Iris are popular plants for the sunny garden, but what if you want to grow them in shade? Iris cristata ‘Alba’ fills that role very nicely. It grows best in part shade with a reasonable amount of moisture.
This plant is much smaller than your common garden iris, but it puts on a nice show early in the season, well before the bearded iris. It does not need to be dug up regularly, and so far I have not seen an iris borer on them.
Known as the vesper iris, the flowers of this plant open at 4:00 pm each day, just in time for evening vespers. This is a collector’s plant; something special for those who like growing plants that none of their gardening buddies have. Although fairly rare in cultivation, the vesper iris is easy to grow and adds a special touch to the garden late in the year when few other plants flower. It flowers for many weeks with each flower remaining open for one day. A well grown plant can have over a hundred flowers.
Kitaibelia vitifolia is a large perennial from the former Yugoslavia. This plant won’t steal the garden show but it fills a void in the garden. It is difficult to find 5 foot tall flowering plants that grow in shade. K. vitfolia fits the bill.
Morina longifolia is a rare perennial from the Himalayas. The genus Morina is named in honor of a French nurseryman Rene Morin who has the distinction of issuing the first seed catalogue in 1621.
Penstemon hirsutus, the hairy penstemon, is a great garden plant for the front of the border. For the rock garden, try Penstemon hirsutus v. pygmaeus which looks just like the larger form, but is only 15 cm (6 inches) tall. The 2.5 cm long flowers are tubular in shape and colored a pale mauve with white tips. A white flowering variety is available. Flowers open sequentially so that the plant provides a good show for several weeks. In fall the foliage turns a golden reddish brown providing a continued display.
Penstemon are North American natives that should be grown more in our gardens. Penstemon procerus, the small-flowered Penstemon is a perfect choice for the rock garden or trough garden depending on the variety grown. Plants are under 1 ft (30 cm) tall, and some like the one pictured is less than 6″ (15 cm) tall in flower.
A giant for the garden. Petasites japonicus is a spectacular plant that gets a lot of attention in the garden. Unfortunately, it spreads rapidly and is not suitable for all gardens unless you can contain it. I have had success doing this for several years by planting it in a large tree sized, bottomless, plastic pot which you can see in the picture of the flowers. The creeping rhizomes grow almost at soil level and do not get out of the pot.
Phlox are well known as rock garden plants and sunny border plants, but few people are familiar with Phlox stolonifera, a North American native that is ideal for the shady garden. It was voted Perennial Plant of the Year in 1990 by the Perennial Plant Association.
Primula, also known as a Primrose, is a sure sign of spring. Grocery stores and nurseries sell them by the millions. If you have tried growing these same plants in your northern zone gardens you were probably disappointed. The commonly sold Primrose has not been bred for the garden and just doesn’t do well in our climate. But there are many primulas that grow extremely well in the garden and Primula denticulata, the drumstick primula, is one of the easiest and showiest to grow.
Prunus ‘Marion Jarvie’ has a mysterious past. Around 1997, a well-known Toronto gardener, Marion Jarvie, obtained a small rooted cutting from Japan. The cutting grew into a fine specimen tree which produced a very unusual flower display. The colour is very bright, and the petals are narrow, more like a Magnolia ‘Royal Star’. It became the highlight in Marion’s spring garden.
Pycnanthemum tenuifolium is a member of the mint family. Since mints are extremely invasive and difficult to remove from the garden you might be thinking, I’ll pass on this one. But that would be a mistake. This mint is very well behaved and is an insect/butterfly magnet. It is native to the north-east part of North America, including Ontario.
A great little plant for the shady rock garden or as an under planting for shade gardens. Saxifraga stolonifera creeps along the ground slowly, covering the ground to a height of a couple of cm. It flowers on fairly long stems that reach 30 cm into the air.