Plants For Dry Shade

Do not let a lack of sunlight combined with dry soil get you down. There are solutions to create vibrant life in these ‘problem’ areas in a garden, and flowering time for most are just around the corner. Let’s look at plants for dry shade!

Evergreen trees or large shrubs with surface root systems bully smaller plants trying to survive beneath them by robbing them of nutrients, moisture and light. Huge hedges and screening plants we have to plant for privacy do the same. They cause the top layers of soil to become lifeless and bone dry.

Dry shade can also be caused by the overhang of a building. This prevents rain from reaching plant roots, especially against south-facing walls. These are areas that we sometimes neglect to water, believing that a rainy spell would have sorted it out.

As always, there is a lesson to learn from Mother Nature. In dense thickets and forests, you will see underbrush consisting of small shrubs, bulbs, succulents and groundcovers growing quite happily in dry shade. We can replicate this in a garden with the right plant choices, proper soil preparation before planting and good aftercare.

Improve The Soil

• Dig in generous amounts of quality compost to improve water holding capacity and to encourage healthy micro-organism activity.
• Make use of the modern water retention products which keep the soil moist for longer and draws the water and added nutrients down to the roots where it is needed. Apply soil wetting agents regularly in these areas. You should also use polymer planting gels when preparing planting holes for individual plants.

Extra Feeding

Realising that the roots of small plants will always be in competition with the roots of big established plants, it makes sense to fertilise them regularly throughout the warm months with a balanced, slow-releasing fertiliser.

Watering

Install a drip irrigation system or lay soaker hoses along the ground to enable you to irrigate your plants effectively. Although the plants that we recommend have low water requirements, they will have to be watered well until established, as is the case with any other plant.

READ MORE: Cool Plants For Shade

Mulching

Applying organic mulches such as coarse compost, leaf mould, wooden chips, peach pips and milled bark can go a long way to keep the soil moist for longer. It is very important to keep on reapplying the mulch layer around the plants at first. In time they will grow densely and will begin to shade each other and the soil around them preventing the fast evaporation of moisture.

General Thoughts

Follow the example of professional gardeners when planning your shade garden:

• Play with pretty foliage and different textures.
• In large areas plant masses in flowing swathes around trees and shrubs which will also make maintenance much easier.
• Add interesting focal points in the form of elevated garden decor like bird baths or statues, or use large pots painted in light colours to make them stand out. Well-placed garden lights, designed to uplight the handsome trunks of trees, add a lovely atmosphere at night.

Plants To Use at Ground Level

Crassula multicava (fairy crassula)

• Indigenous succulent.
• Mat-forming, rapid grower rooting along the ground by leaf nodes or little plantlets formed on elongated flower stalks.
• Glossy dark green leaves and very shallow roots.
• Masses of star-shaped white to pink flowers above foliage in late winter to spring.

Dracaena trifasciata (snake plant)

• Previously named Sansevieria and indigenous to Africa.
• Tongue-like long leaves in matte green with lovely silvery-green blotches.
• Grows in dramatic clumps from underground rhizomes.
• Will get by for a long while without water in any soil type.

Veltheimia bracteata (forest lily)

• Natural habitat is the forests and coastal thickets of the Eastern Cape – a perfect candidate for the southern side of the house.
• The large bulbs produce dense racemes of tubular flowers on long stems up to 60cm tall from late winter to September. The colours of the blooms can vary from greenish-yellow, soft pink, to a dark rose-pink (the latter, more common). Much loved by sugarbirds.
• Glossy strap-like leaves with wavy margins die down temporarily in midsummer, soon to be replaced with new foliage forming a wide and lush-looking rosette.

Haemanthus albiflos (white paint brush)

• A totally under-utilised indigenous, evergreen bulb for poor light and dry soil.
• The bright green bulb is half exposed above ground with handsome oblong leaves.
• Roots spread horizontally which is perfect for shallow soil.
• The flowerheads enclosed in greenish-white bracts, consist of numerous erect, narrow white flowers with prominent golden-yellow stamens. They flower from April to July, with sporadic blooms in other months too.
• These bulbs like to form colonies and can be left undisturbed for years.

Ledebouria petiolata (leopard lily)

• Robust and rapidly spreading bulbous plant and very tolerant of neglect.
• Evergreen in temperate summer rainfall climates.
• Purple blotches on glossy, dark green heart-shaped leaves.
• Flower stalks 30cm high with pale green clusters opening up to scented white flowers from August to March.
• Previously known as Drimiopsis maculata.

Dietes grandiflora (wild iris)

Very popular evergreen, indigenous perennial. The popularity is due to its willingness to grow and form large clumps from shallow underground rhizomes in almost any challenging spot.

READ MORE: Plectranthus – Masters of Shade