Perennial Plants For Shade - Part 3

Here's the third installment of Perennial Plants For Shade:

Amsonia. Star shaped blue flowers flower in June. I'm partial to blue in the garden. Not many shade tolerant, blue perennials flower in June. This one is a keeper.

Meadow Rue; Thalictrum aquilegifolium - great for height and textural interest. May require staking in dense shade.

Brunnera macrophylla- this is the plain green variety.

Brunnera flowers are like forget-me-nots. Real hardy and fairly drought tolerant.

Gallium odoratum; Sweet Woodruff. Great ground cover. Flowers at end of May into June. Easily controllable and favours both sun and shade. Fragrant blooms.

Rescued this Aquilegia Vulgaris 'Leprechaun Gold'; Vareigated Columbine from the left over perennials at Canadian Tire. Bought this entirely for it's spotted variegation. Has beautiful double blue flowers to boot.

Columbine have dense habit when first emerging in spring. Loose, habit once in flower. Why buy green varieties, when you can get this spotted variegation! Can seed every where. Easily transplantable.

Helleborus x Gold Series. Evergreen and one of the most beautiful flowering perennials come spring (some varieties flower in autumn).

Pulmonaria angustifolia; Lungwort. Lovely bell shaped flowers in early spring, ranging pink to blue in colour.

Great substitute for hostas.

With silvery...

...or spotted foliage. Best planted in masses.

Convallaria majalis; Lily of the Valley.  A runner, spreading quickly, but great as a ground cover. Fragrant flowers.

Still more to come....click here for part 4!

Check out previous posts: on Perennial Plants for Shade - Part 1 and Perennial Plants for Shade - Part 2

Photo(s) of the Month - June 2014

Although Lily of the Valley have finished blooming earlier this month, I love how the flowers nestle into their leaves.

Poisonous Berries In Your Garden (Backyard)

There is a whole other realm of gardening that we need to educate ourselves in. The by-product of many "beautiful" plants that provide visual interest in the garden, can also reek havoc with children and pets if their "beautiful" fruit are ingested.

Here are two of the most unsuspecting noxious berries in my garden right now.

1.  Convolaria majalis (Lily of the Valley). I love this plant in flower. Once the white bell flowers wither and die, green berries mature to these bright red ones. I've placed it in the garden where I know no children or pets are around to be lured or interested in picking. I've even placed a wire mesh at the base of the fence where it is situated. No cats or dogs can get through.

Here Convolaria berries are drying in late summer with their foliage. The berries hold on until some major frost hits them.

2. Deadly Nightshade, Climbing Nightshade (Solanum dulcamara).  I did not introduce this plant to my garden. It showed up and began twining around my trellis. I have a young evergreen vine just establishing here, but this Nightshade made it's way up the trellis faster than the evergreen vine.  Considered a weed, you can find this vine nearly everywhere. Surprisingly, I've witnessed birds eating them with no troubles. They intern poop out the berries and help the vine seed itself just about any where.

I kept it because of their lovely purple clustered flowers and the fact that it grows well in shade, but don't let that fool you. The Deadly Nightshade vine berries have been known to harm and kill unsuspecting pigs when ingested.

They produce numerous berries and have an attractive look about them. A distant relative to the tomato, this plant should be ripped out in any garden where children frequent.

Have a look at the easily recognizable leaf of the plant. Deadly Nightshade is a fast grower and vegetative. Plant growth dies down to the ground overwinter, but root is still alive - a herbaceous vine that returns each spring. 

Here are two great resources on poisonous plants that we should bookmark:

Common Poisonous Plants and Plant Parts

Garden Plants Poisonous to People

If a child or pet ingests either of these, please call your local poison control. Ontario Poison Centre