Shade Garden Remix

I wish I had a really good reason for taking a break from blogging for a while, like tracking the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker or winning the starting point-guard position at Carolina, but I don't. Although I haven't been writing about gardening, I have been getting my hands dirty, which I suppose is better than the reverse.

My front flowerbed occupies a square of real estate in the corner formed by the driveway and front walk. Two dogwoods keep the back section in deep shade throughout the growing season, and it is here that my hellebores, hostas, lungworts, astilbes, and foamflowers exist in what is essentially a tiny patch of forest. The front part of the bed, however, faces southeast, so that the outer edge is in the sun all day, creating a desert-like habitat that once fried a creeping phlox. (My mother was astounded to hear this, observing that phlox can grow on a sidewalk...maybe so, but not during the hellish summer of 2007.) The in-between area varies from part sun to part shade, depending on the angle of the sun in the sky.

This is also the most visible part of the yard. You see it from the street, we walk by it on our way to the front door, and it is what we see from the big windows in the living room, where I sit with my cat Casey and drink my tea in the morning. Last year it looked lovely in April and May, but rather nondescript the rest of the year, so I wanted to give this bed some year-round interest.

I found a December-blooming camellia in the back yard that had done poorly in two locations, so I hauled it up to the front yard and combined it with a deciduous azalea, ("Swamp Azalea" as it's called in South Carolina). I added some Epimedium, a few dozen daffodils, and a Dwarf Hinoki Cypress and a collection of various heucheras. Then I rearranged the gumpo azaleas and some of the hellebores into a clump surrounding the birdbath.

A few days later, I noticed what looked like hostas coming up in the middle of the gumpos and struggling to get out from under the concrete birdbath. "Now that's weird," I thought. "Hostas don't come up in October."

"No, you idiot, but Arums do."

It's always something...

How Many Times Can I Rearrange the Shade Garden?

The shade garden by my front walk has been bothering me ever since the last time I rearranged it. There were too many gaps, especially in winter. This is a bed that has to look good twelve months of the year, because it's at the front of the house and I walk right past it on the way to and from the front door. Lately, every time I've walked past, I said, "I need to do something about this bed."

The main problem was that the gumpo azaleas are shorter than the hellebores, and you couldn't see them, so I pulled all of the azaleas to the edge of the bed, moved the birdbath, leaving the hellebores further back. Behind them are the taller bear-claw hellebores, then a camellia which hasn't done well anywhere else in the yard, so I'm trying it here.Because I consolidated the hellebores which were scattered all over the bed, I now have a big empty space that I need to fill. I'd like to try some new plants, and I'm open to suggestions for what might look good here. I'd like something that is drought tolerant, and that can handle the dry shade beneath dogwoods. (It's full/partial shade except winter and early spring.) Here's a list of some plants I'm considering. If you've had experience, good or bad, with these, please let me know...or if you have other suggestions. Mostly I want short plants, 1-2 feet tall. Thanks in advance!

Spotted Dead Nettle
Epimedium (Barrenwort)
Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla)
Heuchera
Euphorbia 'Helena'
Winter Daphne

Astilbe

Our first house sat in the deep shade of about a dozen large trees, so I learned early that there is a wealth of plants that thrive with very little sun.
Finding shade plants with brightly colored blooms is a bit of a challenge, but one that I've had good luck with is astilbe. My pink one, pictured here, grows in the deep shade of dogwoods all day and contrasts well with the heavy-leaved hostas and the hellebores. It began blooming about the middle of May and really brightens up the dark corner by the birdbath. Astilbe can live in part sun, but they need to be watered very often, or they'll dry out. My lavender one sits about three feet away, but gets sun for several hours during the day and the leaves frequently get wilty. Last year, one of them got this nasty white fungus and died, but so far this year I've had no problems.

What's a Pintle?

Italian Arum seed pod. Once known as "priest's pintle." (Check the link if you must know what a "pintle " is. ) These are great for winter foliage in a shade garden. They sprout as the hostas are going dormant and vice-versa.