|
Shade plants
Ditto on hostas--I just bought a couple more for my yard, which has extensive shady portions. Impatiens do really well in the shade, but they're an annual and I'm not much into that kind of thing (I also don't like the colors they come in much).
One thing I bought this year to go in my shady corner is Evergreen Huckleberry. Besides the berries (I'm big on edible gardening), it has lovely foliage (new foliage in the spring is red), and tiny pink-tinged white blossoms. In the shade, it can grow to 6-8 feet.
That same shady corner of my yard also has a lot of lady's mantle, which is beautiful (frothy chartreuse flowers) but self-seeds like the dickens. If you don't mind this, or are vigilant about pulling up all the little starts, it's really nice, seems to thrive in shade, and works REALLY, REALLY WELL in flower arrangements--like baby's breath or something, only chartreuse.
Also thriving in my shady yard are various ferns. Bracken ferns also work well to fill in flower arrangements (last week's had orange roses, lady's mantle and a few sprigs of bracken fern), but also can spread. Sword ferns spread less, and can get really really big (I have a few on the shady side of my house that are nearly six feet across).
I'll second the suggestion about having the tree professionally trimmed. I bit the bullet and did that this year on my very large (read: 30-40 feet) flowering plum, and it's made a world of difference.
tm
|
