North facing garden

Bought a compass today and found out that my back garden points directly North. Also the house is quite tall as Victorian.

We get a lot of sun in the afternoon to evening in summer but my question is will the bulbs that are coming up now, snowdrops etc., flower? The garden has no sunlight at all at the moment and yet I noticed on my walk today that snowdrops were fully opened in other peoples gardens while we just have green stems.

Should I give up on spring bulbs in the future?

 

They'll flower, but will be a little later than in gardens where they are in full sun.
You'll have flowers when all the others have faded :D

 

At last a benefit of a totally North facing garden

 

The garden is still without sunshine :( but here's a picture of the bed with the snowdrops in. Not a great bed as any west sun that comes late on will be kept out by the fence :( Ah well we'll know for next year.

 

my garden is similar Johnny, last year bluebells, tulips and daffs and hyacinths came up. THe bluebells and hyacinths were unstoppable but the rest didn't do much, so this year I've got some in pots so I can put them in the sunny corner to get going. Snowdrops should be OK I would think.

 

Thanks Sparkle. I'll only be happy when I see flowers and know what a full year in this garden actually allows me to grow. Nothing has died in the garden yet which is a good sign.

 

you will have a fantastic garden and nothing will die as long as you pick right plants for situation.

far too late in the evening for me to go into it, but - helebores, anenomes, fritilerias, ohh all sorts, loads of people will chip in I am sure, I garden on dark damp soil and great results - stick with it, pick for your conditions.

 

Thanks Waco, any ideas of plants are greatly appreciated. When the weather is a bit better I think I'll need to do a bit of replanting to the east of the garden where probably the first rays of sunshine from the late afternoon sun from the west will come in a month or so, hopefully

 

There's a lot that can be grown in a north facing garden. My front garden is north facing, and my side garden north facing and overshadowed by my and my neighbours house.

Whats growing,

roses, fuchsia, erica, geranium, euonymus, crinodendron, lavender, mallow, new hampshire asters, primroses,hostas - bulbs = snowdrop, narcissus, bluebell.

 

Thanks Fran, all these posts are giving me hope. The last garden was East West with sun in the front garden in the morning and the back in the afternoon. This house goes directly onto a street at the front were all the sun is at present and none at the back. Hopefully another month or so and we'll see some rays of light. As soon as my snowdrops spring forth I'll post a picture.