From The Gardens

During the heat of August we look to the cool, shady garden for respite from the wilting sunshine.  Plants in shade still look fresh, if not wildly colorful.  The sunny island perennial garden is becoming bleached from the constant sun.  Withstanding the heat in the brilliant sun are the last of the daylilys, phlox, rudbeckia, pink and white coneflowers and butterfly bush.  These and a few others give perennial color to the waning sunny garden.

On many of these hot August days it is too hot and humid to work in the sun, but the shade offers welcome relief.  This time of year the shade garden becomes quite neat.  Even in midday weeds can be pulled and plants deadheaded and inspected.  The perennial garden caretakers can enjoy gardening pleasures without feeling limp and wilted themselves.

Color in the shade is not as plentiful now as was in the spring when primroses, dicentra, and pulmonarias were blooming, but there several shade loving plants that bloom in August and September.  Plant some of the following plants with variegated hostas for a cool restful garden.

Pink Turtlehead (Chelone obliqua) is a native plant that  grows about three feet tall.  It has clusters of bright pink flowers that look just like little turtle heads on top of handsome stiff stems with dark green leaves.  If planted in a shady, slightly moist spot the clump will quickly increase.

The genus of perennial lobelias provide a great deal of late summer color.  The most colorful of these is the new hybrid Lobelia cardinalis “Complement Scarlet”.  Many people are hesitant to use red in the garden, but there usually aren’t many other plants flowering in the shade at that time, so the chances of colors clashing are minimal.  The flowers on the hybrid are much larger than those of the native Lobelia cardinalis, and the whole plant grows to a splendid four or five feet tall.  They seem perfectly hardy, unlike  the bronze leafed Lobelia fulgens, which has not proven hardy for me.

Lobelia siphilitica, both a blue and white form grow to three feet tall and quickly make themselves at home in the shade, seeding around happily.  I find that the plants tend to heave out of the ground easily in winter, so early in spring a gentle toe can press them back where they belong.  These natives are also very hardy.

The “queen” of the fall shade garden has to be the Japanese Anemone (Anemone japonica).  Several named varieties exist, but not all are hardy in Central New York.  I have had good luck with the gorgeous white “Honorine Jobert” which grows three feet tall and is happy in sun or shade, as well as Anemone japonica alba which is shorter, only two feet, but equally beautiful.  The pink flowered Anemone robustissima certainly lives up to its name. It is robust and then some, spreading by underground runners.   All the fall anemones can only be transplanted in the spring.  Digging in the summer or fall usually means death.

These plants are the last hurrah of the garden and we are certainly grateful to have them to brighten the last shady days of summer.