If a customer is asking for advice regarding shady areas, a selection of the plants below may be worth looking into.
Clematis ‘Blue Eclipse’
Clematis can be deciduous or evergreen shrubs or herbaceous perennials, mostly climbing by twining leaf-stalks, and often with showy flowers.
‘Blue Eclipse’ is a medium-sized deciduous climber, up to 3 metres high, with divided green leaves and large bell-like flowers of deep blue with a white edge on the outside and white inside, followed by fluffy seedheads.
BEST USE: Wall-side Borders; City & Courtyard Gardens; Cottage & Informal Garden; Patio & Container Plants.
Adiantum aleuticum?‘Subpumilum’
Maidenhair Fern
Adiantum can be deciduous or evergreen ferns with shiny black stalks bearing simple or more usually pinnately divided fronds, the segments fan-shaped, oblong or rounded, carrying spores under reflexed marginal flaps.
‘Subpumilum’ is a compact deciduous fern to 10cm tall, with glossy black stalks bearing pedately divided fronds composed of fresh green, close-packed oblong segments.
BEST USE: Cottage & Informal Garden; Patio & Container Plants; Rock Garden.
Pulmonaria?‘Diana Clare’
lungwort ‘Diana Clare’
Pulmonaria can be herbaceous or semi-evergreen rhizomatous perennials with terminal clusters of funnel-shaped flowers in late winter or early spring, and often strikingly patterned leaves developing in summer.
‘Diana Clare’ is a vigorous semi-evergreen perennial with narrow silvery-green leaves, lightly speckled with dark green near the margins, and violet-blue flowers from late winter to late spring.
BEST USE: Banks and Slopes; Flower borders and beds; Ground Cover; City & Courtyard Gardens; Coastal Cottage & Informal Garden; Wildlife Garden.
Sarcococca ruscifolia
Christmas Box
Sarcococca are compact, sometimes suckering evergreen shrubs with simple, leathery leaves and tiny, fragrant creamy-white flowers in winter or spring, followed by red, purple or black berries which may persist into the following winter.
S. ruscifolia?is a small, slow-growing, evergreen shrub with glossy, oval leaves and?small, fragrant, creamy-white flowers in?winter followed by dark red berries.
BEST USE: Ground Cover; Banks and Slopes; Low Maintenance Cottage & Informal Garden.
Daphne oleoides
olive-leaved daphne
Daphne can be deciduous or evergreen shrubs with small, usually very fragrant tubular, 4-lobed flowers, often followed by colourful berries.
Oleoides is a dwarf evergreen shrub of variable habit, usually under 60cm tall, forming low hummocks. Leaves are almost stalkless, squareish and bristle-tipped, glossy above and downy below when young. Flowers are white, cream or yellowish, sometimes pink tipped, borne in terminal clusters in late spring and early summer, scented. Fruits are orange-red.
BEST USE: Low Maintenance Flower borders and beds; Banks and Slopes; Cottage & Informal Garden; City & Courtyard Gardens; Gravel Garden; Coastal Rock Garden.
Pulmonaria?Opal?= ‘Ocupol’
lungwort
Pulmonaria?can be herbaceous or semi-evergreen rhizomatous perennials with terminal clusters of funnel-shaped flowers in late winter or early spring, and often strikingly patterned leaves developing in summer.
Opal?is a semi-evergreen perennial with ovate leaves heavily blotched and speckled with silver; clear pale blue flowers open from pale pink buds in spring on stems to 35cm tall.
BEST USE: ?Banks and Slopes; Flower borders and beds; Ground Cover City & Courtyard Gardens; Coastal Cottage & Informal Garden; Wildlife Gardens.
Geranium‘Sweet Heidy’
cranesbill ‘Sweet Heidy’
Geranium?can be annuals, biennials and perennials, herbaceous or evergreen, with rounded, usually palmately lobed or divided leaves, and lax inflorescences of rounded, 5-petalled flowers.
‘Sweet Heidy’ is a spreading perennial, to 60cm tall, with neat, dense, lobed foliage and bowl-shaped flowers from early summer to early autumn. Flowers are pink, shading to purple with dark veining and a white centre.
BEST USE: Flower borders and beds; Ground Cover; Underplanting of Roses and Shrubs; Cottage & Informal Garden; Gravel Garden.
Camellia japonica?‘Grand Prix’
camellia ‘Grand Prix’
Camellia?are evergreen shrubs with simple, ovate, glossy, leathery leaves and showy flowers with solitary or clustered flowers early in the year.
‘Grand Prix’ is a vigorous upright medium-sized shrub with bright red, semi-double flowers to 13cm across.
BEST USE: Flower borders and beds; Low Maintenance Wall-side Borders; Cottage & Informal Garden.
Maianthemum racemosum
American spikenard
Maianthemum are rhizomatous perennials with erect or arching stems bearing alternate leaves and small star-shaped flowers in terminal racemes or panicles, followed by red berries.
Racemosum is an herbaceous perennial to 75cm, the arching stems with broad-elliptic leaves and fluffy terminal panicles of fragrant creamy-white flowers, sometimes followed by reddish berries. Yellow autumn colour.
BEST USE: Flower borders and beds; Underplanting of Roses and Shrubs.
