parial shade/clay soil and wet! which plants

Hi everyone. Not posted for ages but have been lurking here in the background. Am off work for two weeks but am prevented from actually doing anything for medical reasons so I am planning......

I have a boder that faces erm. maybe est/westish. It isnt in toltal darkness and when sun shines does actually get some directly. Its the wetter side of the old patch and is looking very forlrn . Main problem is that in the height of summer it looks ok but need something to give it a bit of ooomph before june. As backbone I have a mahonia, amelanchier, cornus, 2 straggly old ferns, somthing I cant remember but its all prickly like holly and has bright yellow flowers. It'll come back to me after I have posted!! I really need somthing about a foot or 2 high that likes wet boggy, clayey, partially shaded soil! OOH! that doesnt mind drting up a bit in summer. Would it be best If I were to photograph it?

 

Photos always help lazy-g The "prickly like holly" plant could be another Mahonia, M aquifolium or, more likely, one of the Berberis family.

 

Yep I agree with you David on this one Lazy-G post some pictures and let us see what you have to work with.
Helen.xxx.

 

Have finally got around to digging my camera out. Hopefully if the 2 above pictures are showing they should show the same border now and last summer albeit a liitle further down the border. What it seems to lack-really from now until summer is any kind of colour or brightness. To me its just looking dull and boring (and yes I admit a little unloved at the moment!)I planted some tiarella last year but I think it died as there is no sign of it at the moment, also monkshood got eaten by slugs!! was thinking maybe to plant some ferns , maybe an evergreen type but wanted something to give it a bit of zing !! thank you all for looking at my very drab border!

 

I would use some Japanese Azaleas and also a couple of deciduous Azaleas. It looks as if you`ve also got a Snowberry (Symphoricarpos).

 

I have an area on the north side of my garage, which only gets about 10 minutes of direct sun per day. Its also clay (improved) and dampish. I have never had any problem except with the one Monkshood plant that I keep treading on!

I am growing Hemerocallus, Lobelia syphilitica, Lobelia 'Fan Rose', Lythrum salicaria 'Blush' (lovely pink), Anenome japonica 'Pamina' (has not been there for long so not sure if it is happy yet), Crocosmia 'Lucifer', Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Firetail' (is expanding a bit agressively), Astrantia 'Buckland' (very very long flowering), Astilbe chinensis 'Purplelanze', Dicentra spectabilis and Aquilegia. They are all doing well. My only complaint is that once the Dicentra is over it leaves a bit of a bare patch later in the year. They are all perennials about two to three foot high.

 

great thanks for those. I will have a bit of a google to see what they look like.

david- well spotted yes i forgot about that.