I have tried to dig up a large aruncus before hard work took ages. I would also hate to dig up P Polymorpha my friends plant had to be kept under control.
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
It’s certainly a very striking plant. It’s to go somewhere in a big border that will get around 2 hours of sun a day, and probably tends towards dry and well drained so that could curb it (or kill it!)
I’m looking for something tall with white flowers to brighten a very green background. I’ve only ever planted Eupatorium/Eutrochium in full sun.
@Foxwillow Height in shade is difficult often dry, lack of sun and plants won't grow so tall. Any perennial plant cannot achieve height in these conditions in one season.
A golden Philadelphus would work in semi shade too deep and the leaves are green.
Actaea simplex Brunette has a delicious scent, grows in semi shade but you must give it very precise growing conditions. You will only get the 'white' when in flower. Add a fern such as Polystichum setiferum Also white Japanese Anemones some are taller than others. Possibly tall campanulas. In a drier spot Acanthus Whitewater might work. To get to any height in semi shade perennials often need moisture to compensate for lack of sun to help them grow. So before considering any of these you would need to be careful that you can give them the right growing conditions.
I remember cuttings back all the stray stems on Persicaria polmorpha just before my friend opened her garden for the NGS it took ages.
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
@Foxwillow Geranium phaum Album, Hesperis might also work depending on soil. Campanula Poscharskyana E H Frost is a ground hugging thug in some soils. In flower at dusk it's pure white flowers are dramatic.
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
@Foxwillow Geranium phaum Album, Hesperis might also work depending on soil. Campanula Poscharskyana E H Frost is a ground hugging thug in some soils. In flower at dusk it's pure white flowers are dramatic.
I've just looked at that Campanula Suze, I want one
Thanks for the Philadelphus suggestions. I’d planted a small cutting of Aureus from my last garden when we first moved in and before the bed and hedge had been cleared in any way, but it was tiny and didn’t make it through the winter. I’ve also put in a number of yellow leaved evergreens in this border to try to brighten and provide some contrast to the shade, so Belle Etoile might be better since it has bigger flowers to be able to see it from a distance.
I think I have Geranium Phaum Album on my plant wish list from previous recommendations; currently have G. Nodosum Silverwood as one of the ground cover plants (battling it out with Galium Odoratum). Hesperus is a good suggestion to try and I do have a purple leaved Actea (can’t remember the variety) waiting to go in somewhere else in the garden as it will just disappear into the shade of this particular border until it flowers.
It’s the tall flowering shrubs that I’m stuck on. There are a couple of old white lilacs and a clematis Montana Grandiflora growing up an old Apple tree which are perfect flowers but just gone over, and I’ve planted a Fairy Magnolia which I have hopes for when it becomes established - but there’s a later flowering plant needed to get me through the summer.
@GardenerSuze: would the Persicaria work in a sunken pot do you think?
@Foxwillow I have never seen @P polymorpha grown in a pot. It looks right in a large border as in your original photo. It will cope with semi shade but I have only seen it in full sun.If you did decide to go for it I think you might need to accept it could be a great success or a complete failure!
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
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S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
I have a philadelphus that seems to fit such criteria.
A golden Philadelphus would work in semi shade too deep and the leaves are green.
Actaea simplex Brunette has a delicious scent, grows in semi shade but you must give it very precise growing conditions. You will only get the 'white' when in flower. Add a fern such as Polystichum setiferum Also white Japanese Anemones some are taller than others. Possibly tall campanulas.
In a drier spot Acanthus Whitewater might work. To get to any height in semi shade perennials often need moisture to compensate for lack of sun to help them grow.
So before considering any of these you would need to be careful that you can give them the right growing conditions.
I remember cuttings back all the stray stems on Persicaria polmorpha just before my friend opened her garden for the NGS it took ages.
In the sticks near Peterborough
I mentioned Joe pye weed eupatorium as a possible alternative to the persicaria but perhaps didn't word it very well.