For summer bloom, you could plant a few of the smaller daylilies. They also would not object much to some shade part of the day. Daylilies can usually take care of themselves.

A late summer bloomer in my vinca-covered dappled shady bed is one of the taller anemones--I don't remember the exact name but she is pink and named Charlotte something or other and blooms right now. She will take care of herself.

I often stick a few mums in the vinca bed so I can have some autumn color. They grow there fine and don't demand a lot of sun (though they do fine in full sun also). I like to cluster three autumn colored ones: dark red-rust, bronze-gold, and yellow. Or some dark purpled ones with some white ones.

If Foxglove grows in your region, go for it. That would be gorgeous!

Hope that helps--that's what I have growing in my vinca bed--along with some hydrangeas and peonies and polyanthas and assorted others.

By the way, you do know that iris are sun-lovers, don't you?--the more sun, the better! Not sure how they would like growing in a vinca bed.

I love your picture of the area in question, but I'm sure your new plan will be lovely also.

Kate

Jackie, the whole thing looks gorgeous in what I presume is a picture taken in spring since I see daffodils. I know little about this subject, and the only suggestion I have is to do what I've done, which is to plant remontant irises. They repeat-flower almost throughout the year for me, except for the hottest parts of summer. I've had blooms in October, November, February, June, July and other months I can't remember. They each seem to have their own timetable, although this may also depend on their location. In other words, they don't necessarily all bloom at the same time, but you could probably expect some color in your strip for a large part of the year, as long as your winters are mild. There are so many colors that I don't think it would look boring even if that were all you planted there, in addition to the vinca minor. There is the chore, of course, of disposing of the dead, yellow leaves, but I imagine there would be some kind of clean-up involved for most plants.

Ingrid

If you want some freebees and will be at the rose event in San Jose, I have watsonia and and a taller once blooming purple iris I can share along with some smaller bulbs I dug up that look like the one in the lower right

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I'm becoming interested in South African bulbs and have had pretty good results with Aristea, but it may be a bit bushy. I love the blue it offers in the summer.

Perhaps a Scilla of some sort for the shade? Maybe Scilla campanulata? I think they can naturalize in your area, but someone correct me if I'm mistaken.

Jay

Ok, I have a shady garden and I love bulbs because I'm a fairly lazy gardener, but most of the bulbs I have for the shady spots are quite short. The only exception I can think of at the moment are the lilies - oriental, LA, and Christmas lilies, as well as some tiger lilies and daylilies. They prefer a partly shaded location, bloom in summer, most are very fragrant and they don't require staking. I also think foxgloves are a great idea for shadier spots.

I love dutch and bearded iris of course, and daffs, but they need quite a lot of sun here. Some other tall, spikey bulbs that I'm thinking of planting are gladioli (these can be 'timed' to bloom from summer to autumn), hippeastrum (summer blooming), tuberose (late summer - not very exciting to look at, but fragrant!), and belladonna lily (autumn blooming and fragrant). Gladioli like sun here, but the others can handle a bit of shade.

I love love love japanese anemonies for autumn blooms, and they do well in part shade here. They're just tall enough to hold their blooms above the vinca foliage.

I was thinking gladiolas too! I also have one called Acidanthera which is in the glad family. I really like it because it blooms for a long time in August and into September for me. I thought about dahlias too but mine do get rather bushy.

This is the Acidanthera

Oh, just thought I'd better mention that lilies and cats are not a good combo. If you or your neighbours have cats, please look into this further before planting.

Hyacinths, tho short, are tall enough to come thru the vinca and deer don't eat them. I'd go for lilies also, since they bloom in summer--the various Asian lilies, like tiger and star lilies, tho the latter can get quite tall. I have 10 cats and have never had a problem. But some years the deer have eaten the flowers. I'd suggest get a book on bulbs, see what you like, then find a bulb supplier.

Common Leucojum aestivum, handed down from my grandmother, is a real favorite of mine here in Livermore. The loose, nodding blooms are incredibly charming, in bloom over a long period of time for a bulb (at least several weeks or a month), and deer-proof. While in the field I've found them persisting where old homesteads have been, though the buildings are long gone, so they are tough and totally drought-adapted, but they also tolerate garden water.

I also have the variety 'Gravetye Giant' which is also wonderful, larger all around, but taller and they sometimes lean over a little if it rains.

Mine are planted where they only get some morning sun in winter; shade in the summer wouldn't matter because the leaves disappear during summer.

