Speaker 1: Broadcasting from Studio A Here at proven Winter's color choice shrubs.
It's The Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella, me, Rick
Weist and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well, shade
is the Wi Fi of summer. Everyone's looking for it,
searching for it. But if trees or structures are throwing
shade on your landscape, parade, we'll shed some light on
the topic today. Can you have a colorful landscape in
the shade? Yes? You ken don't be held hosta by shade.
We'll talk you through it today on The Gardening Simplified
Show and Stacy. Yesterday, I was in a shady part
of my garden and the black hat rhododendron was in
full bloom next to the Paisley pup dog hobble and
the sun king aurelia coming out of the ground, and
the black hat was buzzing with bees.
Speaker 2: Ah. That sounds like a perfect combination. Now, be honest,
did you do that on purpose? Or was it pure luck?
Speaker 1: Pure luck?
Speaker 2: Love that.
Speaker 1: You know. I was in my living room, I looked
out the window at my neighbor's house and all of
a sudden, in a shade area where he struggles with deer.
There were these spectacular colorful plants coming out of the ground,
and I'm like what, So I went outside and walked
over there. These were metal agave plants that he ordered
off Amazon.
Speaker 2: The metal plants are They're quite fad this year. Yes,
I saw them all over the garden centers and uh,
it's a take.
Speaker 1: It's a take. We'll leave it at that. As I
walked through my shade garden, I love the wild berry hukura.
What a great plant for color. So there are a
lot of colors you can use in a shady area
and they'll make you green at least your neighbors green
with ivy. Don't forget. Shade is a wonderful element to
have in your garden, especially during summer heat. Embrace what
the shade adds instead of keying in on what you
can't do. It's an attitude adjustment. And remember the old proverb.
Gardens are not made by sitting in the shade. Sometimes
your lack of success, too, can also be caused not
by the shade, but by shallow rooted trees or by
root competition, and so we have to keep that in mind.
Last week we did a show on yellow yellow. Let
me make a point. You want bright yellow. We're going
to practice what we preach here. Pure yellow is the
most luminous color in the landscape in the light spectrum,
and it reflects light. So why not add some yellow
to shady areas? Stacy the sun king Aurelia is a
favorite of mine. Shadow land Autumn frost hosta or echo
the sun hosta. I love autumn frost hosta because it's
a variegated hosta. But the margins, the light colored margins
are very large as opposed to thin, really casts off
a lot of color.
Speaker 2: That is truly an incredible hosta. Now I usually prefer
the reverse variegated hostas, which are green on the outside
and then white on the inside. Autumn frost is a
huge exception that plant. You see it in the garden center,
and you can just tell autumn frost hosta is different
than any other hosta and it is beautiful. And also
you know, the green is more of a blue, so
it's kind of more of like a yellowy cream and
blue rather than just your standard white and green. It
truly is an exceptional plant.
Speaker 1: Love it color in the shade yellow tubers pogonias with
heart to heart, crem brew lay shade, palladiums, golden feathers,
Jacob's ladder. Oh, I love that plant. That's a great plant,
going banana's day lilies. Boy, we can plant it in
the sun. We can plant it in the shade, a
true re bloomer. And Stacy I was thinking the other
day too, you can get away with daffodils and for
scythia in the shade, especially considering the fact that many
times they'll be in bloom before the leaves come out
on the tree.
Speaker 2: Yes, so if you have deciduous shade, shade that's cast
by deciduous trees. Now, funny thing about going bananas daily.
Of course, you know here at proven winners were always
all about making up those plant names, with wacky plant names.
That one actually came from the breeder. He was working
on the plants, and his wife came in the house
after walking by it, and she said, man, that new
dayla lily you're working on is going bananas out there.
And the name stuck.
Speaker 1: I love that great story, great story. More yellow leaves
or yellow color in the shade. Hack and a kloa
the Japanese forest grass that's a go toue for me.
Speaker 2: I figured you'd have that because haw kinakloa Japanese forest
grass is pretty much known as the only grass that
will thrive in shade, the only true grass. I mean,
of course you can grow sedge, which is grass like,
but it isn't a grass. So I figured that this
would be like your BFF for your shady areas, because
I know you love your grasses.
Speaker 1: It is it's and you have.
Speaker 2: Your plants on irrigation right, No, you don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm out there handwatering.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Oh so you are watering though, because
I was gonna say every time I've tried to get
Hakona kloa established it has not worked. But I do
not have the commitment to handwatering that you do.
Speaker 1: It's a shady, moist area on the east side of
the house. It works great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a beautiful plant. It is one that I
really really like.
