border along shady porch???

Hi,

My front porch faces north. It has an old hedge growing by it. I am planning on digging it up and make a beautiful border, cottage garden type.

I am planning on planting climber roses to climb the four posts of the porch.

I also want echinacea, lillies, delphiniums, poppies and hardy geraniums growing in the border.

The place does not have any direct sunshine but it is bright.

Could i get away with planting this type of border? Would the rose climbers flower in that position?

Thank you.:o)

Hardy geraniums, hybrid musk roses, delphiniums and lilies will tolerate light shade. The operative word is tolerate. The lillies and delphiniums will do best with full sun. The poppies and cone flowers absolutely need 6-8 hours of full sun. In this situation your perennial choices would be better suited to shade tolerant plants. The old fashioned climber roses will grow but they won't flower.

I'd take advantage of your shade instead of fighting it. Even if your perennials do bloom sparsely they will sure lean out. You might ask on the rose forum about the roses because I do know that there are types that will bloom with some shade although I don't know about how much. I think that you would be better off planting an abundant shade garden with hostas, ligularias, ferns heuchera and other shade perennials. Those of us here who are striving for just a foot more shade will envy your situation. I think that you are looking for color but mixes of foliage textures and shades of green can be welcoming and very pretty.

This message was edited Oct 15, 2008 1:46 PM

I say, embrace the shade, rather than fight it.
There are lots of beautiful shade-loving plants.
Scroll through some of the threads on this forum for a few ideas.

I was posting the same time as weerobin. Great minds..... lOL

Man, that's scary...

Wow, thank you very much for your ideas. I love the "embracing instead of fighting it!

I am now thinking of having foliage and add colour with mosaic balls or similar.

Great!!! :o)

Don't forget that shade can be colorful as well.
Maybe not as raucous as blazing sunshine borders, but still pretty colorful.
I think of it as sophisticated loveliness vs a cheap thrill!
Camellias, fuchsia, rhodies, toad lilies, hellebores, heucheras, astilbes, actaea, ligularia, turtleheads, etc, etc, etc.
Let your imagination wander...

And all of the colored-leaf shade plants too! A little coleus goes a long way. :-)

Hi everyone,

would fuchsias grow in shade? I am rooting about 20 cuttings that i got at the DG marketplace.

Thank you very much for all the lovely ideas! You are a great bunch!

Fuchsias are great for shade as long as it isn't really deep shade.
Lynn

I have fuchsias growing in bright shade all day Spider and they do very well. The only drawback are fuchsia mites but maybe you don't have them there. IF you do, I've found a way that deals with them pretty well.

How wide and deep is your border?

Doss,

at the moment i don't have a border. I have an old hedge growing at the front of the porch. I am thinking of making it a raised border, maybe 5" high and it will go where the hedge is. The porch is approximately 20 foot long.

I don't know if we have mites here. We have aphids. I have only been in GA for 3 1/2 years and do not have much gardening experience.

What do they look like?

Lynn, thank you. the place is shady but iit is bright, not dark.:o)

If the fuchsias have mites you can tell because the leaves get deformed and curl.

I have a border that is about 2 and a half feet wide and have put ferns and hellebores there. It's not as long as yours is though. Hellebores are nice because they are evergreen. When you plan your border you might want to consider planting a lot of evergreens there. Many miniature pines and/or evergreens can tolerate bright shade but of course there are azaleas etc. There are some that only get about 2 feet high and wide.

hmmmm....I hadn't thought about ferns. I don't have any and I never grew them so I have put them in my list. Azaleas are great. i love them!

I have seen some small gardenias that I would like to try as well.

Thank you very much for the help Doss

If ou need an extra pop of color here and there annual salvia grows and blooms beautifully in shade,contrary to what the labels say.

Lynn

Thank you Lynn.:o)

I didn't know they do well in shade. Will put the on my list!

I love coleus for shade. There are some giant varieties that would make the height of other perennials.
They can be pretty bright like Watermelon or dark and dramatic like Mahogony Giant.
This is Mahogony Giant planted with Aquilligea and Impatiens.

In the summer, Caladiums love the shade. It is about time to take them up now for the winter tho as they are starting to fade.
Some one suggested gardenias, yes the dwarf creeping radicans would be fine, or how about small gumpo azaleas. these are slow growing and stay abou 2 ft tall with huge blooms in May after the others have faded. These are my favorite azaleas.

thank you very much for the wonderful ideas Ge and Azalea!:o)

If you're looking for intense color, I find two varieties of Crocosmia do well in light to medium shade. They are Emily McKenzie which is vivid orange and Lucifer, a taller variety that is bright red.

hi stormy,

another plant that I didn't know does well in shade. thank you for the info. One more for the list!