Here is a link that might be useful: Leucojum aestivum

Thank you all very much for all of the different ideas! I will be researching them. I feel like the little girl in the three bears story - "not too tall, not too bushy, not too much sun, not too short, not too much water, not deer candy, not need staking, not already all over my garden, not needing winter chill, etc.". You have given me so many ideas, I am sure I will find some that are "just right".

Not being a garden designer, I will probably narrow down the list to hopefully several, plant a few of each of them when we do this bed next month, and see who survives happily, and comes back the next year. Then I will plant more of those.

I will post pics of this bed, hopefully next Spring, so you can see the results.

Thanks again -

Jackie

Cyclamen? That is my best grower in dry shade. Some bloom in late fall, some in winter, some in early spring. None of mine are very tall. The leaves themselves are pretty with silver markings and a reddish back. The leaves and flowers disappear during the hottest part of the year. I am not sure how it would be able to compete with your vinca.

Iris can take a little shade. If you would like to use a reblooming iris, they come in all sizes and colors like a regular iris and some are fragrant. I believe there is a photo of one blooming in Ingrid's garden awhile ago. I would check with others in CA for the best varieties for your area. My own success so far is with a standard dwarf bearded called 'Baby Blessed', a soft yellow with white markings. It has been blooming on and off since the end of July for me. It multiplies readily, too. I have others but this is my most reliable rebloomer.

Hope you find what will work best for you.

Thanks - if there were Dutch reblooming iris, I would run and get some. I have lots of bearded iris in other parts of my garden, including re-blooming ones. My issue with them for this particular bed is that they are so happy here that they make huge clumps, which I don't want, and also become too crowded very rapidly and have to be dug up, which I am trying to avoid as I am lazy.

Jackie

Woo hoo finally a discussion that I can contribute to. My roses are all just babies, but I feel confident yammering on about bulbs and dry shade.
Look up Bill the Bulb Baron in Santa Cruz. He grows a great selection of heirloom bulbs, many of them found growing around old California homesteads, so like found roses, they're tough. I just ordered a bunch of tazetta narcissus and a huge box of 'naked ladies' amyrilis from him. The amyrilis should work pretty well for your situation, and Bill has different colors, not just the standard pink that is probably all over your neighborhood.

I also second Catspa's recomendation of leucojum, like hers, mine thrive with only morning sun and no water. Jay mentioned Spanish bluebells (used to be Scilla campanulata, now Hyacinthoides hispanica); I love these guys, but they do spread if they receive irrigation. Scilla peruviana is good too.

My favorite alium is A schubertii, fireworks onion, they look like Sputnik. I admit that I plant them more for curiosity than beauty.

Have you thought about any mat forming succulents that have an airy vertical blossom? Calendrinia spectibilis, aloe saponaria, and various Echeverias do well in dry shade in my garden.

Sounds like a fun project.

Marion

I second the suggestions of Anemone japonica and cyclamen (one of these has been blooming since July and is still going strong). Kate's suggestion of "Charlotte" was I believe of A. japonica. Charlotte is pink as are many others, some deeper, Prince Henry, and some lighter, and some are white, Honorine Jobert and double Whirlwind. These last are my favorites but then I am partial to white flowers. Here A. japonica start in late August and continue until frost, thrive in partial shade, have pretty leaves and stay about 12-18" inches tall until the bloom spikes form. These will grow anywhere from 18" to 4' depending on variety and how rainy the summer had been. You might try Lycoris and Nerine both have species, and hybrids, that have foliage in the Winter (when your trees will be bare and let in the sunshine) yet die down in the Summer and both have varieties that bloom in the late Summer and into Fall. Good luck with your project. Although I must say that the garden looks pretty enough as it is.

By the way, did you ever find your white flowered Daphne odora?

Cath

Oh! I just bought two plants of daphne odora alba at the local hardware shop. I was there to buy potting mix but when I smelled these beauties they just jumped into my trolley... Doesn't help since I'm in Oz, sorry. But I understand why you want them now!

Catsrose, I'm very happy to hear that you cats and lillies have co-habited well together. The horror stories on The Internet had put my off planting any as my neighbours have cats, but I will go ahead and out some in now :)

Jackie, I have lots of Spanish bluebells and they are lovely for shady spots, but they're not hugely tall - they'd be lucky to make it to about 10 inches. Same with my cyclamen, although I have the cyclamen planted in with my hellebores and bleeding heart, and the cyclamen are just about my favourite winter flower, after camellias.

