Grasses for shady areas
Although they prefer sun, there are a few shade lovers out there
From a light dappling caused by buildings or distant trees, to the more intense, deep shade found under the canopy of established trees, there are some tough and sturdy grasses that make themselves invaluable to gardeners dealing with these situations. Take, for example, the wonderfully named
Anemanthele lessoniana or pheasant’s tail grass, which, coming from New Zealand, is one of the star performers for dry shade. It’s about the tallest evergreen grass (1m/39in) you can get and grows quickly to make wonderful mounds of foliage that can turn gradually through many shades and tints of greens, muted yellow and ambers to almost orange. As if this wasn’t enough, the whole plant can cover itself in masses of individual, tiny pink flowers that literally cascade down the plant and hide the foliage. Pheasant’s tail will also do well in sunny and dry conditions but won’t like wet soils in sun or shade. Technically not all the grasses that cope with shade are botanically true grasses, but are related in some way or another to grasses, such as the carex or sedges, for example. Nonetheless, from a gardener’s viewpoint these related plants are sufficiently close in looks and cultural requirements to be known as ‘grass-like’.
The sedges offer many highly attractive garden plants, many of which will be happy in varying degrees of shade and wet or dry soils. Carex ‘Ice Dance’ is a low, attractive evergreen that forms gradually-spreading mounds of almost indestructible, variegated foliage. It’s one of the toughest plants I know for coping with dry shade under trees and bushes where little else will grow successfully. While not so keen on deep shade, carex
‘Evergold’ is another evergreen that’s happy under the canopy of larger shrubs where it’s not too dark. I’ve a group in my own garden under a large myrtle that have been doing well there for around 10 years or so, and have needed virtually no attention in all that time.
The woodsedges (luzula), are great plants for wet or dry shade. While Luzula
sylvatica ‘Marginata’ might not appear that exciting at first glance, its ability to colonise dark and shady places with tough evergreen foliage in wet or dry soils just has to be admired. Luzula nivea might not cope with the darkest of dry shade but it produces masses of airy, white flowers in late spring that are especially valuable. If the flowers and old foliage are cut back after blooming it will produce a whole new sheaf of leaves that are covered in delicate, white hairs.
The hakone grass (hakonechloa) is a most beautiful and distinct grass from Japan. While not the fastest to establish in the ground, these grasses are very long-lived (10 to 20 years), and have about the most elegant foliage of any of the grasses. Hakonechloa
macra has plain green leaves which are much longer than wide and which gradually reduce to a pointed tip.
Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’ is one of my personal favourites for its beautifully marked green and yellow leaves, which while a stronger yellow/ gold in sun become a more subtle shade of greenish-yellow in shade.
All the hakone grasses will cope with a fair degree of shade but will not be happy in wet soils. All make great shady container plants.