Perfect shady characters for rising damp
Most people associate a traditional English deciduous woodland with bluebells; they appear just before the burst of new leaves above them blocks out the light.
But take a walk through a wood in
May and you will be assailed by an unmistakable pungency – the scent of onions – and the sight of a sea of white flowers.
Wild garlic, or Allium ursinum – also known as ramsons, buckrams, broadleaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek or bear’s garlic – is a wild relative of chives.
Ramsons are native to most of Europe, and as long as the climate is temperate, the plants will grow and spread year after year; huge colonies are common in ancient, healthy woodlands. The same applies to bluebells, so they are often found growing together.
Neither would be the perfect choice for a small, suburban garden, but where space isn’t an issue, they could be ideal – if you can forgive them their somewhat invasive tendencies.
But leaving them aside, there are many more bulbs ideal for shady, damp and sheltered spots. The traditional lent lily, for example, Narcissus pseudonarcissus, can grow to more than a foot in height and produce masses of yellow blooms.
Then there are several varieties of
Scilla, the summer snowflake, Leucojum Aestivum, and a couple of Erythronium that not only have delightful flowers but which also seed freely. The pick of the bunch is probably E revolutum, which grows to a height of 12in and whose flowers are pink with yellow centres.
And, of course, snowdrops, some of which are far more vigorous than others, so they can spread quite quickly to form large drifts in late winter.
Something a bit more delicate? The fragrant blooms of Cyclamen repandum, which appear in spring, are reddish pink. It’s not overly hardy, but in a sheltered, shady spot it may thrive.