Fall color in the shade garden?

Here are some astilbes going dormant. It's a nice gold

A small Japanese Maple in a shady corner

A coleus

doss, I've enjoyed your pictures esp. since my shade garden has almost gone to bed for the year the only thing I have blooming are the monk's hood and practically the only thing living in there right now, the drought really did a number on it this summer. Wish I had a picture to share of my monk's hood but no camera :)

What is that fern to the left of your JP Maple? It's really pretty is that the tree fern? I love how different shoots are coming up!

Yes, it's a tree fern. In the long run it will get too big for that spot though. I'll have to move it to a place where it gets space of it's own.

I wondered about that lol I would so love to be able to grow one of those!

Luckily they are very slow growing but can get very tall over time. I have a lot of shady places to move it to or perhaps it will get a new home with someone after awhile.

The autumn dress of Begonia grandis;
I love this plant! It grows in almost full shade in my garden

beautiful bonitin. What's the fern?

That fern is beautiful! This thread gives me zone envy soo much and shade envy my shade is going down hill, I have lots of shade trees all around but they are starting to fall apart I've planted a lot of different shrubs and have some trees to plant but it takes them so long to have good shade!

I should really stay away from this forum just makes me want more shade plants lol

That Begonia is beautiful too and that is a perennial for you, wow!

Here are some begonias still blooming.

LOVELY!

What are the thin leaves from on the left? Those ferns look nice with those begonias too! I have several ferns, I love them. Wish I had a camera.

Do you have any monk's hood? I planted some last year from a trade on here and their first blooms were really nice, hoping to get seed to start some more but hear they are dificult.

Thank you Doss and Lebug!, the fern is Polystichum setiferum. I have a whole collection of them in my garden. They stay beautiful all year round.
Yes Lebug this Begonia is hardy in my zone, I think even in your Zone, at least according to PF.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/722/

They are hardy here will try and get some seed somewhere I think I have another spot where they would get morning sun and they would do good I like the color of the foliage in the fall on them! I think my shade garden would flood too much for them in the spring and when we have wet summers. I didn't realize we had perennial begonias around here, I do see were 'ladyfern' grows them and she is just a few towns from me. Thanks doss :)

I thought that they might be polystichum setiferum. I"ve just added quite a few to mygarden. I love the foliage and the fact that they are evergreen. The fern with the begonias is mother fern. Here's a photo of the whole fern. Not hardy below my zone unfortunately.

Those are pretty! Kind of looks like my bradford or red stemed lady ferns sorry don't know the botanical names. I have two that are evergreen they are one of the JP Holly fern and the Christmas fern. Almost lost my JP Holly fern to the drought and late freeze this year in the spring, thought it was a gonner but it came back.

Weren't you in the fern coop that I was in doss? I got a few in that:

Makino's holly Ghost Fern ~ I think this is the one that is blue, very pretty!
Brilliance Autumn
Tatting Fern
Japanese Holly Fern ~ different than the one I have.

Very pretty ferns, Doss. I love the lace-like fronds with the nice contrast of the dark stems...

I was in the fern coop but opted out as things got more and more confusing.

doss, your garden looks lovely in the fall colors. I also enjoy the golden shades of the plants going dormant. Sometimes I think the fall color changes in plants are the most beautiful of all the seasons.

bonitin, The gold and reds in your Begonia grandis is spectacular. I think I'll find room for a few next year.

This Hydrangea in the shade garden has turned to it's fall color. I particularly like this photo for the fence shadow on the tree. The shadows in the fall garden seem to add to the drama of the season.

That's a very pretty combination of the texture of the trunk of the tree, the hydrangea, polygonatum and the other foliage there. The fence shadow is beautiful. I love the hydrangea flowers late in the fall also.

Thank you doss. In the fall I always look longingly at the tree forms of hydrangea in the neighborhood, but I just don't have the room.
I still have tourenia blooming but I cheated and fall planted pansies with the heuchera.

edited to say- the Bronze Wave heuchera leaves have turned from deep maroon to almost black and the Kimono has picked up pink tones in the colder weather.
I'm having a little trouble with the size of the photos sometimes with my newer camera.

This message was edited Nov 5, 2007 6:48 AM

Here's some photos from last year and this year, all taken Oct/Nov in the shaded beds. This is two erysimums and a hellebore, at the foot of a silver maple.

Here's oxalis siliquosa and a plectranthus 'aureum' fighting it out

Here the patch of oxalis in the photo above, is spilling over into the bed below, where it mixes with a bearded iris (they are reblooming right now) and the gorgeous leaves of variegated aucuba 'Gold Dust'.

This is a gorgeous mix of shade foliage, L-R: calla lily leaves, variegated alstroemeria (too shady for it to bloom much, but the foliage is pretty!), white bacopa, plectranthus 'aureum', brunnera 'Jack Frost', and an unknown palm I got from HDepot as a houseplant that is threatening to grow a lot bigger than I thought:

A great bloomer in the shade is lamium 'Purple Dragon'. It'll survive dry spells, but needs moderate water to really bloom well.

Although it doesn't bloom per se, the color of a 'Sundowner' phormium (New Zealand flax) stands out as brightly as any flower!

Thanks for posting all of these jkom. What a great mix of foliage and colors. Do you have to keep after these beds to keep them from getting out of control? I've found that's my biggest problem with mixing foliage - plants tend to get in each other's spaces.
Semp - I love the pine cones mixed in with your heuchera and pansies. It gives such a woodland feel.

Yes, I do have to thin some of those plants periodically - the curse of living in mild-winter zones like ours, LOL!

