What can I plant?...all along the back fence is shade, what pops up all along there in the fall
is Lycoris Naked Ladies, and I planted a False Spirea there but think I may need to move it
to a sunny place? Anyway I was thinking of ferns alternating with varigated hostas...what do you think about those all along the back fence...which is a large area. I want something that comes up every year.

Ferns and hostas sound lovely to me. Any perennial shade plants should work. I like the Dicentra family, Bleeding Hearts, and they'd go very well with the ferns and hostas.

The spirea probably would love more sun.

If you want something tall, ginger and canna will work. They both die back after heavy frosts/freezes, but pops back up in the spring.

I don't know about ginger, but wouldn't canna have to be dug up in zone 5 ? I know I couldn't leave it in the ground over the winter where I am...

Linda, foxglove (digitalis) would probably do well there for you, too... it self-sows pretty freely in my shady spot, so there are always new plants coming along.

Heucheras might be nice up front. So many to choose from

Some Canna are more hardy than others, as are some Ginger. I don't cover/mulch my Canna or Ginger at all, and we get down into the lower teens (infrequently) and mid to lower 20's (frequently). I would mulch with 6-12" of leaves, pine straw, or similar if we got into the single digits. Below 0F, I would dig it up.

Unfortunately my only experience in growing those plants is here in NE Mississippi. We never get snow, or least very seldom do, and it generally won't last more than a day. My understanding is that snow is a great insulator in areas that get really, really cold and insulates again the affects of wind chill as well. You in the midwest, north, northeast, and mountain regions know way more about that than I.

drdawg said:If you want something tall, ginger and canna will work. They both die back after heavy frosts/freezes, but pops back up in the spring.

Are cannas bulbs, thought they need to be dug up seasonally?

Thanks for the replies so far, researching, still have time to research and decide.....maybe a vast assortment of
flowers instead of many of the same would be fun.

The Canna and Ginger that I grow don't really have what you would call bulbs. They have rhizomes and those rhizomes can easily be dug up. They basically "run" almost on the surface of the soil. That is also how they propagate, unless you want to grow from seed. I divide my rhizomes every spring when the stems just start to emerge. Keep in mind, both canna and ginger have really strong rhizomes, and they will grow over even well-established landscape plants (on the surface of the soil). Thus, if you have something like azaleas, ilex, loropetalum, , nandina, etc., and then plant the canna or ginger, the following year you'll have those canna/ginger coming up among those other landscape plants. This doesn't seem to bother any of the other plants, but it might bother you. I keep my plants under control by building 1x6", treated-wood boxes. Some boxes will be as small as 2'x4' and some as large as 4'x6'. I don't even have to bury the boxes, since the rhizomes don't seem to tunnel beneath them at all. My canna have small, fire engine-red flowers and equally bright seed pods and the ginger have pure-white, very fragrant flowers. I love mine growing together, with the red/white contrasting colors. These plants do get tall, up to 7' in the landscape and 5' in pots, so I use them at the back of my landscape areas, with smaller/shorter plants in front.

Linda you would need to lift the canna in your zone

There you go, Jennifer knows the climate and what survives it.

Jennifer is right. I grew Cannas here one year only. They were pretty, but I'm not disciplined enough to lift them.
But, yes, Foxglove would do nicely and the flowers are so pretty. And bleeding heart (dicentra spectabilis) can get fairly tall, as do some ferns. You might also consider hellebores in front of the taller plants.

Linda ....

There are different kinds of shade ... just to confuse things:

Dry Shade
Deep Shade
Woodland Shade
Dappled Shade
Part Shade

Can you tell I've been doing some research about shade ???

Here is a link that kind of spelled it out for me. Others here can tell you more about their experience in your zone with the plants listed.

http://allyeargarden.com/creat...

It's a starting point.

I have fallen in love with heucheras because instead of different colors of flowers, they come with different colors of foliage, which I think is quite interesting.

Here's a link to an article on ATP about heucheras.

http://garden.org/ideas/view/g...

A couple of photos of 'Amethyst Myst'. I love this plant ...





Smiles,
Lyn

hellebores, thought I never heard of this, then saw the pictures and realized I have seen these before. As for Foxglove, it is safe around cats
and dogs do you know? I also like the idea of Bleeding Hearts. So far you are all giving me great ideas, now have to figure out what kind of shade I have, I would not think
deep shade as it gets morning sun, will have to click on the links provided here about shade. P.S was it a mistake to plant my
false spirea in that shady area w/ only morning sun, if so should I transplant it and when?

Eeek. I don't grow foxglove where my dogs can get to it. It most definitely is poisonous to pets. People, too.

Bergenia does well in shade. I like Bergenia 'Rosi Klose' because in winter its leaves don't collapse, and they turn a lovely deep purple.


Other shade plants I can think of:
Pulmonaria
Corydalis
Geranium macrorrhizum
Geranium phaeum
Pachysandra procumbens

I grow lots of foxgloves, and have never had a problem with anything eating them. Maybe the plants give off an odor or have a bad taste, and critters know not to chew the plants. Bees sure love them though!

Though I realize you want plants that return every year, treat yourself to a few impatiens to provide you with some blooms. They would help fill in the vacancies as the perennials grow.

This is one of my very small gardens but it's my favorite and it's in shade from noon to the early morning.

pirl said:Though I realize you want plants that return every year, treat yourself to a few impatiens to provide you with some blooms. They would help fill in the vacancies as the perennials grow.

This is one of my very small gardens but it's my favorite and it's in shade from noon to the early morning.

Very pretty, but I always do save some room for impatients in my small combo shady plot where it gets a home among columbines
and assylums, and whatever I see and but on the spur of the moment.

Here is my shade garden from this past spring/summer

I've never had any issues with my pets and the foxglove, either... not to say it couldn't happen, of course (maybe particularly with a puppy).

Linda, if your garden spot gets morning sun I think it will be perfect for the shade plants that have been mentioned -- mine is in a corner on the northeast side of our house, where it just gets sun early in the day, and the bleeding hearts, hosta, foxglove, ferns and impatiens all thrive there. Another thought for a plant is astilbe -- that has worked well for me there, too.