Spring Flowers For Shade

I believe that foliage is the building block of the beautiful shade garden.  There just are not enough plants that flower long enough to provide colorful beauty in a large shady area.  Luckily there are hundreds of plants with fabulous foliage that thrive in shade:  hostas are King of the Shade and should be used throughout the garden in combination with different foliage plants, such as ferns, pulmonarias, dicentras, actaeas (formerly known as cimicifugas), brunneras...an almost endless array of plants that are undemanding and offer color and texture with their foliage.

That does not mean that we must live without flowers in the shade.  Many woodland plants flower early in Spring, when there is still quite a bit of sun, before the tree canopy fills out.  Here are a few more photos of woodland plants (many of them natives) that give double the pleasure with their  flowers and foliage.

Tiarella (foamflower) with brunnera (almost done blooming)

Tiarella with taller meadow rue which will bloom later

Don't forget to add a few azaleas

Remember the mayapples from Spring Close-ups?  I didn't forget to look under the leaves for the flowers.
 Just need more practice photographing them. 

I missed the big flowering of the woodland phlox.  Just this little guy left.  If you need a well-behaved groundcover for shade (NOT like the sweet woodruff also in the photo) there are several pretty native phlox that spread slowly.

And the old fashioned bleeding heart finishing up as lady's mantle is just coming into bud.

Follow-ups:

Last week I wrote about keeping a dated wildlife record in order to be prepared for the arrival of migratory birds.  Here's a little update.

Several hummingbirds are visiting the 4 feeders we have throughout the garden.

The best thing we did was locate one of the feeders just outside the kitchen window!

Remember the oranges and grape jelly for the orioles?  This fellow has different ideas about the proper diet.

What are you looking at?

The goldfish have not had a peaceful 2 weeks.  Last week they were in hiding after a heron visit.  They came out of hiding just 2 days, then disappeared again for almost a week.  Meanwhile we've seen herons fly by on their way to the lake.  They must decide to stop by the pond for a snack when we're not home.  Late yesterday afternoon the sun and warmth must have drawn them out and we were able to sit by the pond and watch them swim and eat...amazing how restful an activity watching fish is.

RIWPS Plant Sale at URI yesterday was a huge success.  I picked up a few plants for Mother's Day to Me, some native geraniums and another tiarella, now where will I put them?  Don't forget they will be having another sale on June 2.

Southside Community Land Trust plant sale will be held on May 19 & May 20 from 10:00-2:00.  There's a link on the sidebar for more information.

Happy Gardening!

And to all those gardeners who are also Mothers...

Very, very  Happy Mother's Day!