Interestingly enough, I find I love my shade beds more than the sunny ones - something about the mix of shapes, colors and textures that is endlessly fascinating. But my (few) roses need sunshine to bloom, so I guess it's good that our property is just about half sun and half shade.

Love the shots of hydrangeas because I adore them. Late last year I finally got a couple of 'Endless Summer' plants. I've found they actually need more sun than the standard H. macrophylla. I'd love to get a 'Limelight' hydrangea and am currently considering rearranging four different beds - that 'domino' effect, I'm afraid - to have the room to put one in.

BTW, an excellent fern - and cheap, you can sometimes find it at Home Depot - is Microlepia. It's one of the few ferns that does very well in dry shade. In fact, with water it gets absolutely enormous and leans all over its neighbors. This shot was taken when the fern was 2 yrs old, growing from a 1-gallon container. It is now three times that width and twice as tall - way bigger than the label said it would be. I have several others in drier places, and they are much more manageable in size. It is a beautiful fern, altho unfortunately it is not a good cutting fern.

jkom, I have to agree with doss, you have a rich tapestry of textures and colors. It's interesting to see in your first photo the hellebore is blooming now, mine won't start until late winter. But right next to it I think I see the leaves of Arum italicum ? If I identified that correctly mine is at the same stage, the leaves have just returned from a brief dormancy. I like your mix of ground covers.
My shade gardens feel a little bare right now since I started moving some of the more aggressive growers so the spring ephemerals have a better chance. The right ground covers add that fullness that makes the shade garden really shine. The Hardy Cyclamen are blooming now, but these did so well in my shade garden they have been banished to the front under the yews.

Wow very pretty ladies!!! My yard is in ful color also. The yellow wax bells are changing colors and it is so pretty. does any one have the obiedent plants they are very pretty this time of year. Mine a re a bright purple. And I really love them. They have spread but not to much they have been there for about 5 years now. I really would like to get some more of them. Really do not have to much in blossom now. Oh I do have some more Toad Lilies open they are very nice. Last year I moved them all together that really made a difference. If I get the chance I will take some photos right now we are working on plumbing problems.... urgh. Ronna

hope that your plumbing gets resolved gardenlady. Your shade garden sounds lovely.

What a pretty fern, jkom. You must have a very good home depot. It sounds as if it can get really big but sometimes that's just what you want.

Semper - I love the pattern on those cyclamen leaves. Beautiful.

jkom51,
What is that plant under your Microlepia? I have a lady fern that is turning the golden color right now, gosh wish I could take some pictures, maybe next year...sigh Your combinations are beautiful! I wish I had the talent for that!

Here's Japanese Maple Bloodgood. It is in bright shade but gets no sun directly on it.

LeBug, under the Microlepia fern, L-R, is:

1) Dwarf fragrant rhododendron from Singing Gardens, lost the name of it
2) Hellebore foetidus
3) Unknown purple bearded iris

jkom51, must be the shape of the Hellebore foetidus leaves that I like so much there, everything goes so well together too, nice job!

doss, that bloodgood is really nice too how old is it, looks to be about 4 yrs. old? I soo want one of those :) That grass looks really nice there too sets the bloodgood off, nice contrast with all of the plants!

The bloodgood has been in the garden about 5 years. It's in a very hard environment with no sun and a lot of root competition from the redwoods all around it. There are some evergreen hydrangeas behind it and I'm looking forward to see them cover the fence. They are slow growing at about 1 foot per year so it's going to take some time but I think that they will be worth it.

I wondered if those were climbing hydrangeas, I’ve never seen one in person only pictures on here, they will be so worth it, those things are beautiful!

Well if you have the redwoods you won't have to worry about your shade for a while, I've been to the big redwood park, Squalia? Not sure how to spell it but that park is something else, I could live there, didn't even want to leave :)

Sequoia? It's a wonderful place all right. I have 3 redwoods, a black walnut (not great for planting under), a lot of birch trees (not great because they are so shallow rooted though) and two huge oak trees. The neighbors have the other side of my fence lined with redwoods so I've got a lot of shade. I wish that I could grow the regular kind of climbing hydrangea but the only are really good to zone 8. These are from Mexico and only hardy down to zone 9 - although they did just fine in the freeze we had this past winter. Here's a closer look at the hydrangeas blooming in June. Just wish that they would grow a little faster. They are definitely 'heritage' plants.

Nice! Do they smell wonderful?

We have a lot of old oak trees around here that's the ones that are falling apart and I tell you when one of those limbs fall you sure know it, I had one limb fall on my old fashion lilac a few years ago and it hasn't been the same since! This spring after it just barely blooms I'm going to cut it to the ground and I really hate to miss those blooms as few as they are now but it will be good for it I was told. The limb fell on my shed too but I didn’t worry about that one so much lol

I have a black walnut in between our field and the back yard and it scares me to think it could kill my plants back there, I took the bark from all around the bottom of it last year but it's still growing, had a few walnuts on it this year guess I'm just going to have to cut it down while it's still young the trunk is only about 1' in diameter if that big, have got to get rid of this tree! lol I don't have anyone to help me so I'm a little bewildered. I just wanted to kill it and leave the tree to grow vines on. I have a list of juglone tolerant plants too just in case lol

I got four hydrangeas in a trade a while back didn't know they grew so slow, I was hoping to shade the west side of my house so I could plant some more shade plants I have all kinds of hosta, toad lilies, ferns, just everything I want to plant in the shade but no shade that I can plant in, I have shade where my dog is but can't plant there lol I do have my shade pots there that he doesn't bother thank goodness, that's my holding spot for when I do get some shade :)

So now I'm envious of your shade and your zone, thank you very much lol