Selection Of Plants For A Garden In A Shady Place

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Deciduous shady garden

Buttercup anemone

Often, while working in our Botanical Garden, I hear from visitors: “Even your shady flower beds look so beautiful! And at our dacha there is such a shadow that nothing grows …”.

In fact, in order to decorate a shady area of the garden, it is necessary to know both the important ecological features of plants and the conditions of our climate - then it will not be difficult to create a composition even in a thick shade, whether it be a small flower garden or a large array.

It is often difficult to grow something in the dense shade of trees. The fact is that in our North-West, in the subzone of the southern taiga on the border with the zone of coniferous-deciduous forests, as a rule, the choice of plants is limited by natural conditions. In our dark, dense spruce forests, the soils are very poor and acidic. In addition, due to the redistribution of precipitation under such powerful thickets, it is very dry, and many plants simply die from a lack of moisture.

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Only a few species can survive in such conditions: for example, the hairy ogne is a discreet cereal plant, sometimes forming a kind of "lawns" under the canopy of mighty firs, or the bracken fern, which is relatively resistant to dryness. Therefore, if your site partially passes into the forest, do not expect that decorative shade-loving plants that have come to us from deciduous forests will take root there - after all, they prefer moist and fertile soil fertilized with long-term accumulations of leaf humus.

Therefore, when decorating a shady corner, first of all, you need to figure out what type your site belongs to - fertile moist shady (usually deciduous forest) or poor dry shady (often coniferous). If you choose the right species composition of plants, you can get a beautiful combination capable of self-sustaining without unnecessary human intervention.

Aquilegia (catchment)

There are many articles devoted to typical plants of a deciduous shady garden, such as astilbe and hosta. Therefore, it will be more interesting to pay attention to those plants that are more rarely used in landscaping private shady gardens, although by right they can be much more common. These include the following types.

Aquilegia (catchments) are beautiful and unpretentious. Most of them feel better under trees and shrubs, in the near-trunk circles of large trees. In partial shade, almost any aquilegia blooms longer than in the sun, and the flowers do not shrink. Aquilegia ordinary, Siberian and blue feel especially good in the shady garden. But even if the soil was well prepared before planting the catchment, fertile soil should be poured under the bushes every year.

The flowering of aquilegia occurs in May-June, sometimes in July, and in late summer, in some species, re-flowering is observed. Wild species of aquilegia are so beautiful from nature that many of them from the middle of the 17th century began to be introduced into culture without any selection. In the garden, a combination of aquilegia with various cereals and ferns looks very decorative.

Lanceolate stellate is often found in deciduous and coniferous-deciduous forests. It is a perennial herb with a thin, branchy creeping rhizome. Blooms in May-June. Due to the high growth rate, starfish grows easily and occupies large areas. Lanceolate starfish is best used for decorating large spots among trees in places where the sun's rays glide from time to time.

The narrow, dark green leaves of stellate are very good, but this plant is especially impressive during flowering due to the abundance of rather large white flowers. True, this plant also has a drawback - the starlet reproduces very quickly by seeds, clogging up neighboring flower beds, so it is better not to place it close to the lawn in order to avoid clogging.

European hoof

The European hoof is a plant with dense leaves, shaped like a hoof print. Above, the leaves are dark green, smooth, as if polished, on long pubescent petioles. Clefthoof blooms in April-May. The flowers are drooping, bell-shaped, brown-green outside, dark red inside with a purple tint with a pleasant, barely noticeable aroma.

The small height (only up to 10 cm) and ease of care made the clefthoof very popular in shade garden landscaping. Its creeping rhizome produces many lateral shoots each year, due to which a continuous carpet of glossy leaves is quickly formed. Distinct white veins form a pattern on the leaf blades of the clefthoof and give this plant a special decorative effect.

Due to its decorative leaves and the ability to form a beautiful low carpet in semi-shady and shady places, hoofs are often used in landscape design as a ground cover plant. Clefthoof is an excellent backdrop for other plants, and is very beautiful when planted next to early spring plants, especially anemone and woods. Combinations of clefthoof with ferns, kupena and other shade-tolerant species with lighter and matte leaves also look impressive.