Speaker 1: Some more yellow dressed up ball gown which is a
hu kara fun and games I spy foamy bells. What
a fun plant hearts on fire dicentra or old and
bleeding hearts primroses. You could add a yellow Japanese maple
in your shade guard. I mean, the possibilities are limitless.
So the point I'm trying to make here is if
you want color, even bright yellow color, Stacey, it's attainable well.
Speaker 2: And we talked a little bit about that in our
recent yellow episode, that the yellow pigments in a lot
of plants indicates a lack of chlorophyll, and that reduced
amount of chlorophyll can often make yellow foliage plants more
susceptible to burning in full sun. So very very often
when you see a yellow foliage plant, not one hundred
percent of the time, but very often, you will actually
find that they are more shade tolerant than they're green,
and certainly their purple or red counterparts. So it's kind
of a good cue if you are someone who's looking
for new plants for shade, keep an eye out for
that yellow foliage, and chances arts it's going to work, you.
Speaker 1: Bet, I you know. I guess it's important to point
out you did initially hear Stacey, that not all shade
gardens are equally shady. You have structural shade, you also
have filtered shade or I love the word dappled shade.
Speaker 2: Dappled shade is a great place to be too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. I love spending time in an area that
has dappled dappled light.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, and we have to say dappled light
comes from trees with open high canopies. And I just
want to say I'm no fan of Norway maples, not
least of all because there is no getting dappled light
when you have a Norway maple. They are so dense,
so you don't get that like lovely shifting light and
that ability to grow things under it. I hope that
Norma maples go out of style. I mean, there's just
better choices, right. They don't get good fall color. They
are fast for shade, and that's cool, but you know,
it might be worth waiting a little bit longer so
that you can actually plant under them and enjoy your shade.
You know, they don't have good fall color. Flowers all right,
sort of interesting. Bark's not particularly interesting. I think we
can do better.
Speaker 1: I anxiety mulch better. Yes, now. Of course, shade's a
great place for broad leaf evergreens too. Oh and speaking
of evergreens, by the way, Celtic Pride, I have been
impressed by its performance in the shape.
Speaker 2: You know that is. So it's a microbiota also known
as a Siberian cypress. Definitely one of the most shade
tolerant conifer evergreens for sure, And it's one of those
plants that I think people tend to pass by at
the garden center very often, probably because I think it's
a juniper and they have had bad luck with unips.
They don't like junipers because they're prickly or something like that.
But the foliage on the Celtic pride microbiota is almost
fern like. It has this really kind of lovely, soft,
fringy foliage and it's a great groundcover. It's a great
texture plant. Yeah, it's one of those plats. Once people
know about it, they love it. But it does kind
of have that little bit of a in the know
kind of thing that gets you to buy it.
Speaker 1: But once you've experienced it, you're going to stick with it.
Of Course, broad leaf evergreens do great in the shade,
primarily because they enjoy the shade. Specifically, structural shade in
winter helps them get through the winter season. And we'll
talk in segment four about a lot more plant choices
that you can pick to add color to your shady area, Stacey.
Throughout history, people have loved the shade of trees. And
you think about that Buttonwood Agreement, the Buttonwood tree in
New York on Wall Street and where they met under trees.
That's how people used to do it. Thomas Jefferson same
way when he was Secretary of State. They would meet
under trees. And for are you personally to experience the
joy of the shade going to a rainforest if you
get a chance to do that in Costa Rica, I
love that and the colorful Toucan birds that we're flying around.
It really gives you an appreciation of shade. So I
embrace four of the five seasons my limerick today. Four
of the five seasons I embrace. I embrace winter, spring, summer, fall.
I'm out there enjoying all of them. The fifth season
I do not enjoy is air conditioning season. Soon I
will be repositioning as the seasons are transitioning. I embrace
four of the five seasons. For one, I have my reasons.
I will not embrace air conditioning. Why on earth do
I want to freeze in your building that set at
zero degrees? Bring on that plant evapo transfer firation. It's
a natural cooling sensation. You can find me outside under trees.
Speaker 2: Love it.
Speaker 1: I love being under a shade tree in the heat
of summer. Let's see how Stacey ties this in in
plants on trial. That's up next here on the Gardening
Simplified Show.
Speaker 2: Beautify your home and community with proven Winter's Color Choice Shrubs.
With over three hundred and twenty five unique varieties to
choose from. There's a flowering shrubber evergreen for every taste
and every space. Just look for the distinctive white container
your local garden center or learn more at proven Winner's
Colour Choice dot com. Greeting's gardening friends, and welcome back
to the Gardening Simplified Show where we're talking all about
getting color in shade. And I would just like to
say that green is a color.
Speaker 1: Yes, you're right, so you know, I know when.
