We're putting together a list of the ATP members' favorite shade plants! Come on in and read how to nominate your favorites! We will later publish a final article on the top picks.
Name: Jeanie Minnesota (Zone 4a) Replace your lawn with a garden!
I can't pass up the opportunity to put in a plug for cranesbills. I have several varieties and find them to be the single most useful plant in my gardens. They will grow virtually anywhere, even in dry shade on a hillside under large shrubs. Many varieties have fragrant foliage. They are a wonderful ground cover. Some varieties like like Rozanne, Tiny Monster, and Pink Penny will weave up through other plants. They look great with hostas, coral bells, and under hydrangeas. I got many of mine from a friend who handed me a black garbage bag full of dead looking brown rhizome type roots. Lo and behold, I stuck them in the soil and now have a hillside full of lovely bigroot geraniums.
Yup, add my vote too! There's a cranesbill for almost any situation: mounding, sprawling, lower border types or taller background types. Lots of variety in the foliage color and bloom color; and most have attractive changes to their foliage color for fall/ cooler weather.
Geraniums are real workhorses in our garden and we have dozens of them, in both sun and shade. I particularly love Rozanne, for its easy style and seemingly endless bloom period, and for deep shade Geranium x oxonianum Wargrave Pink - another one that has non-stop flowers, this time in a pearly pink that is great for adding light to a dark corner.
Name: Leon Indiana (Zone 5a) Light is the shadow of God!
Geranium sanguineum 'John Elsley' This has been around my place for years: At least since 2005. It forms neat mounds usually not more than 10-12 inches high and 24 inches across. In posting this I happened to notice someone had uploaded the first image from Davesgarden.com to Pinterest without asking permission. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/...
I had apparently placed it in the data base at DOG in 2006. I've not been a member at DOG since 2009 so it's hard to tell what they've done to the data base and all the pictures. Anyway, it is a very nice geranium with little or no care, and it grows anywhere in sun or shade as long as the soil is well drained.
Name: Leon Indiana (Zone 5a) Light is the shadow of God!
Thanks Debbie, It is so easy and self seeds. I find new seedlings in various spots like this one I didn't know I had. And I wonder which plant it came from since the colors are different.
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