What plants can I use in shady positions in my Canberra garden?
Shade can be very useful for keeping plants looking at their best but for some plants the shade can prevent good flowering or fruiting or lead to a misshapen/’leggy’ form.
Some plants love sun with some shade (part sun/part shade) whilst some plants love shade with some good light a requirement (part shade).
In some gardens with growing trees and larger shrubs the shade may continue to deepen and so plants will react well or poorly depending on their requirements.
Plants I love to use in Canberra in part shade (just a few of my favourites - there are many more)
Sarcococca confusa - Sweet box - this is a lovely small to medium shrub with glossy green leaves and a small fragrant flower. Will tolerate part shade to heavy shade.
Correa sp. - many Correas will grow in part shade ranging from ground covers to small to medium shrubs. Correa ‘Dusky Bells’ is a great Winter-flowering small native shrub with a pink bell-shaped flower.
Ajuga reptans ‘Caitlin’s Giant’ - Bugle flower - this is a terrific ground cover for part shade with a lovely burgundy coloured foliage and nice blue/purple flower spikes.
Hydrangea quercifolia - oak-leaf Hydrangea - great white-flowering small/medium shrub that tolerates more sun that most Hydrangeas. It has nice autumn foliage on the leaves before they fall.
Helleborus orientalis - this is a wonderful small plant that can ‘naturalise’ in part shade to give a lovely leafy cover under taller shrubs and trees. Winter flowering.
Acer palmatum dissectum ‘Inabe shidare’ - red-leaved weeping Japanese maple - this one has intense red/burgundy foliage esp. in Spring with autumn colours that heighten in Autumn.
Dicksonia antartica - the soft tree fern - majestic fronds emerge from varied trunk heights. An Australia native spectacular!
Blechnum nudum + Polystichum proliferum - lower growing ‘ground’ ferns, hardy to a Canberra Winter
Viola hederacea - a native Viola ground cover that is great for spreading under tree ferns or similar.