Shade Gardening: Late fall blooms, 0 by sempervirens

sempervirens wrote:
gardenlady, The Japanese Anemone,( Anemone x hybrida or A. Japonica), likes moist, well drained humus rich soil in sun or partial shade, hardy zone 5 south. That information is from the book "The Essential Gardener "by Derek Fell. But for me it grows well without the moist soil, in partial shade.

enya, Tracy Di-Sabato-Austs' book "The Well-Tended Perennial Garden" says the J. anemone can be slow to establish but once it takes hold it can be invasive. Fall transplanting is fatal as are wet overwintering conditions.

enya, Lucky you to have a whole patch of shooting stars "Dodecatheon meadia". I've tried those 2 or 3 times and they either don't come back or come back and never flower. I always place them at the front edge among the "littles" in the garden so you can see them. I checked my favorite book (aimed at the north or southeastern gardens) "Wildflowers in your Garden A Gardeners Guide" by Viki Ferreniea for placement and she suggests primroses,dwarf ginseng, little wood anemone?, oconee bells(Shortia galacifolia, patridgeberry (Mitchella repens)and Bloodroot (sanguinaria canadensis).



I use the patridgeberry throughout the shade garden as a low ground cover. The bloodroot is very pretty when it blooms, if brief, but the leaves last for most of the summer looking like a land waterlily. I grow the previous 2 with Jack-in-the -Pulpit, purple leaved Labrador violet and dicentra.
My favorite spring ephemerals are(Anemonella thalictroides) rue anemone and hepatica.
The photo is of the bloodroot in bloom in the spring.