Plus Size Plants For Shade - Brief Article

Flower & Garden Magazine, March, 2001 by Bonnie Blanchette

Big and Tall Plants for the Back of the Shade Border

Adults, like children, tend to focus first on what's closest to them. When designing a garden, however, it's best to select plants for the back of the border before planting the front edge. No one wants to trample a new plant or compact freshly cultivated soil. Seasoned gardeners also know that the real strength of a garden lies in its structure. Often the plants near the back provide a framework for all that comes before.

Plants of various shapes and textures must be knit together at all levels of the garden. Near the rear, tall plants provide a smooth transition between low-growing plants and the trees, fences or walls that provide the shade. Big, bulky plants add substance and make the garden seem lush and well-established. While bare ground is never attractive, it is especially disturbing towards the back of a garden. Like holes in a movie screen, empty space draws attention. Single plants that cover large areas or drifts of less massive plants are needed to carpet the soil and to give proper weight to the back of the border. If these plants have spikes and spires, they also add vertical movement, drama and an airy lightness to the garden. Like church steeples pointing towards the heavens, they lift our spirits.

Hostas and astilbes are the traditional backbone of the shade garden. The big leathery leaves of the hostas are an excellent foil for the fernlike foliage of the astilbes. This contrast in texture is heightened when the astilbes produce their feathery flower spikes. Tall astilbes look best planted in drifts so they can visually balance large hostas and add a swath of color to the border. The following plants can be woven together with large hostas and astilbes to make an ordinary shade garden look stunning.

Martagon lilies are one of the few lilies that prefer shade. The most vigorous variety, `Claude Shride,' has ruby-colored petals that arch backward exposing anthers laden with orange pollen. The thick waxy flowers are smaller than those of Asiatic and Oriental lilies, but produce in large numbers. The wonderful heavy texture of their nodding flowers and the unusual arrangement of the leaves in whorls around the stem add interest at the back of the garden. Like all lilies, martagons must have good soil drainage.

Shieldleaf Roger's flower (Astilboides tabularis) is an incredible foliage plant for shade. With dramatically large leaves that can easily reach two feet across, the plant looks tropical but is hardy to USDA Zone 4. Its umbrella-like leaves give the eye a place to rest. If a section of the garden has busy variegated plants or a lot of fine textured foliage, this bold perennial will provide balance and create a more peaceful effect. It needs moist soil and filtered shade or only early morning sun.

The white blooms of tall ornamental tobacco (Nicotiana sylvestris) brighten the back of the border like fireworks in the evening sky. The long tubular flowers look great with many ornamentals but are especially attractive near green-and-white hostas and dark daylilies. This plant is an annual that is easy to start from seed and is not fussy about soil or light. Since it grows quickly and has large leaves, it can be used to fill gaps between perennials.

Monkshoods (Aconitums) are lethal beauties. All parts of these plants are poisonous, so the back of the border is an ideal place to tuck them away where children are less apt to come in contact with them. They have intriguing hooded flowers on tall airy stems that add to the vertical dimension of the garden. Many of the varieties available have blue flowers and bloom in the fall. The white variety `Ivorine' and yellow Aconitum vulparia flower earlier in the summer and have a bushy appearance.

Don't limit yourself to red beebalms (Monardas). Try the pink, white, soft lavender or rich purple varieties at the back of a shade border where they blend easily with tall lavender astilbes and blue hostas. Select disease-resistant varieties and divide the plants every few years to reduce the chance of powdery mildew. These plants spread quickly, but since their roots run just under the soil surface, it's easy to pull out unwanted plants in the spring.

Bugbane (Cimicifuga racemosa) produces fluffy white wands that rise above the rest of the garden and add an inspiring freshness to the late season border. The long, wispy flowers lighten the mood created by heavy hostas and give the garden a more relaxed, natural feel. Some varieties are popular for their foliage rather than their flowers. `Brunette' and `Hillside Black Beauty' have rich purple leaves that pair equally well with gold hostas and yellow flowers or pink and purple flowers.

Tall meadow rue Thalictrum rochebrianum `Lavender Mist,' produces clouds of tiny purple flowers with a central cluster of long yellow anthers. Plants have wispy stems that may lean and dance in the breeze but don't usually need staking despite their height of six feet or more. `Lavender Mist' is most effective when the color of its flowers is echoed in nearby plants, like purple beebalms or lavender astilbes, and when viewed against the green backdrop of shrubs and trees. Since it self-seeds, just a few plants will eventually give rise to a nice drift.