Speaker 2: People say they want color for shade, they mean something
beside green. Yes, we should never really take for granted
how much green does for us. And a lush green
shade garden is really I mean, it's love, it doesn't
it's beautiful.
Speaker 1: I love that point, Stacy, because there are so many
shades of green.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, Yeah, you don't just have like one color
of green. But before I launch into today's plants plural
on trial, I do want to say we were talking
about trees and signing treaties under trees and everything in
the previous segment, and years ago I was visiting the
Gwen Frostick studio up north here in Michigan, which I
know all of our fellow Michigan peeps out there are
going to know be familiar with Gwen Frostick. And in
the studio, it wasn't one of her artworks, but it
was just a piece of a poster that she had
in her studio and it was a big close up
of tree rings and it said one sentence on it,
A tree is a place. And you know that's not
something that I think people think of enough. Tend to
think of a tree as like a thing or an
element of the yard. But a tree really is a place.
Speaker 1: Yes, it is.
Speaker 2: And when we garden under trees or put benches or
you know, otherwise create areas where we can actually be
among the trees and enjoy them, we appreciate them as
a place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, I'm so glad you brought that
up because years ago, that's where people would meet, that's
where they'd hold important meetings. They didn't have air conditioning
back then well, and.
Speaker 2: They didn't have a lot of landmarks either, so you
could just be like, meet me in the big tree,
meet me under the tree in the center a crown.
And it wasn't like, you know, turn right at the
at the gas station and left at the McDonald's and
I'll see you there.
Speaker 1: Can you tell I'm tired of going to meetings wearing
a stocking cap and a winter coat. Yeah, okay, okay,
but you're right. A tree is a place, tree, right place.
Speaker 2: So, and a tree gives you shade. And when you
have shade, you may want to plant something under it.
And you know, I think there are a number of
things that you can plant under shade. And Rick just
gave us a great list of yellow foliage plants and
flowers that you can plant under a tree. And I
am going to for today's Plants on Trial, give you
a rainbow, a whole spectrum of every color in the
rainbow of something that you can plant in shade. But
I do want to preface it by saying that you
do have to have reasonable expectations right. A lot of
plants will tolerate shade, they won't thrive in it. Some
plants absolutely thrive. And you've been talking about the sun
king Arelia, that is a shade plant. Don't try to
plant it in the sun. It will not be happy.
You will not be happy. It is a shade plant.
A lot of the plants that I'm going to give
you will tolerate being in the shade. Results may vary.
If you live in a hot climate, that shade is
probably going to be very beneficial and you'll get good results.
If you live in a cooler climate, or the shade
is very very dense, not dappled like we were talking
about from a high open canopy of a tree. The
colors might not be as intense as you see, for example,
in the photos in our tags or our website, but
it will still give you some color. You know, I'm
not talking about things that aren't gonna do what you
want them to do. So you have to also have
somewhat reasonable expectations. You know that the foliage color isn't
going to be its most vivid or it's most true
that if it's something that flowers, it may have fewer
flowers than it would if it had a little bit
more light. But still, if you have a lot of shade,
you might feel like you don't have a lot of options.
And this show is all about helping you dispel that
myth and give you lots more options. So we will
start at the beginning of the rainbow with the color
red now red for shade. Wee bit giddy hydrangea now
big leaf hydrangeas. This is a hydrange of macrophilla or
a big leaf Hydrangea are quite shade tolerant, and I
have to say I've been very surprised, you know, just
driving around here in West Michigan where we do have
great luck with big leaf hydrangeas. They do really thrive
in shade. They don't seem to need as much sun
as you know a panicle hydrangel or smooth hydrangea. They
bloom really well. Wee bit giddy is our dwarf big
leaf hydrangea with bright reddish pink colors. There are no
truly red hydrangeas. And the more red tones that it
hasn't it, the less it will go blue, or it
most will get kind of like a pinky color with
a little purply blue center, so wee bit giddy would
be a great choice for that nice deep red pink
flower on a big leaf. Hydrangea also have kodiak red Durvilla.
Durvilla's are a great choice for shade. Again, this is
one example where you're gonna get, you know, some nice
red new growth, but you're probably not gonna get as
vivid and you're probably not gonna get as vivid fall
color as well, but still very much worth it for
that accent. Arctic fire red dogwood, yes, extremely shade tolerant plant.
Now when it's actually at its most red, it may
not matter to you as much because it's winter, but
it's still going to give you that great red color
all winter long and in the fall. So that is
very much worth keeping in mind. Also as a hedge
for shade, very very useful plants if you have shade,
even though it's not necessarily the flashiest thing during the
growing season, but you know, if you take that list
of stuff that you gave which had lots of very
flashy stuff in it, and then use arctic fire red
cornice or dogwood red twig dogwood to kind of anchor
the space you got a pretty sweet deal. I'm going
to add one more, one of my personal favorite plants
in the Pervum Winter's Color Choice line, simply sensational Cali canvas.
