Shade Perennials

The shady section of my long border is ignored most of the year.  A recent trip to the magnificent Cleveland Botanical Gardens convinced me to give this section a little more love.

I am as guilty as most people of thinking that shade plants only bloom in the spring and early summer.  Think astilbe, bleeding heart, fuschia.  Late bloomers include hosta and liriope, which I tend to think of as groundcovers instead of flowering plants.  My shade border also includes a tree peony, regular peonies, and siberian iris.

A walk through the woodland section of the Cleveland Botanical Garden opened up my eyes to plant pairings and choices that I would not have thought of on my own.

One such pairing is turtlehead (chelone) with lobelia cardinalis.  

 I think of lobelia cardinalis as strictly a sun lover, albeit one that likes moist soil.  It turns out that this plant can be quite happy in the shade as well.  In addition to being a beautiful red flower with a long bloom time that attracts hummingbirds, it also helps the soil retain moisture.  That would not work well with asclepias tuberosa, which loves drought conditions, but does work well in a shade garden, especially when there has been little rain.  

I happen to have a turtlehead hidden in the back of my shade border.  Soon I will move it to the middle of the border, and relocate the astilbe that is currently there to the mid-back of the border.

Another surprise was the number of hydrangeas that thrive in the shade.  I think of these plants as sun lovers (that like a drink of water in the late afternoon.)  Lacecap and black stem hydrangea were two species that I noted.