A Spring Blooming Shade Garden
by: Christy Lewis

Do you have a shady nook where you just can't get anything to grow? A dark corner where hostas will flourish later, but which looks drab now? Try planting a sea of early blooming woodland perennials for a rewarding show of color in April and May.

These early bloomers will thrive in the dappled shade provided by deciduous trees and shrubs.  Since most are woodland natives, they will appreciate a rich, loamy soil. Take the time to enrich your soil with leaf mold, compost, or other organic matter before planting.

A mulch of shredded bark or leaves provides an informal, natural look and keeps the soil cool and moist. If your shade garden is large enough, a winding path of wood chips also adds an inviting touch. 

Don't neglect to consider foliage when selecting your plants. You want to be able to enjoy lush leaf colors and textures throughout the coming seasons.

Woodland Phlox (Phlox divaricata) naturalizes beautifully when planted in large drifts. The upright plants produce clouds of blossoms in purple, lavender, and white. The flowers are wonderfully fragrant, which is why the plant is sometimes called wild sweet william.

Broadleaf Creeping Phlox (Phlox stolonifera) produces a mat of deep green rounded leaves, suitable as a groundcover in shady areas. In spring, it sends up clusters of flowers in bright jewel tones.   Phlox stolonifera 'Home Fires' is a cultivar with rich bright pink flowers, while 'Pink Ridge' produces soft, pastel pink blooms. The pure white blossoms of 'Bruce's White' are perfect for lighting up dark corners. There are also purple and lavender flowered varieties available.

The pulmonarias are a large group of shade plants, handsome in both foliage and flower. The flowers are a beguiling sky blue or pink, while the lance-shaped leaves are splashed and streaked with glowing silvers and whites. Pulmonaria saccharata 'Mrs. Moon' is a classic old cultivar. Her rosy buds open pink and then turn blue, and her deep green leaves are lavishly dappled with silver spots. A fabulous newer hybrid is 'Excalibur'.   The exceptionally long leaves are almost completely silver, and complemented by a deep green margin.  The flower buds open deep rose and mature to pink.

The primroses are some of the earliest perennials to bloom in spring. Relatively easy to grow, they do require humus-rich soil that stays evenly moist throughout the season. They are wonderful surrounding a pond or fountain, or planted along the banks of a stream.  

Drumstick Primrose (Primula denticulata) is a short and stocky, very early blooming primrose. Thick stems sport tight round clusters of fragrant lavender, rose, white, and purple flowers. This little gem is usually the first of the primroses to bloom.

From a rosette of deep green crinkled leaves, the Japanese Primrose (Primula japonica) sends up eighteen inch spikes of delicate, airy flowers in rose, pink, white, red and bicolors.  The Candlebra Primrose (Primula bullesiana) lives up to its name, sending up twenty-four inch spires of graceful flower clusters in bright colors of red, yellow, purple, and orange.

Some of the best plants for shady areas are the epimediums. These little gems do well in areas of dry shade, and look fabulous underplanted among trees and shrubs. They make an excellent, slow-spreading groundcover. The handsome heart-shaped leaves emerge red or bronze in spring, maintain a lush green throughout the summer, and often turn red again in the fall.  In earliest spring the plants send out their sprays of elegant, nodding blooms, resembling tiny columbine flowers.

The epimediums cover a whole spectrum of flower color and foliage forms. Large-Flowered Epimedium (Epimedium grandiflorum) is punctuated by its large flowers of pure white, while Epimedium grandiflorum 'Lilafee' has flowers of delicate lavender.

One of the more vigorous spreaders, Epimedium versicolor 'Sulphureum' has flowers of lovely soft yellow, and its foliage is often spotted with red.  Epimedium x 'Rubrum' sports bright ruby-red flowers and red-edged leaves. My favorite, Epimedium x youngianum 'Roseum' shows off delicate pink flowers and pretty leaves splashed with red.

Another useful group of plants for the shade garden are the foamflowers (Tiarella cordifolia).  This woodland native makes an excellent groundcover, with its running mounds of fuzzy maple-shaped leaves and delicate upright spikes of foamy white to pink flowers.  Hybridizers have been busy with this plant in recent years, and now we have a whole menagerie of interesting leaf forms to complement the spring blossoms.

Tiarella cordifolia 'Running Tapestry' has deeply dissected leaves, generously speckled with red,while the softly lobed leaves of 'Inkblot' are blotched with near-black at the center. This cultivar is especially prolific in its spring bloom, and may rebloom later in the season.

An excellent new hybrid is 'Tiger Stripe', a tiarella sporting glossy leaves heavily striped with purple markings.

Combined with early blooming bulbs, these perennials will make your spring shade garden a delight for years to come.