Helone oblique

Slanting helone is a relatively new culture in domestic gardens. This is a perennial herb with a height of 80-100 cm (some forms form a compact bush, not exceeding 50-75 cm). Shoots are straight, strong. Leaves are dark green, shiny, with clearly visible veins, lanceolate or oval with a pointed end, with a jagged edge. Large flowers are collected in short, thick, spike-shaped inflorescences that form at the tops of the shoots. The color of the flowers varies from lilac-pink to pink-purple.

Wild species of chelone grow in nature in damp places, on forest edges, in meadows and in the mountains of North America, so chelone can become a spectacular element of a flower garden in damp shaded areas of the garden, under dense crowns of trees and shrubs. Helone will be beautifully combined with ferns, bush and decorative sedges. Due to the long autumn bloom, chelone is an indispensable element of seasonal garden compositions. Even when many autumn species have already faded, the chelone brushes continue to bloom.

Early spring plants deserve special mention - as a rule, they manage to bloom before the leaves appear on the trees, so the density of the tree canopy has little effect on their beauty and abundance of flowers.

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Medunitsa vague

Medunitsa unclear - the most common type of lungwort in central Russia. It is a miniature bush no more than 30 cm high.

It has wide, heart-shaped leaves covered with slight pubescence. Lungwort is very beautiful during the flowering period, which begins in early spring and lasts for a month. The flowers are collected in paired small-flowered curls on the tops of the stems, the corolla of the flower is usually funnel-shaped. The flowers are usually lilac, but occasionally there are specimens with white or purple flowers.

In inflorescences-curls of lungwort, you can see both pink and blue flowers. After flowering, the lungwort forms many leaves, without losing its decorative effect even in thick shade until the end of summer.

Buttercup anemone, or buttercup anemone, is a perennial herb of the buttercup family, belonging to the group of spring ephemeroids. This plant is found in deciduous and mixed forests, among shrubs. The foliage and flowers of the anemone begin to unfold almost simultaneously, in early spring. The stem is single, up to 30 cm high. The leaves are tripartite, with rhombic lobes.

Flowering begins around mid-April and lasts about two weeks. Peduncle is usually single, sometimes double-triple. Bright golden-yellow flowers of the anemones are pubescent below. They are open during the day in dry, sunny and warm weather; under other conditions, the petals are closed in order to preserve the pollen. By the beginning of summer, only dead foliage remains above the rhizome of the buttercup anemone, and then the ground part dies off.

Goose bow

Goose onion is a small-bulbous early spring plant, its homeland is Europe. Since it prefers rich soils and good drainage, it is often found in the wild on the outskirts of fields, in thickets of bushes. This member of the lily family, a relative of tulips and fritillaria, is also often found in ancient gardens and parks, and its star-shaped flowers are very decorative.

Goose onions bloom almost simultaneously with anemone and lungwort, sometimes completely covering forest glades and edges. In the North-West of European Russia, there are four types of goose onions. The most widespread small goose bow. Its height reaches an average of 15 cm, long basal leaves about 5 mm wide resemble fescue leaves, which is why goose onions fit so well into lawn compositions.

The flower petals are pointed at the top, at the peak of flowering (in April-May) this plant looks like a scattering of yellow stars in the grass. At the base of the bulbs, small bulbs are always formed (sometimes up to three at a time), therefore, when plowing the soil, the goose onions quickly spread over a large area.

Zelenchuk yellow

Zelenchuk yellow is an unusually beautiful ground cover plant. In nature, it grows in deciduous and coniferous-deciduous forests of the European part of Russia.

The Russian name “zelenchuk” was given to the plant because it grows rapidly, forming a green carpet that retains its green color in winter. It is a perennial plant with a branchy creeping rhizome and erect flowering shoots 15-30 cm tall extending from it and creeping shoots rooting at the nodes. In the forest, continuous thickets of zelenchuk often stretch for many tens of meters.

Zelenchuk blooms in May-June. The flowers have a pale yellow corolla 17-25 mm long; they are located in the axils of the upper leaves, three on each side, forming false whorls. Zelenchuk is a nectar plant that attracts insects with its pleasant aroma. To maintain the planting of all of the above plants on drier and poorer soils, you will have to carefully monitor the moisture regime, feed, improve the soil structure - in a word, there will be a lot of worries. Therefore, other types of plants are better suited for this type of garden.

Read the next part. Plants suitable for a garden under the crowns of coniferous trees →