These are favorites of mine that I have planted here-
Shooting Star (Dodecatheon meadia)
Smooth Solomon'sSeal (Polygonatum biflorum)
Dutchman's Breeches (Dicnetra cucullaria)
Thimbleweed (Anemone virginiana)
Wood Anemone (Anemone quinquefolia)
Black Cohosh (Cimicifuga rubifolia)
These are favorites I would like to find to plant by me some day-
Cut-Leaved Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata)
White Trout Lily (Erythronium albidum)
Nodding Trillium (Trillium cernuum)
Squirrel Corn (Dicentra canadensis)
Glade Fern (Athyrium pycnocarpon)
Grape Fern (Botrychium simplex)
Fragile Fern (Cystopteris x laurentiana)
Log Fern (Dryopteris celsa)
Hay-Scented Fern (Dennstaedtia punctilobula)
Walking Fern (Asplenium rhizophyllum)
Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens)
Oak Fern (Gymnocarpium dryopteris)
Actually any Dryopteris species
Guess I should have really called this a favorite shade plant wish list!
What is/are your favorite midwestern shade plant(s)?
Hmmmmmmmm.....favorite shade plants?
Dodecatheon Media (shooting stars)
Penstemon Digitalis (foxglove beardtongue)
Celandine Poppy
Hepaticas
Jack in the Pulpit
Lady Fern
Meadow Rue
Toothwort
Soloman's Seal
Nodding Trillium
Yellow Lady's Slippers
Pink " "
Bloodroot
Native columbine (aquilegea canadensis)
Tiarellas
Zig-Zag Goldenrods
Dutchman's Breeches
Squirrel Corn
False Soloman's Seal
Woodland Asters
Chelone
Bottlebrush grass
Viburnams
Ostrich Fern
I'd have to add:
arum Italicum
all varieties of ground gingers
Daphne Odora
rue anemone
all hostas
deciduous azaleas
firespike
toad lilies
lenten roses
Ahhh, Hepaticas and Bottlebrush grass... add those to my list too
What is firespike? Can you give me a botanical name on that. It sounds too interesting to pass up. I had no idea Lenten Roses were shade plants. Maybe that's why they fried out on me. I planted mine in full sun. Guess I should have looked that up before I stuck it in the ground. Another oops to add to the ever growing list of oopses.
Here is a link to firespike. It always dies back after the first hard frost, and it may not be hardy in your zone, but it keeps coming back here. I just love this plant, and so do the hummers. Maybe if you had it close to a brick wall for heat retention and mulched it well, you could have luck with it.
http://leon.ifas.ufl.edu/firespike_sets_the_fall_garden_a.htm
Thanks for the link to Firespike! I liked that plant as it reminded me of Cardinal Lobelia but for shade. I checked Odontonenia strictum out and that's what we call Scarlett Flame. About the only way we could grow Firespike/Scarlet Flame to grow in this zone would be as an annual. That's almost a tropical gosh darnit and even with mulch it would be toast here. Bummer.
Well, the good thing about this plant is that is one of the easiest things to root I've ever seen. I took cuttings a couple of months ago, and within 4 weeks, it had roots all through the soil, down to the bottom of the pot. I kid you not. I've never seen anything like that before.
Anemonopsis macrophylla
Epimediums
Arisarum proboscideum
Jeffersonia Dubia
Jeffersonia diphylla
sanguinaria canadensis
All hardy cyclamen
Tricyrtis
Podophyllum peltatum
Podophyllum hexandrum
Hepatica
Dicentra
Selaginella kraussiana
Helleborus
Asarum maximum
Eomecon Chionantha
Vancouveria hexandra
fern:
polystichum setiferum
Arachniodes simplicior variegata
all holly ferns
I think I like all the ferns.
Some of them are in my garden, others, I am still trying to get them.
I didn't think Arachniodes would survive zone 5....
course I've never lived there, so I can't say.
I'd definatly look into the Genus Polystichum and Dryopteris for ferns tho... lot to pick from.
Drew
DeepRoots, I actually purchased it from you. I looked at website, most of them says zone 7-9, I am in the zone 6a, so I decide to give it a try. Hope it will survive this winter.