Oh man, it is just starting to bloom here. And
the fragrance is just one of my absolute favorite very
shade tolerant, very dear resistant plants. Orange. Now, we were
talking about Azalea's a couple episodes ago, and I was
talking about our fabulous native flame Azalea rhododendron colundulation. That
would be a wonderful choice if you want bright orange
flowers in shady conditions. But you could also for foliage
tricodiac orange dravilla. So same deals with the Kodiak red Love.
Speaker 1: It does great in the sun or shade in my lands.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so all right, Rick gave you lots and lots
of amazing options for yellow. I have a couple to
add one that I know people love, and I actually
had someone write the show about this, asking if this
plant was discontinued because it can be hard to find.
And the fact is Golden Shadows Dogwood Pagoda dogwood one
of our most beautiful and elegant plants in the proven
Winner's color choice line always in demand. We cannot keep
up with demand of this beautiful native small dogwood. It
is variegated yellow and green, and it thrives in the
shade and just makes the most beautiful kind of small tree.
It's just you have to see it to believe it.
So I know Adriana will put some photos of it
up on YouTube here, but if you're listening on podcasts
or radio, you're definitely gonna want to check this plant out.
Speaker 1: See it brings up the point. Dogwood is a fabulous
understory or classic tree for shady conditions.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it can do quite a lot. Yeah, Anna's magic
Ball Arborviti. Arbiviti's overall are quite shade tolerant. So with
something like Anna's Magic Ball or for Grain or tater tut,
these are both small round arborvidies in deep shade, they're
not going to be as dense and tight. They're going
to be slightly more open, but they're still going to
give you great shape and in the case of Anna's
Magic Ball, great color. The flowers of the kodiaktra villa
are bright yellow, so that's going to give you some
nice yellow color in the summer. And then of course
there's lemony lace elderberry, which the hondier climate, the more
shade that is going to need, but it's already quite
a shade tolerant plant. Now green obviously doesn't really need
too much padding here in our rainbow for shade. But
I do want to mention two fantastic evergreens for deep
shade even in that is boxwood and taxis if you
are in the north Cephalo Taxa if you are in
a hot climate. For blue, obviously we can go back
to the big leaf hydrangeas. There's lots and lots of
blue hydrangeas like Let's Dance Skyview, and of course lots
of others. But I did want to mention double play
blue kazoos. Spyria. Okay, this is kind of an unusual
type of spyria that has really dusty blue foliage. The
new growth comes out in all sorts of colors. It
has huge white flower clusters in late spring, and it's
just a really nice colorful plant that's a little bit different,
kind of a twist on spyria. For purple, I was
kind of struggling. I was thinking hydrangeas, and then you
reminded me of the practically perfect in every way. Paisley
pup Lukothai.
Speaker 1: Performs incredibly in the shade.
Speaker 2: For me, now, this is a plant that's not going
to be purple all season long. It's mostly going to
have those purple tones during the cooler weather. So basically
you're probably thinking like October through March or thereabouts, maybe
even into April, especially if we have a season as
cool as we have had this one. But even when
it's not those purple colors, it's a beautiful variegated foliage,
and variegation, again, as we spoke about recently, always lights
up the shade. I don't think there is a better
use for variegation than in a shaded garden where it
can really bring that light. And very often, you know,
in some shade or as long as it gets some sun,
variegation really shines. I think at its best you don't
have to worry about those paler parts burning in the
hot sun. And you know, again it contributes all that light.
And then I wanted to add white because you know,
of course this is very important. Mimona, Whygela, Whygella are
not a shade plant by any stretch, except for these
variegated ones that have so much white on them, very
susceptible to burning in the sun, especially in hotter areas,
so you can actually try Mymona Ygla in some shade.
And then of course one of my favorite hydrange of Courseifolia,
oak leaf hyderrange, any of our Gatsby series has beautiful, big,
bodacious white flowers in the summer.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought up white because when you read
about shade in gardening, many times the recommendation is to
add white, whether it's a white painted fence or whatever
it may be.
Speaker 2: So it's a difference white furniture, white bench.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: So hopefully that inspired all of our shade hars out there.
We're going to take a little break. When we come back,
we're opening up the mail bag, so please stay tuned.
At proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs, we know that a
better landscape starts with a better shrub. Our team of
experts tests and evaluates all of our flowering shrubs and
evergreens for eight to ten years to ensure they outperform
what's already on the market for easycare, reliable, beautiful shrubs
to accentuate your home and express your personal style. Look
for Proven Winner's shrubs in the distinctive white container at
your local garden center, or learn more at proven Winner's
Color Choice dot com. Reading's gardening friends, and welcome back
to the Gardening Simplified show. Word is our pleasure to
help you with your garden questions, quandaries and conundrums. If
you have one of those, you can reach us on
the YouTube page. You can just leave a comment down
there right You're gonna passes those along to us and
we answer everyone. You can also reach us at Gardening
Simplified on air dot com. There is a contact form
right there.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: You know, Rick and I can get pretty excited when
we're talking about various topics, and you know, we kind
of go off on a tangent. We are too strongly
opinionated gardeners with our own perspective, and I think that
sometimes in our excitement we may perhaps misrepresent our actual opinion.
It happens, and I'm great ul to listener Jeff who
wrote to us with this feedback. He says, Hello, Rick
and Stacey. I watch your show every week on YouTube.
Thank you, Jeff. It's the best gardening show that's so sweet,
fun and entertaining. But also solid knowledge from both of you.
So I was watching a recent show where you were
talking about and hating on rock and stone in the garden.
I love rock and stone as an accent in my garden.
It would not be the same without it. What I
would never do is put plants in a stone border.
They are a standalone accent to my garden. Bed One
bed even came from Michigan beach rocks. It is fantastic,
especially when they're wet. Oh yeah, I am a Potasky
stone hunter in a parking lot. When it's wet, you
will find me combing over all those beds. I will
send you a couple photos of my yard. So I
wanted to read this on air for two reasons. Number
one because I'm terribly sorry if Rick and I misrepresented
our actual view. What Jeff has done is absolutely beautiful,
and we love that. You know. One of the things
that I really miss about living in New York is
the amount of stone everywhere, walls and bedrock outcroppings, and
we don't have a whole lot of that down here
in the Lower Peninsula. It's especially out in West Michigan,
where any rock that we have is completely buried in
glacial till and everything is way way down there. And yes, Jeff,
you're absolutely right. What we object to is the use
of rock as a mult over the entire landscape bed.
And that's for a couple of reasons. Number one for me,
because it's most often associated with landscape fabric or weed barrier,
which is terrible for plants and doesn't even actually keep
weeds down. Rocks can get quite hot and make it difficult,
you know, it can, especially around hydranges and some sensitive plants.
It can really warm up the temperature around them and
fry them. Rock can hold too much moisture or make
it difficult for the soil to wet. And it's expensive.
It's hard to put on, hard to put in, and
it's even harder to take out. So for those reasons,
we do object to rock is emulch. But what Jeff
is doing I wanted to read this because I wanted
you to see all of the really cool things that
he has done in his yard with the rocks that
he has collected. So I think little accents like this
and pathways are absolutely beautiful. I am a rock hoarder.
I will come out and admit this on the show
My windowsills are full of rocks. My garden is full
of rocks.
Speaker 1: I have the same thing, but they're all flat stones
because I love skipping stones.
Speaker 2: Ah see, that's good. So it's good to have a curation, right.
I know people who will only collect heart shaped rocks.
My brother in law collects meat shaped rocks.
Speaker 1: That's a new one on me.
Speaker 2: You can collect pink rocks, you know, but it's so
that way. You're not bringing home every rock that crosses
your path, because you know, we've all been there. You're
on the beach, you're collecting rocks. Next thing, you know,
you can barely walk home because you're so laden down
with rocks in your pockets.
Speaker 1: I love Jeff reaching out to us and sharing that
information because I love stones and rocks in my landscape too.
Last year I spent a lot of money adding some
boulders and some rocks to my landscape. So it's just
the mulch aspect.
Speaker 2: So do you think those were a rock solid investment?
Speaker 1: Ooh, well done, Stacy, nicely done. Anyway, add that to
my heartfolio.
Speaker 2: Okay, So thank you, Jeff, and I'm sorry to Jeff
into anyone else that we made you think we don't
absolutely love rocks.
Speaker 1: You know. It brings up a point though, would love
to have not only the conundrums, but ideas. Send us
some of your ideas too, and thank you, Jeff. As
a matter of fact, I had an idea working in
my yard yesterday. I was going to ask you about Stacy,
and that is I want to find a plant breeder
who will take on my project. My hearty banana is
coming out of the ground yay, amazing, And I was
planting like canoes and I'm thinking if I could cross
the cannas with the hardy banana, I could have cananas
and I could really market cananas in the landscape. So
help me find a plant breeder for that.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't think that's going to happen until crisper
technology evolves a lot more than it has been, because
you can not really cross easily to plants in different families. Yes,
and those are in two very different families. But you
can and say, you know, you can go over the
top with your with your idea here and do the
trifecta canna, banana and lantana.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so.
