Sorry...i meant 50"...little difference.... And I have mentioned the zone..Toronto 5b... THe location is quite bright...some light sun
THanks for all your ideas
Paulo
----- Original Message ----- From: "paghat" Newsgroups: rec.gardens Sent: Sunday, 01 May, 2005 13:36 Subject: Re: Shade plants for container
>
>> I am looking to plant somethin in containers 50' diam X 50' deep. >> Location
>> is shaded, beside a glass wall facing south to the lake, this location is
>> like a protected gallery without any winter heating. I was thinking some
>> hostas but i would like also something flowering. Do you think a >> hydrangea
>> can make it there? I would like to plant a perennial
>>
>> Tahnks for any idea
>>
>> Paulo (Toronto, 5B)
>
> Fifty FOOT containers? Those are some big containers. You don't say your
> zone so some of this might not be useful:
>
> Hydrangeas need BRIGHT shade or dappled sunlight to flower well. If there
> is any time during the day when it would get SOME bright sun, hydrangeas
> might bloom well even if shaded most of the rest of the day. But
> generally, in deeper shade they'll have nice foliage only, & if you get
> one of the variegated hydrangeas, bright foliage may be enough, but
> flowers will be disappointing without some sunlight. An exception might be
> oakleaf hydrangea; it'll bloom well in considerable shade but isn't apt to
> have such gorgeous autumn leaf color without sun, though deeper shade
> oakleaf hygrangeas are sometimes semi-evergreen in protected spots, so
> it's all a trade-off.
>
> The floweriest shade shrub is Camellia sasanqua, but if you're not in zone
> 7 or 8, they probably won't do as well.
>
> Old-fashioned bleedinghearts bloom spectacularly in the shade, but die
> back in summer. Smaller Dicentra eximia or Dicentra formosa (native
> bleeding hearts) do not die back in summer if they remain moist, bloom
> fairly well in deep shade but better with indirect sunlight.
>
> PJM rhodies can bloom in more shade than most rhodies but SOME sunlight
> makes it more certain. The rhodies that always bloom well in shade are the
> Korean Azalea 'Poukhahense' & a cultivar bred from it 'Purple Splendor'
> Azalea (not to be confused with 'Purple Splendour' a pontus hybrid that > wants sun). >
> Aucuba shrubs get pretty big. Though the flowers are insigifnicant the
> leaves are yellow & green & bring light to a dark location. If you're
> careful to acquire only one male aucuba with one or moure female, they'll
> produce enormous bright red winter berries so very, very colorful. If you
> only have one aucuba even if it's female it won't have berries as it needs
> a male. Garden centers don't make it easy to sex them, so get one with
> berries already on it to be sure it's female, & for its male partner get
> the commonly available 'Mr Goldstrike.'
>
> Another evergreen shrub, Leucothoe, has small white dangly flowers in
> winter with quite a fine vanilla scent that is most noticeable in enclosed
> planting corridors where the perfume isn't too quickly dispersed. >
> A big perennial called rogersia blooms well in considerable shade. >
> For a front border, hardy cyclamens bloom spectacularly well in autumn
> (Cyclamen hederifolium) & winter to early spring (Cyclamen coum) but die
> back during late spring & summer. An evergreen for a front border would be
> wintergreen, which has small white flowers & big red berries, quite a
> nice groundcover mini-shrub for a shade garden.
>
> Corydalis flexuosa has extremely wonderful fish-shaped blue flowers, an
> easy & superior plant for Zone 8 in the shade, but delicate outside of > zone 8. >
> Possibly the floweriest of all large perennials for deeper shade would be
> Japanese anemones, nice foliage then in early autumn bbursts into > spectacular bloom. >
> -paghat the ratgirl
> --
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