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Old 15-06-2007, 11:29 AM
echinosum echinosum is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Feb 2006
Location: Chalfont St Giles
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rosalyn View Post
My ideas so far are fatsia japonica, tree ferns (and other ferns),
bamboo and rhubarb, either real or ornamental. I would love a
cordyline or phormium but think they prefer sun? And the same for
gunnera?
Don't forget the bamboo. Most Fargesia, Thamnocalamus, spp grow well in shade and are TRUE clumpers so they won't go running off. And you can get a range of culm colours in the Fargesias: many like murieliae and dracocephala and utilis are green; nitida is grey-black; scabrida is bluish, and jiuzhaigou and rufa are RED. F. rufa is very small. (dracocephala and rufa have been recently renamed, but are still sold with these names; juizhaigou is sometimes described as a variety of nitida). Thamnocalamus Kew Beauty will also go red, but only in sunshine.
I saw a beautiful shade garden where there was a round stone feature with coloured gravels and a F nitida growing out of the centre, it was stunning.

Most Phyllostachys need sun, so your black bamboo won't go black in the shade, nor your golden bamboo go golden. Also they are often more spreading than the seller will tell you. And especially stay away from sasa and indocalamus and pleiobastus and yushania etc, they spread fast, unless you are willing to contain them with serious civil works.

Cordyline and phormiums won't like it shady.

More nice shade plants:
tricyrtis (toad lilies) - purple flowers in late summer/early autumn on interesting stems, highly recommended by me
trilliums
cyclamen