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Ideas for dark shady area

susieblue-1susieblue-1 Posts: 4
in Problem solving
I live in a basement and it has a rather strange window looking out into what effectively looks like a walled tank! See photo. I’ve put trellis up the sides to hang pots on, but it is dark and damp and cold - what can I grow in the pots?

Posts

  • SophieKSophieK Posts: 244
    Ferns, trailing ivy, could try pansies fir colour but it is a very dark space indeed
  • Butterfly66Butterfly66 Posts: 970
    edited April 2021
    If you’re able to, painting the trellis a pale colour and placing mirrors behind them (acrylic is relatively cheap) would help maximise and bounce what light you do get.
    Fatsia japonica might cooe but would need a much larger pot on the floor.
    Begonias might cope and give you some summer colour

    just thought, as your trellis is already up how about placing a mirror on the floor, that will reflect the light coming down into the well? Might have to check that it isn’t then blinding someone on a higher floor when they look out 🤔
     If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero
    East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
  • Dirty HarryDirty Harry Posts: 1,048
    Hostas.
  • Cambridgerose12Cambridgerose12 Posts: 1,134
    I've seen Acer palmatum grown successfully in exactly these conditions, also Camellia japonica. Beyond that, there are quite a lot of shade-loving plants, providing you can offer water. Think 'green forest floor' and you have it--ferns of all kinds, hostas as @Dirty Harry suggests, Carex, Ophiopogon or Liriope muscari. Aster schreberi is shade-tolerant, and you might manage things like Brunnera or Astrantia. You could also branch out to some more weird and wonderful things--look at Syneilesis aconitifolia. Your best bet, because the space is so much on show, is to go for things that will give you year-round foliage interest in the first instance, rather than flower.

    This area is also liable to be fairly protected, so if you're in a milder area, you could try the hardy silver Begonia forms like 'Garden Angel Silver' or 'Silver Splendor'.

    Check out this site too, but bear in mind you'll have to be selective--things that look ratty for parts of the year will not be ideal, and everything you add will need TLC, as in pots.

    https://www.plantsforshade.co.uk


  • Robert WestRobert West Posts: 241
    For ground cover lamiums might cope well there. Beacon Silver has silvery white leaves and really helps lighten up dark areas. It flowers profusely too. 
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