I am really gald to see so many people dealing with shade. Gives me all kinds of ideas!
hmmm, fang, ya shoulda told me you were going to push the hardiness with it outdoors (makes a fine indoor plant too) I woulda sent a MUCH larger plant.
Would have had a better chance.
Let me know if it survives.... just mulch it really well.
I really should send plants to my parents, they live on the border of Warren and Hunterdon county New Jersey zone 6
drew
I would like to add to the plants listed above (most of which I have):
Impatiens capensis (Jewelweed)
Lobelia siphilitica
Hardy geraniums
Wood violets
Uvularia (Bellwort)
Lamiums ('Hermann's Pride', 'Beacon Silver', et al)
Primulas (Polyanthus, japonica, etc)
Broad Beech Fern
Lysimachia nummularia (Creeping Jenny)
Jacob's Ladder
And to add color I use some tender plants that must be taken inside for winter:
Coleus
Hybrid Impatiens
Rex Begonias
Wax Begonias
Tuberous Begonias
Cane Begonias
Torenia
Crossandra
Alstroemeria
Caladiums
Caricature Plant
There are probably more, but I am out of time. Hope this helps you get more ideas. Remind me next spring (very early) and I will try to collect some seed for you from the toothwort; my woods are full of it.
Susan
I love caladiums! That was the first bulb I purchased to put in the ground here. I bought about 250 of them. Needless to say they never came back the next year in my zone while I stood there waiting with hands on my hips wondering what I had done wrong this time. I read tags now for hardiness zones and I know the difference between annual and perennial. That's a concept. Oh if only I had known what I know now I would have spared myself an incredible amount of back breaking labor digging little holes to loving plop each caladium bulb in. Ugh. I did the same darn thing with another type of bulb that put on a very splashy display then disappeared for ever. Can we say dumb, dumber, and dumbest? Heck, I didn't even know what a zone was back then and the word biennial meant absolutely nothing to me. Live and learn but I sure do wish it wouldn't have been such a costly lesson.
Thanks for you offer of toothwort seed. That is a plant I have been trying to get my hands on for a while. It is so delicate and so beautiful. I am very appreciative.
What is a caricature plant?
Susan, I love Begonia. Are there any hardy ones that will survive zone 6. I don't have enough room for the plants to be inside. Hubby is already complaining there are too many ferns. He said "I mean a few houseplants, not 15". We just move to house 2 years ago from New York city. Used to live in a tiny apartment. This is my first garden. Get a lot of information from Internet. Now I can plant whatever I like. Not a big yard. But keep me busy on weekend.
Fang
Equilibrium,
Caricature plant is a showy tropical with purple leaves, and loves warm temps. It is easily rooted from cuttings and grows to a good size over the summer months. Here is a link to the plant: http://davesgarden.com/pdb/go/58328/index.html
You can see pics there of the cultivar I have...it is more colorful than some of the others.
Fang,
There is only one hardy begonia that I know of, Begonia grandis:
http://davesgarden.com/pdb/go/722/index.html
I have a teensy piece (2 leaves, ha) because every year I accidently dig it up and damage it due to it's habit of emerging very late (June). But some folks manage to leave it alone and have big clumps of it, so check out the comments and pics at the hyperlink.
Hi Toxicodendrum, Thanks! That't a gorgeous plant with really wonderful purple foliage. By the way, I see your photographs all the time and they are really great! Anyway, that tropical isn't going to make it by me unfortunately. Not even with a good layer of mulch. I think I am going to have to stick to perennial plants hardy to zone 4/5 or I'd be out there for ever planting annuals. Guess I have to enjoy photos of all those nice lush tropicals from people like you. Well, maybe someday I'll get a greenhouse.
I hate to bother you but... do you have any photographs of your wood violets and your Broad Beech Fern.
Here is a link to the fern: http://davesgarden.com/pdb/go/59263/index.html
Here is a link to one of the native violets: http://davesgarden.com/pdb/go/63742/index.html
I have some other violets that are V. pallida or V.striata...the descriptions I have found do not agree, so I am still unsure which it is, but the blooms are creamy white with teeny purple lines in the bottom petal. I also have a couple of other purple ones and some birdsfoot violets.