Speaker 2: You can have your little rhyming gardens.
Speaker 1: See I knew you'd hear yours.
Speaker 2: So we've also been hearing from a number of gardeners,
which is very common for this time of year. We're
getting a lot of questions, especially on El Nino, from
gardeners in colder climate who are seeing them behave a
bit like butterfly bush, and in fact they're seeing the
same kind of thing on their butterfly bush on their
carryopteris even things like lavender. And what these plants have
in common, they're kind of borderline hardy on the wood
that persists above ground. They're all shrubs, they all create
real wood. But if we have a really harsh winter,
which we did, it was brutal, Yeah, it was quite brutal.
Then what can happen is these plants can die back
to the ground. That doesn't mean they're dead, It just
means they have died back to the ground. It can
also set them back so that they're very late to emerge.
And that's what's really happening in a lot of areas now.
I have to say, for my part, I have been
rather shocked that after such a harsh winter my summerfic
Hibiscus are already emerging. Usually I don't usually see those
emerge until Memorial Day weekends. Well, mine are going bananas,
as it were. But okay, if you have one of
these plants and they haven't shown signs of life yet,
it is still too early, especially here in Michigan and
I imagine through most of the Upper Midwest. You know,
we had an early spring, but it's mostly been cool.
It got warmer than usual earlier, but then it just
kind of stayed like in the forties, like low fifties.
So things are kind of in a suspended animation right now.
Don't try try to avoid the temptation to cut them
back early. Let them show you where they are alive.
My all mean, you know, just started showing new signs
of growth, probably in the past week or so, and
so what you're going to want to do is let
that growth show you where it is, let it come
out of the stems, let it get going a little
bit more, and then you can go ahead and cut
back to wherever you would like, just above a bud.
So patience is key. I know that it can be
very hard to have when everything else in your garden
is looking lush and green and fantastic and you just
have this pile of sticks that doesn't seem to want
to grow, but sometimes you know, just like people, they
need a little bit more time to show you what
they're made of. Patience is the order for your El Nino, Buddleia, carriopters,
anything like that.
Speaker 1: Well said. Stacy June writes to us, Hello, I'm a
huge fan of your show. The information you provide is
extremely helpful and your jokes and delivery are very enjoyable.
Thank you very mulch. I have a question regarding German
irises that I just bought. I thought the rhizome should
be slightly above the soil level. However, these are planted
in the container with no rhizome showing above the ground.
The people at the nursery told me to plant them
at the same level they were at in the container.
While planting them, I saw that there are very small
rhizomes underneath the soil. How should I plant these German irises?
Thanks so much for your help.
Speaker 2: Right, so great question, and for those of you, this
is a plant that is often known by different names,
so it's the same thing as bearded iris. I tend
to call them bearded iris. I actually had to look
up and make sure that I was talking about the
same plant that June was asking about. But yes, so
same plant, German iris, bearded iris. And yes, indeed these
plants should absolutely be planted with their rhizomes just at
or just below the soil surface. I looked it up
on the Iris Society website just to make sure that
this is like actually a thing and not just what
I have continually witnessed. Sure, and they said absolutely they
should be just above or barely below the surface, with
one or two exceptions extremely hot climates. And I believe,
I don't know June, if you let us know where
you were located. So if you live in a hot climate,
that rhizome should be buried a little bit more deeply
to protect it from the desiccating effects of the sun
and sun burn, or if you have very light soil
that is likely to erode and expose a lot of that.
In those cases they can be covered up by up
to one inch of soil, but they should be showing.
And you know, sometimes there are a number of things
that from the garden center, from the grower might have
too much soil. There's a lot of things that could happen,
and in that case, you as the gardener, are in
the position to make some corrective decisions and actually go
ahead and remove that access soil plant it so those
rhizomes are again just below the soil surface, that might
be removing some of that. There's other plants for this
is really important too, just a quick list. So if
you're buying any of these plants and they are deeply
buried in the container, you're going to want to correct
that when you plant pe andies. Obviously a huge one.
Number one reasons that iris and ponies don't bloom is
if they're planted too deeply. Trees, especially Japanese maples, you
need to make sure you're seeing that root flare or
kind of green buttress area, achinaesia, anything that needs good drainage.
All should be planted at or slightly above the soil,
especially if you have clay soil, even if in the
container they are a little bit below, and even if
normally you would put them exactly at the same level
they were at.
Speaker 1: And let me add stacey one thing to that, and
that is don't mulch too deeply there and in the
case of iris, skip the mulch if at all possible.
In my opinion, those rhizomes as that clump fills out
are going to continue to push their way to the surface.
