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Landscape Design New England Gardening Gardening in Shade

How to make this look good

last year

I have an area of deep dry shade that I am trying to make look nice. One of the few flowering plants that reliably blooms is native, weedy heartleaf aster. When they are in big, billowing clumps, they look good. Straggling in bits, not so much.
How do I position clumps so I don't have a monoculture, but don't have individual plants straggling? I'm putting violets and tiarella, which also do well.

Featured Answer

diggerdee zone 6 CT

last year

That's a very large area! My first thought was that it needs some definition. Perhaps some kind of edging, and maybe some mulch to define the bed and keep the weeds down, and then you may be better able to place your plants.

Do you WANT to have only the asters and hosta? I would add more hostas and then fill in with the asters (and tiarella you mentioned above) in swaths.

If you are looking for other plants geranium macrorrhizum (sp?) works well as do epimedium and ferns I think too. I don't have a lot of dry shade but I have had success with the geranium and also hellebores.

:)

Dee

Comments (9)

Sigrid
Original Author
last year
Straggling plants

Beautiful billows
Sigrid
Original Author
last year
I want to use lots of asters, but I don't want it to look like regimented clumps so many feet apart. I want the clump placement to look natural.
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Sigrid
Original Author
last year
No, my vision is a naturalistic garden, full of stuff. I've been planting the tiarella, but I tend to start small, because not everything works well for me. I need to transplant more volunteer ferns from elsewhere in the garden. My goal is to have the edges better defined.

I'm not that fond of hosta, but it's there and it obviously does just fine in deep, very dry shade.
diggerdee zone 6 CT
last year
I meant to include ferns in my post above. I think once established they may do well in dry shade, and IMO would work well in a naturalistic garden. Of course anything you plant will need supplemental water until established.

Again, I do think some kind of definition of the bed will help you visualize how you want to place your plantings. At least, lol, it would help me!

As a hosta lover, I have to ask - have you seen some of the gorgeous hostas out there? I ask because so many people think hostas are just plain boring green, and are surprised when they see the variety of shapes, colors and sizes they come in!

:)

Dee
Sigrid thanked diggerdee zone 6 CT
PRO
Dig Doug's Designs
last year
Here are a few suggestions:
Sigrid
Original Author
last year
I have seen all sorts of hostas. My BIL has a hosta bed. I didn't like them as a kid --- I wanted my mother to grow roses and she grew hostas. (She had dry shade, too).

So, while I have a lot of the plain hostas, I haven't been that interested in buying new ones. I'm also hoping to be mostly native.
deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b
last year
My dry shade is served well by Geranium macrorrhizum (what a stellar plant for dry shade), and Christmas fern, both native. Christmas ferns create a very naturalistic environment and the great thing is they contrast wonderfully in leaf form and height with the Geranium.
Sigrid thanked deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b
Nancy R z5 Chicagoland
last year
I find that lamium and Autumn Joy sedum also do OK in shade. I use the big root geraniums too. The lamium and geraniums spread and make a nice filler in between taller plants.

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