This one is Viola viarum, I think....
And this is our version of Viola pedata:
This is a blurry picture, but here is V. pensylvanica:
There are more, but I don't have pics or don't remember what folder they are in. Some of the violets are invasive!
Thanks for your comments about my pictures...I enjoy sharing them and also seeing the ones posted by other members.
Here is one last picture taken nearby, but not on my property. I am not sure what species it is.
Oh Lucky You! They're all beautiful and you have so many different species.
I have only two different species of violet on my property. The one shown below which nobody ever could get a positive id on and another all white which we were able to id but gosh darnit... I never took a photo of the white one. I have about 7 or 8 of the violet shown below scattered about and about 3 of the white woodland violet. They are remnants. Hoepfully if I keep clearing out the buckthorn, they will reproduce.
I do have 3 birdsfoot violets up front that just bloom their little hearts out but those are plants for sun. I do know I want more of those. I purchased those at a native plant sale locally and am quite pleased with them.
I'm glad you like violets. They are so dependable and carefree and really charming when you get down close to them.
You made a good point about the birdsfoot violets liking sun...that is why I only have a couple of them here. My property is heavily wooded and the only direct sun anywhere is a few midday hours at the vegetable garden area.
It is nice to converse with someone who appreciates native plants.
Yes, I grow increasingly fond of natives. The well behaved exotics that were planted here by me before I decided to go native can stay. Other than that, I really like them for their hardiness and and they don't seem to need a lot of fuss once they are established. Getting them established was rather challenging this year as a result of inclement weather but there's always next year. I have gone off toward indigenous carnivores. I created an acid bog and am sort of enjoying what I have. Who would have thunk I woulda been interested in carnivores but I am and I have at least 15 different species.
Toxicodendron,
Thanks for the ID on the yellow violet I have! Now all I have to do is remember the name. I like natives, too....once they're established, all you have to do is stand back! and trade the seeds and divisions, thereby getting you more native plants...thereby deepening the addiction!
Equilibrium, the carnivorous plants sound interesting...I did not realize that there were as many as 15 that would be winter hardy in our zones. Did you use pine needles, sand, and peat moss to form the soil? I really don't know much except that they need rainwater or reverse osmosis water, never treated city water. Or that is what they told me during an internship at the Missouri Botanical Garden, anyway. Some of them are so showy, I have been tempted to try them. This current drought we are having here (7 straight weeks) is reining in my wild thoughts a bit.
Dodecatheon, thanks for your comments. The natives are fairly carefree, although some of them have their endemic populations of insects to go with them. But bugs are an important part of nature's workings, too!
Can I call you Equi and Dode? Lots of folks call me Toxi...why did we pick such long names, LOL. Or you can call me Susan, that is easy.
Hello Toxi, Equilibrium is a user name my husband uses at an overly boring and overly scientific site ram packed with people just like himself, now don't every one rush over there all at once. I swear they speak a different language over there. I was lazy and wanted him to be able to find my posts over here at DG if he so desired. I figured there was no way "Mr. Head In The Clouds and From Another Planet" could miss his own wife's posts if I used his user name. One problem, he won't pay the $15 to my site to be able to look at my posts and I won't pay the $100 at his site to look at his posts. I should have been more creative and selected a more appropriate name that was my own but what is done is done.
As far as the carnivorous plants, I'll go and start a new thread over in water gardening for you with basic set up information I relied upon so I don't "bog" down this awesome shade plant thread.
And yes, this year has been incredibly tough. First all the flooding and record rains this past spring that literaly rotted out plants I had ordered and sunk in the ground and then the 14 weeks of drought according to my records. Shame as I lost over 1000 plants that had been ordered to try to restore balance over here. Bad timing and very costly but if I keep plugging along I'll be ok. It has reinforced my decision to go with native plants. Besides which, most are more beautiful than their exotic competition anyway. Now getting my hands on them to plant in the ground over here is another story but they are gaining in popularity and availability is somewhat improving. Lauren
Here you go Toxi-
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/460591/
Thanks, Lauren. I went over and checked it out...good info!