Spring is beginning and my woodland garden is coming to life. Some plants like the heuchera are getting past their blooming prime, but will hold the flowers and the leaf structure will help fill in the garden.
The hostas are just beginning to pop through the soil and in some cases the slugs have had a meal or two. Many of the evergreen ferns took a beating with the 11F cold snap with no snow cover. I cut back many but not all of the cold burned evergreen ferns. The Spanish hyathins are probably not going to bloom this year, but a few old fashioned narcissus and snow drops did bloom earlier. The trilliums I moved are doing well and the BC ginger is really becoming a native ground cover. . Here are a few other blooms

Is your garden waking up? Please share.

Jewell - beautiful garden

so much variety and beautiful forms

A few more photos of my little shade garden. I am really enamored with the mix of hostas, ferns and woodland plants. I can't believe how everything has grown since last year. The variety of sizes has made putting a few plants in pots so that I can create spaces so that the minis I got from plant exchanges and spring sales don't get lost.

jerseyridgearts said:Jewell - beautiful garden

so much variety and beautiful forms

. Thanks Catherine. I finished the garden last spring. It has grown and filled in exceptionally fast.

Lilies of the valley have been going great guns. We also have hay scented ferns which don't mind the sun.

My favorite shade combinations at the moment
I love this combo with Astrantia maxima, hosta, tassel fern and heuchera. I am quite taken with the Astrantia maxima. The blooms are very long lasting.
These three hostas all started out the same when I purchased them. The one in the back was in a sunnier location the first summer and changed color. It kept its new color even even though I moved it in January into full shade. Weird.

Very beautiful! Astrantia are one of my very favorite plants - not super showy, but they bloom ALL summer long. And slugs don't like them, so I intersperse them with hosta and other shade plants. My Star of Billion astrantia just started to bloom yesterday. I also have Abbey Road and Lars. Regina heuchera also just started to bloom.That one blooms all summer for me, which is unusual for coral bells. The majority of my yard is shady, so it's fortunate that I love shade plants!

Jeanie, I love your astrantia. It definitely has lots of blooms and a different form from mine. I like the red blooms on your Regina heuchera too.

I had to pull some heuchera yesterday because the marmalade was infested with rust. Hopefully with clean up and spray it will be controlled. I'd hate to loss my snow angel heuchera. It is one of my favs and was close to the marmalade. I have a couple of other varieties I will be watching also. Fortunately from what I have read the rust is specific to heucheras and my shade garden has lots of variety.

marmelade is gone and replaced with orchid primrose. Got them on sale to replace the marmalade heuchera before I realized I had a rust problem.




A few other views of the shade garden. It is a real hodgepodge of plant materials but since I am in the garden year round I am striving for structure and ground cover. I am finding my native ginger makes a great ground cover for the hostas.

Very pretty! I use native ginger too. It's a wonderful ground cover. My other favorite is cranesbill. I was looking for some border plants for shady areas and decided to try the dwarf goat's beard...so far I am really happy with it. Don't have any pictures of it yet though.
Oh, I just figured out this morning that the astrantia I posted as Star of Billion is actually Vanilla Gorilla. The leaf variegation didn't show right away. The flowers are becoming a bit more pink also. I think this will be my favorite one (sorry Lars!). I really like your maxima. May I ask where you got it?

We have both the tall & the dwarf. I really love the dwarfie, but it can be difficult to find. My source no longer offers it.

foraygardengirl said:Very pretty! I use native ginger too. It's a wonderful ground cover. My other favorite is cranesbill. I was looking for some border plants for shady areas and decided to try the dwarf goat's beard...so far I am really happy with it. Don't have any pictures of it yet though.
Oh, I just figured out this morning that the astrantia I posted as Star of Billion is actually Vanilla Gorilla. The leaf variegation didn't show right away. The flowers are becoming a bit more pink also. I think this will be my favorite one (sorry Lars!). I really like your maxima. May I ask where you got it?

Jeanie, I just stumbled on the astrantia maxima at the annual Master Gardener's Sale in the county south of me last spring. It is the most amazing sale! Last year was my first year attending and got some spectacular hostas, heucheras and monks hood as well as the astrantia. This year I got to add three named varieties of mini hostas to my garden from the sale and a trunk load of other plants. You wouldn't believe the prices. I have never taken more than $30 cash and end up trying to find room in the car to fit them all

My woodland garden is fairly new. The neighbors fir trees finally shaded out our yard. I am hoping the maxima will spread in its current bed for summer flowers. I will be on the lookout now for the cranesbill and the goats beard.

Oh, I am always in line early for our local master gardener's sale. Absolutely the best way to get great plants for very cheap. Also they have native plants that are not readily available elsewhere. The other great plant sale here is put on by the Friends School in St. Paul. I always volunteer so I can go to the presale. It is at the state fairgrounds, and they get somewhere around 10,000 people. It is amazing. They also have plants for good prices. By the way, the maxima will not really spread (no stolons or self seeding), but the clump will expand every year. After 3 years or my astrantia clumps were quite large. If you want something really big, try regular goatsbeard or grapeleaf anemone. Look at my photos of Robustissima.

Sharing a shot of my active Southern Shade Garden where it's 90º in the shade. While we can't grow the cool weather shady items as I would like (Coral Bells, trillium, Lily of the Valley, etc-- and believe you me, I have tried) there are enough heat-loving shade plants to keep me happy. Too many to name in this busy bed. See what you can find!

Aruncus has been beaten down by the heavy rain.

Cheryl--lovely shade garden!
Lucy, sorry to hear about your goat's beard. We have had heavy rains all of June and mine have only remained somewhat upright because they are under trees. They are so tough they'll come back