All About Home and Garden

Shade can be the bane of gardener's lives. Several years ago I moved from a garden that received full sun (and I could hardly find any shade in summer) to one that was shady. It was very frustrating as I had to adjust to the fact that I could not grow my favourite summer annuals. But I began to realise I could grow other things beside impatiens. I brought 6 inch pots (14cm) or tubes 3 inch (7cm) because they were cheaper and they recover from transplant shock quicker. I brought a Cheiranthus sp. (Wallflower), a new mini cultivar Abutilon (Chinese lantern), of a course Daphne odora plus lots of Helleborus sp.

There are a couple of basic rules for successful gardening in the shade. The first is chose plants that suit the position. It is no good putting full-sun plants in shady positions because they need light to provide them with energy to grow. They will struggle and cause lots of disappointment. The second is to remember that the summer sun is higher in the sky than in winter. That means in summer a garden bed might be in full sun and in winter receive none. So you need plants that can tolerate these huge variations. In the front garden I had roses and in winter they only receive mid day sun. Deciduous plants suit this situation perfectly.

Understanding the type of shade you have in your garden is the trick to your success. There are different types of shade for example there is deep shade often down the side of the house or under trees, light shade and dappled shade. If you are struggling with deep shade and nothing will grow, accept defeat gracefully and mulch. Light shade is where there is some illumination and plants with low light requirements will grow there. Dapple shade is where the light filters through the canopy and receives some sunlight during the day. If you are creating a bed under trees, be aware that some trees such as gum tree secrete allopathic chemicals to limit competition. You also need to be careful of building up the soil level around the trunk as you could inadvertently kill the tree. You should be able to see the flare of the trunk at the base. This is a sign that the ground level hasn't been altered. By raising the soil level around the base, you are not only encouraging the collar rot (a fungal disease) you are starving the surface roots of oxygen. This could cause the tree to die. Lemon trees take about 5 years to die.

Finding plants for shady spots is difficult so that is why I dug out some of my favourites and took cuttings of others. I dug out a couple of shade loving salvia's and a delphinium which I moved rather hastily to my new house. A word of warning when you move into a new place theoretically you should observe the garden for at least a year before you do any major alterations. But I didn't have time, so I quickly worked out the east and west sun, plonk them in and hoped for the best. Well the Salvia miniata and S. forskaohlei were absolutely fine. S. miniata has the most beautiful glossy leaves with the most brilliant bright red flowers, great for adding colour in a dark area and S. forskaohlei has the most wonderful mauve with white dots on the throat and a bonus it will self seed. The Delphinium requienii also survived and is an absolute boomer in the shade sending up lovely purple flowers and lots of seed.

Shady areas can be dull and another trick is to put variegated foliage plants such as Aucuba japonica 'Variegata' at strategic points. The lime green leaves will brighten up a dark corner and when the sun shines on them will dazzle you for a moment.

Finally, here are some not so common plants (but obtainable) that will tolerate shade: Nicotiana 'Prelude Mix', Tornia 'Blue', Hosta sp., Streptocarpus saxorum, Sarcococca ruscifolia, Mahonia sp. Euphoribia sp., Fuchsia sp., Mackaya bella, Murraya paniculate and Eupatorium megalophyllum. Clivia miniata will survive superbly in dry shade. Except for the clivia you will need to visit your local nursery and ask them to order the above plants in for you.

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One of my favorite bushes are hydrangeas. They come in so many varieties and are reliable, often constant bloomers. They tolerate full sun to full shade.

Lemon Daddy Hydrangeas are a perfect shade shrub for your garden. What is great about them is even when they are not blooming, the color "pops" due to the hard-to- miss lemon color or chartreuse (yellow green) foliage. This is perfect when your shade garden could use some brightening up. The more sunlight the leaves get - the more lemony the color, the more shade - the more chartreuse.

Last year I ended up moving some Lemon Daddy's I had planted two years ago because they got too much shade and never bloomed. I transplanted them all to partially shady spots: one near my front door for a vibrant welcome, one near my kitchen window where I can see it, and one in the back yard near my peonies (vestiges of my sunny garden).

I actually like them so much, I bought three more as replacements for potentillas (that needed a sunnier location). The bright lemon color pops from behind the boxwood and is visible to passers by from the street.

I had been watching the potentilla we planted one and a half years ago die a slow death. There simply wasn't enough sun even though there was strong mid-day sun. But don't kid yourself - a full sun location is 6 hours plus - preferably from mid-day to late afternoon. The sun-loving potentilla just didn't work in this location. In fact I had gone through several bushes in that location with the previous residents being PJM Rhododedrons - those winter hardy, shade loving, beautiful purple flowering bushes in spring. However, they died as well.

I was thinking that there had to be something wrong and after having a soil test done, I discovered that my soil was alkaline probably due to leftover stucco construction materials in the soil around my house. Despite amending the soil with acid when we planted the rhododendrons, I obviously didn't add enough acid either when they were planted or on an ongoing basis. Rhododendrons, and their close cousins azaleas, are acid loving shade shrubs.

Given that there is only so much time I want to put into garden maintenance, I decided it was not worth the constant maintenance the rhododendrons would required to keep them going. Luckily hydrangeas are very tolerant of soil pH thriving in a broad range of conditions.

When planting your new Lemon Daddys, follow standard planting instructions. You should be sure to scratch the root ball to break up the roots (a dandelion digger or cultivator will work fine for this. This prevents the roots from continuing to grow in a tight circle and encourages them to grow freely in the soil for a healthier plant. You should dig a hole two times bigger than the root ball and when planted the root ball should be level with the ground.

Since hydrangeas like to be hydrated, be sure to amend the soil with compost or peat moss to maintain even soil moisture. Then look forward to seeing your new Lemon Daddy Hydrangeas thrive!

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