Tough Plants Tough Places: Dry Shade

hi this is maria from bloomers um we're doing our next in our series of tough plants tough places and today we're going to talk a little bit about dry shade which is a difficult situation but we do have some ideas and some solutions so i'm going to start with annuals and believe it or not there there is at least one kind of annual we can recommend for a dry shade situation that is the wax begonias people often think of them as a bedding plant which means that it is planted in quantity we have them in three different colors red pink and white and because they are begonias they have thick leaves that tend to hold on to moisture in fact they worry with begonias is that you'll over water them so they're a good choice for dry shade they will even bloom depending on what type of shade you have if it's under a tree for instance if it gets dappled light that's enough for it to bloom moving on to perennials there are a few and some of them are really quite reliable the first one i'm going to talk about is ferns and whereas most ferns do enjoy a moist environment there are a lot of ferns that are really okay in drought conditions once they're established this lady fern is a good example of a fern that does well there are other ferns in the wood fern family and in the leather furring family that will also do well in dry conditions when you're shopping for ferns it will really pay to do a little bit of research and then of course when you get to bloomers we're happy to help you with with more information and most of our tags are fairly informative as to the conditions the plants prefer another fern that you can use in dry shady areas is the autumn brilliance fern and in addition to being a very pretty plant it also has lovely fall color um so multi-purpose multi ways that it adds to the beauty continuing with perennials the next family is the botanical name is lemium the common name is dead nettle which is why i usually use the botanical name because dead nettle just sounds like it's not going to be a big success it is a terrific shade plant for starters it does perfectly well in dry shade it blooms but it has this added benefit of of color in the foliage that even if it didn't bloom it would bring vibrancy to your shady dry areas this one is a chartreuse with a with a white line blooms purple and it is called lemon frost this one is called ghost you can see it has this beautiful white silvery full silvery foliage which persists throughout the entire season and it does bloom with a purple bloom and if you plant these on moss you will get a beautiful just haze of purple just above the ground cover purple dragon very similar slightly different variegation it has a green margin but it still has that white silvery center a profuse bloomer purple dragon again on moss is reliable and it's really an impressive show when they all start to bloom the next plant is called epimedium the common name is baron wart again try not to use the common name because it doesn't sound very good epimedium is a wonderful plant i have actually seen this grow and spread underneath outdoor steps where there is quite literally no sun whatsoever it also has a delicate very pretty flowers that come out first in the spring and sort of are suspended seemingly uh by magic but they really do have petioles and um then the the flowers fade and the foliage persists very pretty heart-shaped leaves the new foliage is red on this particular variety i can't say enough good things about epimedium it is reliable it's very pretty and i have seen it do some incredible things in dry shade so moving on to ground covers this is paccasandra and it's something that many of you will be familiar with maybe not realizing that actually it's very very good choice for dry shade once it's established and when i say once it's established every new plant that goes into the ground even if it's from a container we still consider it transplanting and it can be prone to transplant shock or transplant damage so the full season at least keep an eye on it check it to see if it needs to be watered these guys love tons of organic material and the way that paccasandra grows is it's stoloniferous and it sends out roots into the top inch or two of organic matter and i'm telling you that not only to increase your success with paccasandra but also because if you rake out leaves in the fall if you rake out mulch to reapply it you are disconnecting those roots and the plan has to start all over again creating a root system if you leave the roots alone and provide it with organic matter and water it during the first season you will end up with a carpet of paccasandra and when it's healthy and plentiful it is a very very beautiful ground cover here's another perennial this is a hosta and hostas first of all unless it's one that's been particularly cultivated to be a sun hosta hostas like shade and they do very well in dry shade once they are established again many of our shade plants we don't grow them for the flowers we grow them for the foliage and hosta has many many variations that make them a lovely shade plant and to brighten up areas that are otherwise dark so next we will talk about [Applause] sorry shrubs for dry shade the way we differentiate between perennials and shrubs perennials are really herbaceous which means that they die to the ground every fall and they come back up in the spring um shrubs uh they may or may not lose their foliage but they the woody structure and next year's buds are always present this particular plant is called sarkacoka the common name is sweetbox it is a very pretty low-growing evergreen shrub that has a very nice natural habit without any pruning and when it flowers you'll know why they call it sweet box it's great along a path or under you know a low porch and definitely on moss is the best way to do it if you can if you have the room and the more you put in the more of the fragrance you will have and last in this difficult category it's a really interesting plant that that many people would like to add to their gardens even if it wasn't great for dry shade this is a mahonia it is an evergreen the common name is oregon grape and it has beautiful bright yellow panicles of flowers in the spring that turn to a dusty purple fruit that really looks like grapes actually it really does look like grapes so it looks a lot like a holly as you can see um but it's really in the barberry family and uh it does flower and you can't miss the flower and then it has this really interesting fruit so mahoney has a lot going for it and it is extremely easy to grow so i hope that was helpful all of these plants are here at bloomers and of course we have plants for a number of different situations so come on down um let us help you pick out the plants for your difficult spot or your easy spot

Channel: BloomersHomeGarden

Views: 41,204

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Id: iD-xEHEwO7U

Length: 9min 54sec (594 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 02 2021