Jackie,

More on the nerines: For delightful eye candy, google "nerines exbury". On the page it takes you to, under Nerines it will say click here. On that next page there is a panel on the right side. Click on the pix. On that next page on the left side the nerines are listed alphabetically. Click the first and pictures of the nerines will show up. (This sounds way more complicated than it is. I just didn't want to lose you in the process.)

Cath

Thank you all again for all of the ideas! It always amazes me how different plants act in different gardens, even in theoretically similar climates.

Randomly, Spanish bluebells love my garden, but make large tall clumps which are too big for what I am contemplating. I have planted nerines several times before, and they disappeared quite promptly never to be seen again (except one which miraculously re-appeared 10 years later). Naked ladies, on the other hand, love it here and have naturalized in vacant lots all around here. I have original pink ones (which from the old pics have been in my garden forever), and also some larger white ones and darker pink ones that I planted - they are happy here. They are just setting seed, so I will go on line and find out how to grow them from seed - that will be fun.

I have ordered leucojum, lots of the shorter warm climate narcissus, Dutch iris, some sort of allium which looks natural and theoretically grows in the shade, some sort of short lily called ixiolirion tartaricum, and with the naked ladies that will be enough for now. I will plant some of them in the sunny side some in the shady side, and some in both just to see what happens.

Cyclamen does grow well here, but I think it is too short, and frankly, I do not really like it (don't know why).

Muscovyduckling - I am so jealous that you just found daphne odora alba "at the local hardware shop"! I went to our local nursery, which is independent, and the oldest nursery in California ( the 4th generation of the same family owns it). They said they could not even order it for me! I could not find it on line either. One place had it, but could not ship to CA. Anyway, I got the normal one with pink flowers but varigated foliage, and it is happy in its new planter which my DH built for it, so it would be in a "raised bed" and would thus have the great drainage they need.

This forum is wonderful - when I posted basically this same question on the bulb forum, I got no responses at all until the third day, and then someone responded, I think just to be polite, but with no suggestions.

Jackie

Jackie, there is one problem with your bed, it is BEAUTIFUL and as many beautiful things, it demands attention--constant attention. One thing you can do is consider layering bulbs in an effort to reduce the work. Once one layer starts dying off, the next layer emerges, and so on. My next thought was caladiums, you can find some tall ones and there are shade loving and sun loving ones. My fragrant Asiatic lilies do well in partial shade and for the past 3 years have returned reliable.

Other than that, it's gonna be a matter of filling holes as plants die off. I will say that the way it looks in the pic, doesn't seem like you need to do a thing to it. Very beautiful.

Here is a link that might be useful: layering bulbs

Thanks for the idea, HiClover. I ordered some amaryllis from Bill. Lou

What did you order Lou?

I stopped in at the nursery he said carries a few of his bulbs on the way back from San Jose. I was hoping to pick up a couple of different amaryllis from the white and pink I have, but they only had those two in the store. I did get a few of the Erlicheer and Golden Dawn. Maybe next year I will place a regular order and get a few more.

Jackie, I'm sorry you couldn't find your Daphne - but you never know, it might just turn up in the most unexpected of places, like it did for me!

If I were you, I would have another look in your winter/spring season when it's blooming - over here a lot of the big box stores get bulk lots of plants in during their blooming season, as that's probably the only time of year they can sell these more unusual plants.

Congrats on your bulb purchases! Now for the planting...

muscovyduckling - that is a good idea, looking when the daphne are in bloom - I will try that.

Yes, I have ordered the bulbs, and 600 tiny vinca plants. Not looking forward to the planting. My DH is going to rototill the entire 50' by 8' ft bed (after we remove some bulbs that are already in there, and except of course for the 3 roses), and dig in some compost while he does it. I know that the most recent idea is to not ever turn the soil, but that bed has NEVER been dug. It has been growing So African daisies for 25 years, but before that it was used for parking for 80 years - they just threw gravel on it occasionally, and sprayed weed killer. I am not worried about the weed killer - it is long gone, but the soil is compacted, to say the least.

Anyway, after he does that I will help him plant all of the vinca and the bulbs. Then accd to the nursery it has to be watered like a new lawn until the vinca takes. That will be interesting, as we are now not allowed to water anything between 9AM and 7PM, so I guess I will be getting up early.

Jackie

The man who lived across the road from me when I was a kid could be found standing in his front yard watering his lawn every day at sunset. He did this with a hose in one hand, and a Bloody Mary in the other. He looked very peaceful.

IThink of it as a nice way to take time out for quiet reflection/alcoholism :)