'Jungle' plants for cool shade.

Evening all.

I bought some more plants at the weekend. It is not unusually for me to keep new plants in the kitchen for a few days until I get round to planting them out. However the latest one has produced an unusual response.

Its a Fatsia Japonica. According to my son, it is a jungle. It hadn't been there long before I started to find dinosaurs and a plastic snake hiding under/in it and by today it had also accumulated a giraffe and monkey.

I bought this plant to go in a spot out the back that gets almost no sunshine. Research suggested it would be fine. I was going to go for a minimalist arrangement in the spot in question but now I'm thinking I will build a mini jungle there so the lad can play dinosaurs and snakes to his heart's content.

Any ideas for other hardy plants that look like 'jungle' plants, but will happily thrive with next to no direct sunlight (maybe an hour of setting sun in mid summer), potentially pretty cold (north facing wall), and able to stand up to a 3 year old and playing dinosaurs in it?

I can get some hardy ferns, and have thought about hostas. Anything else?

 

Hi clueless , if the soil is moist enough you can try bamboo , will trive nice in shade , if it would be for the kids I would suggest gunnera manicata , but very spiny unless you want to go for something softer like rhubarbs or rheum , but check for poison leaves first .
Rhubarb

rheum palmatum

gunnera manicata

dicksonia antartica

zebra grass

aspridistra

 

Some of the Euphorbias?

 

How about a little hidy hut. Just a simple frame surrounded by that bamboo screening you use to hide fences.
Ligularia would probably work in that area too.

 

Kids likely to be allergic to the sap?

T. Rex - although probably a bad idea - huge - (dunno if it will grow in shade). Definitely got the right name though!

 

Fatsia japonica