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C
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Climber
P
- Perennial
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- Shrub
T
- Tree
Plants for
Dry Shade
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One
of the most difficult areas in the garden to find plants
for. There are plenty of plants that grow well in dry
conditions but they tend to be sun lovers, and there
are quite a few that can put up with shade if there's
a lot of moisture available. For dry shade though, in
the lee and shadow of a wall or fence or beneath a tree
or hedge there are far less options.
Firstly be realistic. If your
dry shade is beneath a large evergreen such as yew,
then virtually nothing is going to grow there. It will
be shady all year round and as well as the branches
and leaves intercepting the rain and channelling it
to the trunk, there will be strongly competitive roots
just below the soil surface to contend with. It's
therefore a question of trial and error to some degree.
If you can't get plants to grow
as close to the area that you would like (up against
a hedge bottom for instance), then try coming just a
little bit further away. If the area has proven particularly
difficult in the past try just one or two plants at
different distances rather than consigning lots of them
to certain death early on. If things still don't
grow, then it may be time to withdraw gracefully - as
a rule of thumb if grass or weeds won't grow very
well in a particular area, then something prettier and
more ornamental almost certainly won't!
Another approach could be to grow taller
plants a little further away from the wall, tree, hedge
etc. so that you don't see the bare area behind
them so easily.
However, lets not give up before we've
started, these are some plants that have more than a
sporting chance. You can help them along by enriching
the soil at planting time with plenty of organic matter
for moisture retention, and applying a mulch later on
when they're growing well.
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Aucuba japonica - spotted laurel
S
Evergreen shrub, with glossy leaves
to 8" long spotted yellow. Plants are either male
or female, females have bright red berries in autumn.
Tolerant of quite deep shade and indeed requires
some shade to be really happy. Will grow in difficult
situations and tolerant of dry soil. To about 10ft high
and wide but easily controlled. Frequently sold as three
or four rooted cuttings in a pot, separate them and
you instantly have more plants!
Buy Aucuba japonica
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Iris foetidissima - Stinking gladwyn
P
What does a plant do to deserve such
horrible names? A member of the iris family, though
the flowers are easily overlooked. It produces very
attractive bright orange seeds in large number that
shine in the autumn when the pods split open, and it
is very tolerant of dry shade.
Buy Iris foetidissima
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Buy Iris foetidissima 2
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Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae
- Wood Spurge
P
A natural woodland plant, so one that is used to
shaded and dry conditions. Dark green leaves and tall
clusters of long lasting, almost luminous lime-green
flowers in spring. Can become invasive if ignored and
allowed to be, but easy to control as long as you don't
forget about it.
Buy Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae
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Lamium - cultivated dead-nettles
P
A group that spans very pretty plants
with lovely variegated foliage to ones that are not
far short of looking like weeds. Difficult to give recommendations,
because difficult conditions often make good looking
plants appear weedy, the best bet is to try one and
see if still looks good when up against the odds. The
darker the green of the plant, the more chlorophyll
and so the more likely it is to withstand shade, don't
bother trying the almost completely white types in anything
but full sun.
Buy Lamium
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Polypodium vulgare -
Common Polypody Fern
P

We think of ferns generally as plants
for damp places, and so many are, but some groups, in
particular, the
polypodies are resistant to drought conditions.
This one can be grown on the ground or even naturalised
in trees or walls to give a tropical look to the garden.
Like many plants for dry shade, it will spread if allowed
to and so needs to be kept in check if it's very
happy where you plant it.
Buy Polypodium vulgare
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Mentha - Mint
P

As in the herb. Mint is a notoriously vigorous plant
and if it didn't have its flavour as a saving grace,
I'm sure that it would be considered as a weed.
This vigour makes it an ideal plant for difficult conditions
which also serve to calm it down somewhat. I've
grown mint in the shade of a Lleylandii hedge within
about 18" of the trunks, so it's tough and
keeps going! Pink to purple flowers that the bees
love and flavouring for new potatoes and lamb chops.
Buy Mentha / mint
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Vinca major - Periwinkle
S/P
 
Variegated ground cover plant with blue
spring / summer flowers. To about 20" tall, spread
indefinite, roots as it goes. Very tough once established,
and tolerates sun or shade. Vinca minor
is equally unfazed by novice gardeners or shade, will
confine itself to about 8" and a much reduced spread.
Buy Vinca / Periwinkle
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Epimedium x rubrum - Bishop's
Hat P
A very useful ground cover plant with unusual leaves
tinted with bronze-red when they open and turning a
beautiful shade of reddish-brown in autumn. Tiny flowers
are suspended on thin wiry stem above the leaves in
the spring. Spreads, but does so slowly and copes well
in the dry shade underneath tree and shrubs.
Buy Epimedium x rubrum
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Wild Strawberry
P

I have grown these in and amongst mint in the least
promising of all conditions and they have performed
admirably. The leaves are a fresh green and the plants
produce tiny white flowers and tiny strawberries. Don't
think that these will get you through Wimbledon week
in traditional style however, difficult conditions mean
that there's little energy to spare for such fripperies.
Wild strawberries also have the advantage that they
root as they go by runners so they find their own preferred
place if you plant them a bit too close (or even too
far away) to the gruesome places.
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Seasonal
Most of the trees providing summer gloom admit
plenty of light in winter. The opportunity should be seized
for under planting them with winter and early spring-flowering
bulbs. These can provide a sheet of colour in their season but
complete their growing in time to be at rest once more when
the shade thickens.
The
autumn-flowering
Cyclamen hederifolium will oblige, with its pink
or white flowers. The foliage, a great asset in itself with
its different shades of green, will not develop until late autumn
and will be at its best through to April; then it withers quite
naturally. In January, winter aconites, Eranthis hyemalis
, will flower in sheets - cupped yellow blooms surrounded by
a ruff of leaves. If they take to you, they will spread with
their own seedlings. (For me, they have always been an abysmal
failure.) These can be joined, in February, by another great
self-sower, the little mauve Crocus tommasinianus.
Tiny daffodils such as Narcissus cyclamineus
and the hoop-petticoat, N. bulbocodium are good
and there'll be blue Scilla siberica and
Chionodoxa sardensis , none of them dying with
obtrusive foliage. Spanish bluebells, on the other hand, so
common in London gardens, die horribly in May, but you might
think them worth it for their April display.
In summer there is a place for dignified bareness
if all else fails, keep it tidy and not scruffy so it looks
like a definite decision rather than having ended up like that
because you can't do any different.
Cyclamen - Hardy Mix 3 bulbs - £6.49
Cyclamen - Hardy Mix 6 bulbs - £12.98
Cyclamen hederefolium 6 bulbs - £7.49
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