Need VERY inexpensive full shade, colorful, non hosta ideas

PLEASE help me w/ a full shade area (pictures coming when I get home from work). Can you help? AND, isn't the weather perfect today??????

Some of my favorites are Houttuynia: chameleon plant- very vivid colors for shady spaces, pulmonaria: flowers in the spring..many spotted, dotted types of leaves, or even lamium...it comes in many different type of variegated leaf forms with differant flower colors.Good luck with your area!
Sandy

can't go wrong with impatients

heuchera(sp)coral bells

here is a peek
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/568610281vKNNOq

Kris start w/ the english ivy and coral bells I sent you. I'll hunt around for some others. Do you want vines?

Kerria japonica will grow & BLOOM even in dense shade & is quite resistant to dry conditions once established, grows to about 5', can be pruned hard to rejuvenate, and requires virtually no care unless you want to fuss with it. It's only drawback is that if given sufficient moisture it will sucker & form a thicket over time in the same way as clethra.

Turtlehead plants love shade and damp areas.

Woodland Poppy are pretty and have yellow flowers


Japanese Painted Fern is a nice plant. Ferns in general will do well in deep shade. The woods are full of them.Cinnamon Stick Fern is really nice.

Corydalis is one of my favorites.

Ligularia Desminoides has bold foliage and does well in shade. It blooms too.

Cimifugia. These get practically no shade and tolerate dry conditions. It has a chocolate brown/purple foliage and tall spikes of white flowers in late summer. I think it's common name is bugbane.

Astillbe is a nice shade plant but may need some filtered sun to bloom. Not sure.

I also like red twig dogwood. It is a good back of the border plant that will give winter interst after the leaves fall off.

My most favorite is hydrangea but I think it would need either filtered sun or morning sun to bloom. It likes a sheltered spot. At my old city house I had a huge one right on the foundation of the house. It would get these huge huge blue blooms all over it and would blood from mid summer till frost. It needs a lot of water (thus the "hydra" in it's name).

If you want some colorful annuals for shade you can't be impatients (needs lots of water) or begonias.

If you want to broaden the selection you might consider limbing up a few branchs of the tree that is casting all the shade to allow more light in. Japanese maples do OK in shade but are very expensive to buy. It's an investment in the future though since they grow so slow. :)

Bulbs which spread, spread, spread:
Squills! will make a huge patch, then you can divide
Chionodoxa! will make beautiful little clumps here and there, I have about 20 clumps from just a few bulbs purchased several years ago.

Lamium 'White Nancy' provides a lot of interest. What we did every year for it: Every spring, pluck off the fallen tree leaves, scatter Espoma Tree Tone or groundcover fertilizer, then mulch with shredded leaves. This treatment helps it retain vigor and spread. Without the fertilizer it languishes.

Dicentra exima---some cultivars will bloom all summer in shade, altho i am not sure about dark dark shade.

Larger flowering plants you could research: dogwood (it's an understory tree), rhododendrons, kalmia, some viburnums take shade, serviceberry, hollies (red berries if you have both sexes).

Just so you are aware. .. . forgive me if you are already aware. . . usually the things that bloom in medium to dense shade are "spring ephemerals". They bloom in the spring before the deciduous trees leaf out. Shade gardening is by necessity about doing artistic things with emphasis on foliage. Actually i consider it the most sophisticated gardening, and I really liked it a lot before I lost a lot of my trees. You can create beautiful gardens, working mostly with foliage color, texture, shape, in the shade of deciduous trees. Shade from buildings, fences, and evergreens is harder to work with, however.

And shade gardening is kinder to your skin. . .

When I am out weeding and watering in July in my sunny (formerly shady) area in 90 degrees, with perspiration stinging in my eyes, I sure do miss my old oak trees.

Good luck.

Whatcha have extra of Birdie? Right now I dont have a ton of space for vines. My lovely wife likes blocks of color instead of a hodge podge of various things. I can go either way.

I've got grape vine, silver lace, wisteria (but i think i sent that?),myrtle,violets, and quite a few seeds. I'll look up the seeds and get back to you. Birdie

I can send you some Yellow Archangel (ground cover) which spreads and doesn't like a lot of sun.

Or better yet, let's meet for coffee somewhere between Grand Haven and your place and I'll bring the stuff.

Not to "horn in" on your coffee time but Gardenlady (Ronna) and I are shooting for coffee on the 23rd, if we could all agree on a place I could bring you some stuff too.
Birdie

One comment about limbing up a tree: My certified arborist recommends thinnning a tree rather than limbing it up. Limbing a tree makes it more vulnerable to being blown over in wind, i.e. more-so than thinning does. I think he may also have said it is healthier for the tree; can't remember if he really said that. We had him thin our biggest oak a couple winters ago (oaks should only be trimmed in winter due to a deadly disease which can invade in warmer temps), and it looks a lot more attractive than a neighbor's oak which was limbed up. Mine still looks graceful and natural; theirs looks like a palm tree, ungainly imo.

Dori, I just took a look at your pictures of heucheras & friends on webshots. Fabulous collection! Are these all from your garden? I just love them. Would you please tell me what kind of plants are in the foreground of the first photo (177) and the name of the one in photo DSC01302? I think that you have inspired me. : )

Thanks a bunch,

Mary Ellen

177-southern comfort
1302-pulmonaria-dark vader or high contrast

YES these are all mine and i have more coming this year!!!

Thank you Dori! I feel another plant shopping trip coming on.... LOL A friend took me to a nursery on M-25 in/near Essexville last year that was nice. Is there any one particular greenhouse in my area (Caro) that you would recommend? I'm not very familiar with this area. (I'm originally from down state.)

Mary Ellen

I think I am going shopping at Dori's garden :)) Just think of it as thinning out the land :)

Again, thank you everyone for your input!!

oooopsy
177 is left side pineapple upsidedown cake hosta
and to the right side is lighning streak toad lily

sorry bout that

kris come on over i have lots to sell and give away!!!!
just need more time!!!!! thats what i need TIME!!!

I have 3 sons. 10, 6 and 3. Couldn't have it any better than I do. I asked them if the could have any super power, what would it be. Isaiah, 10, said super strength. Mason, 6, said super speed, like Dash in the movie "The Incredibles". Gavin said he wanted to fly. They were dying to know what I woould have. And, sadly, I spent a lot of time weighing my options. I chose being able to stop/freeze time :) Of course, I could keep moving. I am w/ you totally Dori. Looks like going to have to work on a weekend trip to see my fellow DGer's on the east side of the state.

Yeah, but you can see me in less than an hour! LOL!

Very true! And I come out that way this time of year to releave the State Park of sand overflow on the side of the road by the restaurant on the beach :)

I need more heuchera !!!!!
Gloria

Well great! My phone number is 616 847 6209. Call when you think you might come so I can plan. We can meet where you choose for coffee, my treat. Panera is great but there are other places. You should probably say (on the phone/answering machine) a real first name and say that you are from Dave's Garden forum. If dh happens to get the message, he will....wonder....about this guy named Patriot who is calling his wife! LOL!
Our dd's horse was named Patriot, and Larry (dh) could get so very confused! (HEHEHEHE)

EllaTiarella, I think you must be quite close to me. Ma address is Plainwell, but I'm closer to Richland.
Birdie