But if you pile on six inches of mulch, it's
not going to work.
Speaker 2: No, and it's not going to be good for the
iris or for you. So correct, Yes, the burying goes
for the mulch as well as for the soil. Thank
you all so much for your questions. We're going to
take a break. When we come back, we're continuing our
talk on color in the shade, so please stay tuned.
Thanks for listening to the Gardening Simplified podcast, brought to
you by Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning
flowering shrubs and evergreens are trialed and tested by experts
with your success in mind. Learn more at Proven Winners
color Choice dot com.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Gardenings Implified show. As we continue
to talk about color in the shade, Stacy, you know
my approach to using fall leaves and grinding them up
and using them in the landscape ideal for a shade
garden because again we need to think woodland, floor and
organic matter, nutrient rich humus to add to our success.
Here's a few other quick pointers bright color backdrops fences
or walls to reflect some light. Maybe hire an arborist
in winter to limb up some trees to add to
the dappled light provided to your garden. Some people will
disagree with this, and that is fine. But add some
landscape lighting. I love landscape lighting in a dark shaded area.
Adding colorful containers, a stone path and using the grout
between the stones. I'm gonna call it as some type
of light colored groundcover in between the stones. Maybe a
light colored green really adds to the color. Let moss
do its thing where it wants to, because moss can
be somewhat luminiscent, luminescent, and then a hardscape feature that
is a bright color. I mean, obviously, Stacy, we see
this in Japanese gardens all the time, with the bright
red lantern right, yeah.
Speaker 2: Or stone lanterns. There's lots of different ways, you know.
I think I was really thinking about Japanese gardens earlier
in the show when I was saying that green is
a color. And yes, many Japanese gardens have flowering shrubs
perennials in them that kind of offer some seasonal color.
But for the most part, a Japanese garden is very
much characterized by the use of green.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. Daylilies and hostas, of course, are the kings
of the shade as far as perennials are concerned, Boy
Empress Wu just because of the sheer eyes of the plant.
But I guess we're gonna have to call the queen.
Maybe arguably ferns would be one and a still be
would be another.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, And you know, I love ferns, and I
do actually have several ferns that are really thriving in
my dry shade. And you know, you're talking about sort
of this this concept of the woodland understory. That's one
of the reasons why finding plants for dry shade can
be so difficult, because they tend to be sort of yeah,
these understory plants that are used to at least some
consistent moisture. So if you have, you know, a dune
garden like I do with some shade, then yeah, it
can be hard. But I find ferns do well. I have,
you know, in a moment of misguided hope, tried a
still be. I've tried Goat's beard, another great plant for
deep shade, and I do not have the moisture and
I'm done trying. But they are such a lovely, lovely choice.
If you do have you know, clay soil irrigation or
any company of the two.
Speaker 1: I agree well for that dry shade, Stacey, we could
go to epimedium barren wart Hugs and Kisses is a
great new variety, or a woodland elf, any of those
barren warts. Great.
Speaker 2: You can't go wrong with any epimedium. They are just
such absolutely lovely and elegant plants, you know. Unfortunately for me,
the rabbits are loving the flowers. So despite the fact
that I have a variety called sandy Claws, which is
very prickly and is obviously great for animal resistance. But man,
I tell you, those bunnies are very skilled with their
little teeth and they can just get in there and
take out the flower stem and run away without getting,
you know, jabbed by the epimedium leaves. But a great
choice now, Epimedium, not unlike the Hakana kloa that we
were talking about earlier, another plant that's slow to get established.
You do have to kind of put in your tongue
very true to get this plant established in your dry shade.
Once you do it's hands off. You know. I have
a great plant that I adore for dry shade, and
I've talked about it before, but it amazes me anew
every single year that this plant does as well as
it does in such dry shade. Variegated Solomon seal. Yes,
I mean, I have so much of this plant. It
happily reproduces every single year with little to no irrigation,
looks stunningly elegant from the time that those bright pink
buds kind of start emerging from the soil all the
way till when it turns yellow and goes dormant in
the fall. You know, It's one of those things that,
you know, as I get more mature in my gardening perspective,
I'm just really really grateful for the things that do
so well. You know. I try and I experiment, but
then I just feel like, you know, I just want
to give that plan a hug and thank it for
doing so well in my garden.
Speaker 1: I like that, I do. Yeah. Heaven sent Jacob's ladder
is a favorite plant of mine. Day Lilies primal scream put.
Speaker 2: Some of that that is, you know, I don't like
day lilies, No, that is the one day Lily. I like, yes,
it is a question a red spider or the spider
one that they have at Walters as well, But Primal
Scream is pretty great. But I love orange in the garden, so.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Virginia, Love Virginia, and a shade garden gives you
a great color and spring and of course Jack Frost,
Jack of Diamonds, Queen of Hearts, Brunera, that's going to
really brighten up the place if you use those Yes.
