My nursery specializes in shade plants, & there are lots of great shady characters not mentioned yet! Carex siderosticha 'Variegata' or even better... 'Silver Streams' Carex morrowi 'Ice Dance' I prefer Clematis virginiana over C. paniculata mainly because it's native. They can both be aggressive and self seed into natural areas... at least C. virginiana belongs in the US. :) Geranium macrorrhizum 'Variegatum' Geranium phaeum 'Margaret Wilson' Pretty much any hellebore ('Golden Lotus' has been amazing, 'Onyx Odyssey' has pooped out) Kirengeshoma palmata has been a great grower for me and is huge. 4'x4' every year. Lamium orvala 'Silva' not your typical groundcover lamium... this one is upright and has big flowers. Leucosceptrum in general. They need a better common name than Japanese Mountain Mint, because mint is a dirty word that scares people. These are well behaved clumpers. Salvia koyamae a big 2-3' tall and wide yellow flowered salvia for shade. Not a super flower show, but great plant. Sanguinaria canadensis - bloodroot. A great native that has short lasting flowers and awesome foliage. I WISH there were a variegated version. Solidago flexicaulis 'Variegata' A goldenrod for shade. This one has foliage splashed with gold. Not aggressive, but give it some space... 4' wide. Pretty much any Tiarella, Heuchera, or xHeucherella. Especially the creepy kinds. Uvularia grandiflora like solomon's seal but finer textured with peundulus yellow flowers from the tips. That's not to mention all the great woodies like Jap maples, Hydrangea, Lonicera, Tsuga, Taxus, Eleuthrococcus, etc etc etc! The Plant Geek www.confessionsofaplantgeek.com www.facebook.com/botanophilia www.botanophilia.com

Ruth - the leaves in last picture you posted makes me wonder if it's a R. podophylla since those one's leaves are supposed to have 'shallow lobes towards the tips' and the leaves in the picture you posted look somewhat like that, although most images of R. podophylla show quite definite lobes compared to those in your picture. But the flower panicles are supposed to be relatively short - 1' or so - so that doesn't match your description of tall flowers! However, I've also found places saying 3' flowers... I wonder whether the difference is due to measuring the whole flowerstalk vs measuring just the flowering portion? One reference I found said there was a lot of natural hybridizing between the species, so perhaps you've got a mixed one..... I'm now on the hunt for a R. podophylla! I can't imagine that conditions were too wet this spring for your astilboides. The first ones I ever saw were growing at the edge of an irrigation pond at a nearby nursery. They were in full sun so obviously needed the water. They were enormous! Perhaps though, the harsh winter cold that froze the ground deeper than normal combined with wet and shade to overwhelm them this year. Mine came through the winter fine, although they were slower than usual to emerge. Mine get water from one of our downspouts, as well as from a downspout on the neighbour to the north's house. Snails do munch on the leaves at times, so perhaps the snails got yours....? Here, the plants get shade until about 2:00 in the afternoon when they get a couple of hours of sun before they go back into dense shade from the house. shadyplace - I'm sure, in your zone, they'd need that morning sun instead.

Now I can smile about the beautiful Blue Angel and not feel sad about terminating it while it is trying so hard to live. Yes!!! The Agdia ImmunoStrip tested NEGATIVE FOR HVX. There was a control line, but there was no test line. As advised to save two strips and not test each plant separately, I combined the leaf samples from Winter Snow and Blue Angel, the two Lowes plants with a high potential for bringing HVX into my little bit of Eden. I figured the three plants located in the area (Fragrant Queen from PDN was the third innocent party) would have to be removed if any of the Lowes plants tested positive, so any results showing positive would get the whole bunch yanked. Actually RoundUp applied and neutralized as much as possible before removal in the fall, along with the soil. Now life is so much simpler. I do not have to do all these unpleasant unhappy things to my garden. I can go touch the plants, look at their new growth and the backs of the leaves, enjoy the scapes, and check for damage from insects or disease. Well, we have a second chance with my in-the-ground trio, and I may opt to put more in the ground now as well. These three are growing very well. They emerged much later than the ones which overwintered in pots, and so I hope will keep growing longer in the fall as well. Maybe they won't exhibit signs of heat dormancy. They did not last fall, still looking good when we came back south the day before Thanksgiving. And I still have 4 test kits for HVX to use before May 2013, and I will test before I worry so much next time. Whew! That was a squeaker.

"but when we moved it there, it kind of disappeared among all the grass and dwarf fruit trees." But you are considering the placement of the tree and its appearance NOW, not what it will look like or the shade it could provide once established and on its way to maturity. Katsuras will get to be large trees and no chance at all that they will "disappear" into the background - in fact, it is far more likely the case the background will "disappear" once the katsura grows and takes center stage!!