Ideas or suggestions what to plant in this shady area.

Discussion in 'General Gardening Discussion' started by Grays, May 25, 2024.

  1. KayJ

    KayJ Gardener

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    Geranium nodosum is good in drier shade and flowers right into late autumn (unlike G. phaeum which is just going over now and will need a hack in the next few weeks), and is even just about evergreen. Several cultivars including a lovely white. Epimedium also happy in dry shade and is a great groundcover, some varieties are evergreen. Pulmonaria is good, but may need a bit of watering if the ground is on the dry side. Astrantias might work too but again may need a bit of watering in dry spells.
     
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    • fairygirl

      fairygirl Total Gardener

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      You'll probably have thousands then! You've sown a bit too generously... ;)
      If you think about how they reproduce naturally - they produce thousands of seeds, and also over a period of time due to their flowering habit, but not all will survive due to weather and conditions etc, and many won't manage winter if they're tiny - the later falling ones especially. It's a bit like frogspawn - thousands of eggs are produced, because not all will survive through to adulthood. :smile:

      You can take clumps of them, once they're large enough to handle, and pot them up into something about 4 to 6 inches diameter, then gradually remove the weakest ones over the following couple of months. That will leave you pots with two or three decent sized seedlings for planting out later, and is probably the easiest method. You can try thinning them in the tray, but that could be soul destroying, and very tricky. They can still go outdoors, unless they're only just showing, in which case just acclimatise them for a few days. That will also help to thin out the weakest ones. Once you have them they'll seed around, but many of them can revert to the wild violet one, so be prepared for that too.

      If you have that quantity, you'll need a huge amount of pots to prick them out individually!
       
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      • Plantminded

        Plantminded Head Gardener

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        If you have any of your foxglove seeds left, just scatter them in your border and let them germinate naturally, much easier. You won’t get flowers until their second year though. They are a feature in spring but I find that they don’t hold their flowers for long here and become messy and are promptly removed!
         
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          Last edited: Jun 16, 2024
        • Busy-Lizzie

          Busy-Lizzie Total Gardener

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          I was going to say - Astilbes like moist conditions so I'd be wary of using them, but @fairygirl has beaten me to it!

          I started with 6 foxglove plants that I bought. I let some go to seed then I scatter them. I get lots of little plants that I thin out. They've been lovely this year. I've already posted photo on another thread but here is one again.
          20240516_162314.jpg
           
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