flowers are the main attraction. The abundant white blooms cover most of the foliage when they are fully open. They bloom for over a month, and then gradually turn brown. Their flowers last throughout August and into September in my garden. The flowers are still attractive as they fade, so I leave them on over the winter, and remove them in the spring. Only a few of the blooms are open in this picture. There are many more with green buds still to open. This one is in a medium shade location, so I’m pleased with the numerous buds that it has.

Campanula poscharskyana ‘Blue Waterfall’ (blue waterfall Serbian bellflower) is planted under this hydrangea. It’s quite shadowy underneath, but you can see them better when you click and enlarge the photo. I like the look of the blue stars twinkling around the lower branches of the hydrangea. The heaviest flush of  these bellflower blooms was at the end of June and through July, but they will still flower through the fall.

This is Hydrangea paniculata ‘Little Lamb’. It is new to my garden, just planted a few months ago. It is very similar to ‘Grandiflora’, but the flowers stalks are stiffer and the blooms are held more upright. When it rains, they don’t arch over as much as the PG hydrangea. In the photo, you can see the green buds of the panicles that haven’t fully opened. There are ample blooms for a shrub that is still only 75 cm by 75 cm (2 feet).

The marketing campaign for this shrub describes the flowers as little lambs dancing over the shrub. I think they’re stretching it with the description, as they look very much like other H. paniculata panicles to me, even when I squint and use my imagination. However, it is a good looking hydrangea.

I have a Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’ (annabelle hydrangea) too, but it only has 4 blooms. It looks very stingy compared to the other hydrangeas, probably because it’s planted in heavier shade. If it doesn’t bloom more next year, I might move it to a part shade location. I was probably stretching its shade tolerance to plant it in a location that only gets about a half hour of direct sun a day.

The leaves on annabelle are larger than the H. paniculata leaves. When it’s not in bloom, it’s not quite as attractive as H. paniculata.

Here’s a view of the PG hydrangea that the birds see as they’re coming in for a landing on the birdbath.

What are your favourite shrubs for shade?

Dianthus caryophyllus ‘Grenadin’ (carnations) have a wonderful scent that floats on the breeze around the garden right now. These are good-looking perennials with vivid blooms, and attractive grassy foliage.

The carnations get a part shade site, with more sun than shade, but still they lean a bit, and would probably appreciate even more light. One maple tree branch has grown, and casts more of a shadow over this bed this year. I’m going to have to cut the branch back. These perennials like it sunny. Despite the partial shade, they are being good sports, and are covered in blooms.

Carnatons have a memorable fragrance. Even a half dozen plants are enough to send their perfume over this section of the garden. In early summer I was disappointed when my peonies finished blooming, thinking that the last of my favourite scented flowers were finished. However, the Dianthus are blooming now, and they provide their own sensory delight. Their lovely scent is as intense as their blossom colour.

The flowers of these Dianthus caryophyllus are a rich dark pink. The colour is so vivid, that I had trouble getting good pictures of these plants. My unaltered photos kept looking like I had turned the saturation up to a surreal setting in a photo editor. I’ve actually been taking shots of them for a couple of weeks, in different lighting, but these were the most natural looking I could take.  Most of my photos gave them an unnatural day-glo look, not like the real blooms. I have some carnations that are extra puffy doubles, like the ones below, and some that appear semi-double like the ones above.

The leaves of D. caryophyllus are long and very narrow with a bluish grey colour. The foliage makes a nice contrast to other solid green leaf tones and more rounded shaped leaves. Although when the flowers start to bloom, the foliage is not nearly as noticeable.

These perennials fade out after 2 or 3 years in my garden, so I divide them or plant new ones every few years. It’s not so much the cold, as they are just naturally shorter lived plants. You could also take cuttings to keep them going. They will not grace the garden with permanence like the peony that grows behind them, but I admire their splendid flowers and perfume.

You can read about some more fragrant plants in an earlier post.

Perennial carnations are an old fashioned plant that have many good qualities. They have a pleasing fragrance, pretty flowers, and slender grey toned leaves. I used to grow Dianthus plumarius (cottage pinks) too, but the last ones died out now. Do you grow any types of Dianthus?