SHADY SPOTS? NO PROBLEMS
LOW LIGHT DOESN’T MEAN BORING PLANTS
THERE is no doubt that we gardeners all have difficult areas within our own gardens where conditions are a tad difficult to grow plants well.
It could be an overly-wet or dry area, a spot where the soil is compacted or subsoil-like, or where there is competition from neighbouring plants due to encroaching roots, or simply plants outgrowing their sometimes poorly-considered space requirements.
By far the greatest challenge we face, however, is choosing and then successfully growing plants in areas of the garden where direct sunlight rarely kisses the earth, that is, in the shady bits.
Having said that, it’s pretty easy to impulsively buy a plant needing full sun and whack it into a shady spot without thinking of the challenges to the plant’s normal growth and flowering patterns.
So what happens to sun-loving plants when we try to grow them in low-light areas?
Well, if they’re flowering plants, the most dramatic difference a gardener will notice is a reduction in the quality and number of blooms.
Flowering will be sparse and sometimes well out of season, depending on the amount of daylight the plant enjoys.
Another dramatic response to being in less-than-ideal light is a propensity for plants to grow leggy and weak.
This often means the plant won’t be tight and bushy, if that is their normal habit, but open and straggly, sometimes to the point where the thin stems can’t support their own weight, and the plant falls over.
Other plant responses to low light are lighter-coloured or yellowing leaves (due to reduced photosynthesis), reduced fruiting (a result of less flowers), and, if the plant is variegated, a tendency for the variegation to gradually reduce with the leaves reverting to “standard” colour, usually all green.
Remember, too, that in winter time, daytime shadows are longer, almost doubling the shade on the southern side of houses, sheds, fences and hedges, and that days can have up to 4 hours less sunlight than the warmer months.
Nearly all gardens have shady areas ready to confound and complicate our plant choices.
As a general rule, there’s a greater choice of foliage plants, rather than flowering plants, suitable for shade.
Let’s look firstly at foliage plants suitable for shady spots in your garden.
Large-leaved favourites include Aucuba japonica (Gold-Dust plant), Fatsia japonica, Zantedeschia varieties (Arum and Calla lilies), Acanthus mollis (Bear’s breeches), Hosta varieties (they’ll need moist conditions), Cordyline stricta, C. rubra and C. australis (they come in some very colourful variations) and probably the largest of all foliage plant leaves, Alocasia (Elephant’s Ears).
By the way, all of these plants will also flower but are grown predominantly for their decorative foliage.
Groundcovers for shady spots include Violas (both V. odorata and the native V. banksii are beaut for moister spots), Ajuga reptans, Scleranthus biflorus, Bergenia (can be a bit temperamental), Lamium (needs consistent moisture), Tiarella and Heuchera (both in the same family), English Ivy (this can become rampant so be careful) and the old favourite, mondo grass (Ophiopogon japonicus), which will cover a shady spot through slowly-spreading underground rhizomes.
There are quite a number of mondo grass varieties, including stunning variegated cultivars.
In the small shrub category, look for some interesting varieties of Plectranthus suitable for shaded beds (two rippers are ‘Mona Lavender’ and ‘Velvet Elvis’), and another almost luminous beauty called Justicia ‘Firefly’.
Of course, if we’re looking to grow plants in shade we have to mention ferns.
Not all ferns like deep shade, but you won’t go too wrong if you choose selected species from genera such as Adiantum (maidenhairs), Doodia (rasp ferns), Blechnum (fishbone water fern and Lady fern),
Cyathea and Dicksonia (tree ferns), and Crytomium (Holly Fern).
Watch out for some ferns as they can be invasive, particularly the fishbone fern (Nephrolepis cordifolia).
Most of the plants listed above, whilst enjoying the darker spots in your garden, come with some care required.
That care is in the form of adequate moisture at all times, and keeping an eagle-eye out for pests and diseases, which come in the form of moisture-loving snails and slugs, mealy bugs and scale, and fungal and bacterial attacks which are common in the high humidity of a protected shady nook.
Of course, some Australian native plants can also tolerate shady spots in your garden.
The native fuchsia, or Correa, is a beautiful small shrub for understory plantings.
Other Aussie natives that actually prefer shade include Indigofera australis (Austral indigo), some of the mintbushes (Prostanthera), the flax lilies (Dianella), the edible Midgin berry (Austromyrtus dulcis), and Chorizema cordatum, a little toughie commonly called the heart-leaved flame pea, sporting masses of orange-red pea flowers in spring.
Another pea-flowered native from around our regions is Hardenbergia violacea, a sprawling climber in a semi-shaded spot, rewarding the grower with mauve-purple blooms in winter/spring.
If your shady spot is under a moisture-sucking evergreen tree, then the logical choice is the wondrous Clivia. Why “wondrous”? Well, there is probably no other plant with the ability to survive dry shade as the Clivia.
Not only does it produce architectural dark-green, linear leaves up to 1m, but rewards us with bright orange flowers each year around August-September.
Newer hybrids produce cream, yellow, green, apricot, and reddish blooms as well.
Don’t forget the old favourite shade-lovers such as Aspidistra, aptly nick-named the Cast-Iron plant, begonias, of which there are countless variations in leaf shape and colour, and the quirky but forgiving bromeliads, at home in gravel, sand, mounted in trees, actually everywhere except wet, heavy soils.