Plants for dry shade with blooms & berries
With some careful choices, there are plenty of plants that can thrive in dry shade, creating a full and attractive border even in these sometimes challenging conditions
Quick facts
- Dry shade may be caused by large trees and shrubs or from walls, fences and buildings
- For best display and success, use plants that naturally prefer dry shade conditions
- Good plant choices can reduce the need for unnecessary watering
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The planting plan
This planting design with blooms and berries provides a range of plants that, once established, will thrive in dry shade while still providing varied interest throughout the year.
Choosing plants for dry shade
The waxy surface on many of the leaves helps reduce moisture loss due to heat or from wind stripping moisture from the leaves. The cotoneaster has a slightly hairy underside to its foliage – an adaptation to reducing moisture loss.
The Epimedium and the Heuchera help provide some groundcover and prevent erosion of bare soil. The groundcover can also help to reduce soil surface moisture evaporation and suppress weed growth. Additional organic mulching, ideally with homemade compost, assists with soil moisture retention and weed suppression.
2 – Viburnum tinus ‘Gwenllian’ is a dark green evergreen shrub with compact clusters of starry white flowers opening in late winter from reddish buds, followed by metallic-blue berries.
3 – Dryopteris erythrosora ‘Brilliance’ is an evergreen fern with bronze-coloured new fronds in spring, and bright orange-red ripe spores on the undersides of the leaves in autumn.
4 – Epimedium × versicolor ‘Sulphureum’ is a low-growing evergreen forming a clump of red-tinted, light green leaves. Primrose-yellow flowers are carried in open sprays in early summer.
5 – Heuchera ‘Lipstick’ is a mound-forming evergreen with palmate, silver-veined green leaves and panicles of small lipstick-red flowers in summer.
About dry shade
The challenge of growing in dry shade
Why choose a sustainable planting combination?
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