Shade plants: Gardening in the dark
Sunlight is overrated. Sure, lilacs and lavender need hours of sunlight to thrive. But give us shade plants such as hostas, ferns, tree peonies and lacecap hydrangeas luxuriating in a dappled shade, and we’re over the moon.
The best shade gardens overflow with masses of shrubs, flowers, and statuesque trees, not the stuff of timid borders.
So, why have shade gardens been given such a bum rap? Somehow, a perception emerged, probably among amateur gardeners, that it was hard to grow visually interesting and colourful plants beneath a dark cover and in often very wet or impossibly dry, hard soil. Shade became equated with lacklustre displays.
Here’s a secret: shade gardens can be among the most captivating outdoor spaces, a gift from Mother Nature.
“It’s such fun to see how they change as a season progresses — leaves and colours emerge, shade increases, and at the peak of summer, they become a cool, restful retreat,” says landscape architect Robert Hursthouse.
He and other landscape professionals stress the importance of understanding what makes these idiosyncratic gardens successful.
Landscape architect Doug Hoerr of HoerrSchaudt Landscape Architects adds an important, yet very basic caveat: “Accept the reality of the site, and you’ll make smart choices.”
Before you know it, feathery tall astilbes, colourful limelight hydrangeas, and vinca minor or liriope ground covers will thrive under your favourite hackberry, Eastern redbud or ginkgo tree.
Here are eight tips from some of our favourite garden pros:
A shade garden lends itself to layering: In gardens designed by Ryan and Claire Kettelkamp of Kettelkamp & Kettelkamp Landscape, ground covers create a base, shrubs are planted midlevel and mature trees arch above.
Go matchy: Match a garden’s three main components — trees, shrubs and flowers — to your topography, soil, climate and the amount of light that may peek through. To secure the best results, take snapshots of your site, study the amount of light at different times of day, take soil samples, measure the size of areas to landscape and share this information with an expert at a f avourite garden centre or nursery. That person will suggest possibilities.
Study the soil: Understand that soil can be the single biggest challenge, even more than the amount of light. The earth where the shade garden is planted may lack sufficient organic matter that helps reduce water and nutrient loss. Your garden centre pro can advise how to amend it with additional materials.
Dig, plant, repeat: Go bold in an area or two with repetitive massings of the same plants that work well on your site to achieve dramatic effect.
“Think of the massings as big brush strokes that are memorable, especially in a larger garden. You’ll find yourself thinking, ‘I can’t wait for May when my rhododendrons bloom,’” says landscape architect Ryan Kettelkamp.
Contain it: Remember to include container gardens, those portable wonders that should vary by the amount of shade: light, medium or heavy. Some of the Kettelkamps’ favourites: Dragon Wing begonia, Gartenmeister fuchsia, Angelonia, maidenhair fern and Oxalis ‘Charmed Velvet.’
Plant a surprise: Use colour, texture, size and form to punch up your design. Choices that work range from astilbes with purple flowers to yellow ligularia, grape hyacinths and other bulbs that thrive in shade, and big hostas with colourful leaf variations, says HoerrSchaudt landscape architect Steve Gierke. Varying texture, size and form will pack a strong graphic wallop.