Speaker 2: You know, I just got an idea ICs. I think
in a future episode we should do one of our
speed rounds. Yes, and it will be killed it, because
you know, I'm feeling like, as we're going through this
list of plants for shade, you could ask me a
lot of these, I'd be like, killed it, killed it,
killed it. And I think this could be a fun,
a fun list.
Speaker 1: I think it's great.
Speaker 2: I think we can come up with our lists for
each other and we'll speed around each other on whether
or not we killed it.
Speaker 1: I like that if if you haven't killed any plants,
you're not trying hard enough, so you are so right now.
Of course, if we want color and shade a go
to of course in spring summer and fall in our
landscapes on our decks. Is to plant some annuals. You
and let's get some annuals in the shade. They're gonna
guarantee us color Autumnow Fusia that plant, oh, out of
hanging basket. You know. The foliage has this autumn color
to it with little red flowers. Love that. I love
Fuchias in general, perfect for shade, hard to heart kalladiums.
Bogonia is not a foreign country. You should use Bogonias
in the shades. Selenia, rager Bogonias, sure fire Bogonias, dragon
wing Begonias, space age rex Bogonias, non stop bagonias.
Speaker 2: Pogonias are so wonderful. Oh. I was just shopping with
my mom for plants last weekend and in love with them.
But that is another thing I can't try because of
the deer. They love pogonias that are nice and watery
and succulent, and boy do they love to show those
things down. But my mom got the most beautiful pogonia
for her planters. It's a black leaf and a bright
orange flower. And as we were walking through the garden center,
people were like stopping us to ask where we got it.
That is so beautiful. Yeah, yeah, so beautiful. So I'm
very excited to see how they do this year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a Bogonia Boston nova. It is a pendulating
type of bogonia. Any of your tuberous pogonias for me?
When I went to boot Yard Gardens in British Colymbia,
thank you, I'm lost boy. Their exhibit of tuberous pogonias
was on.
Speaker 2: Oh, and I'll bet they thrive there. I bet they
just do well. I mean, most things are going to
thrive in that climate, but I can imagine those are
especially nice. We are so spoiled for choice for outdoor
bogonias right now. It is a gold age of pogonias,
and if you don't have dear, you should absolutely take
advantage of it.
Speaker 1: I remember as a garden center owner just being dejected
in two eleven, twoenty twelve when the whole downy mildew
thing came through in Europe and the United States, wiping
out impatience Waaleriana, and then we're told you're not going
to be able to sell these anymore or grow them
in your garden. It was just so frustrating. Fortunately you can,
and the Rockapoco series of Impatience Stacy. When I show
them to people in the greenhouse, they love them because
the impatient blooms and it is an impatience. Waaleriana are
almost like miniature roses. Yeah, so pretty.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they are really cool.
Speaker 1: Do you grow bro Walia?
Speaker 2: I just got some, you know, I've had so much
trouble finding it for the last couple of years because
I do love it, and it is, honestly, I think
one of the best annuals I've ever seen for shade.
It was deer resistant for me. Comes in white or
this beautiful kind of periwinkle blue. They're both gorgeous plants
and just flowers. It's head off in the shade like
nothing else. So I'm very excited to have it back
and it will be on my front porch this year.
Speaker 1: That's great love. I love that. Yeah, it's touted as
a great substitute for impatience if you are struggling with
downy mildew. Of course we have to mention colius. I
like to grow the color blaze Colius out in the
full sun, but we should mention that you can grow
it in the shade. Same applies to heart to heart kalladiums.
There are a number of them you can grow in
the sun. But a great plant for the shade Terenia
wishbone flour and then finally the hypostes. The polka dot
plant is another great annual choice in the shade.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I not gonna lie. Had a little pity party
for myself in the garden centers when I was shopping
with my mom, because colius is another thing that the
deer love, and I I saw so many beautiful colias
that I dearly wish that I could grow. Same with turina.
They ate the heck out of the trainia. They ate
the heck out of the polkadot plant. So the browelia
is like my one flower for my shady front porch
that the deer won't eat and will flower. So again,
I'm grateful for what I can do and try and
have one little pity party for myself over the stuff
I can't and then move on.
Speaker 1: Excellent. And that's a great way to cap it off, Stacy,
because shade gardening is an attitude.
Speaker 2: Right it is absolutely Yeah.
Speaker 1: Thank you Stacy, thank you Rick, thank you Adriana, and
thank you for watching us on YouTube, listening to us
on the radio, or downloading our podcast. Have yourself a
great week.