Plants for Dry Shadeby Harrell's

Blog, Horticulture May 6, 2010 9:07 am

By Julie Lane-Gay

It’s not easy getting plants to grow in dry, shaded areas. Horticulture Magazine’s Julie Lane-Gay knows what perennials, shrubs, vines and bulbs do well in shaded, low moisture environments, and has some suggestions on keeping them healthy.

It can be difficult to get plants to grow around deciduous or evergreen trees. The trees throw much shade and prevent rainfall from soaking the ground beneath them. Their roots quickly absorb whatever moisture manages to make it to the soil, outcompeting whatever you’ve planted there. Luckily there are some tough perennials, shrubs, vines and bulbs that will grow and even bloom in dry shade.

Perennials

The finest plant I know for dry shade is big-root geranium (Geranium macrorhizzum). If this plant had a mailbox, I would write thank-you notes. Even under a low-limbed spruce, this trooper spreads out quickly, graciously, with fragrant rounded deeply lobed leaves and small white or pink flowers protruding above the foliage in April and May. If you want to do just one big planting, this is the choice.

Making plantings in dry shade look voluminous is accomplished as much through variation of textures as through plant vigor. One of my favorite plants for improving the range of textures is Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum hybridum), with triangular leaves lining up along its arching three-foot stems and small white tubular flowers peeking out of the axils from May to July. Come October, Solomon’s seal becomes a buttery yellow, a lovely largesse as it turns cold.

Hellebores look amazingly fresh in dry shade, curvaceous clumps at the front of the border. Lenten hellebore (Helleborus x hybridus) with its dark, leathery, serrated leaves and drooping waxy two-inch bells creates a carpet of white or pink freshness from February to April, heralding the end of winter with elan. To keep them looking fresh, I cut the tatty leaves to the ground as early in winter as I have access. New leaves will come in spring.

In our local botanical garden, the plantings at the feet of large deciduous and evergreen trees provide a feast of ideas for those in dry-shade-despair. Several years ago I noticed an evergreen 15-inch-tall bishop’s hat (Epimedium colchicum ssp. pinnatum) with triangular waxy green leaves and bright yellow mini-columbine flowers in April. Come late summer the leaves go a burnished tint, returning to lustrous green as winter sets in.

While many are annoyed by wild foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), the four-foot spires and open trumpets of the white form (D. purpurea f. albiflora) enhance any garden, and a planting of six or seven of these spires illuminates a grim area like elegant candles on a dark night.

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