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Michigan Gardener | May 2013 | www.MichiganGardener.com
perennial partners Use foliage color and texture to create season-long interest in the shade
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n spring, gardeners are all too often seduced by colorful flowers with little thought of what will follow. Many garden beds are planted with color-coordinated perennials that shine for just a few weeks, becoming little more than a mass of homogenous green as the season progresses. The wise gardener looks for more than pretty flowers when choosing perennial combinations. An effective design—one that will provide interest for an entire growing season— requires that the gardener do some planning before heading out to the Karen nursery or garden center. Bovio Although most gardens can be enhanced by incorporating interesting foliage into the design, no garden benefits more from that consideration than the shady garden. Simply put, the shade garden demands first-rate foliage because there are fewer perennials with colorful flowers for the shade. An interesting shade garden depends on the juxtaposition of differing foliage colors, textures and shapes. Once that foundation is laid, color can be added with a few well-chosen flowering plants such as bleeding heart and foxglove for spring, or wax bells and black snakeroot for late summer. Dark foliage, like that of black snakeroot (Cimicifuga), provides contrasting color against varying shades of green. Use care in positioning dark-foliaged plants because it’s easy for them to simply disappear into the
depths. Dark foliage shows to best advantage when used with pale green, silver, or variegated foliage. In the accompanying photos, notice how the dark central stem of the beech fern provides a color echo with the black snakeroot. Texture and form are well-illustrated in this garden, with the fern providing an upright spire shape that contrasts with the horizontal, layered look of the cimicifuga foliage. The horizontal effect is repeated by the arrangement of the fern leaflets. The broad, maple-shaped foliage of the wax bells (Kirengeshoma) acts as a foil for the lacy-textured, dissected cimicifuga. Another textural accent is provided by the hellebore in the foreground, with its coarse, leathery texture and glossy foliage. All of these elements come together to provide an interesting vignette that endures for the entire gardening season. In August and September, the wax bells will bear pale yellow bell-shaped flowers which appear to be carved of wax, and the cimicifuga will send up fragrant white to pinkish, bottle-brush flowers. When these flowers arrive in late summer, they will seem like a little gift—an additional bonus to what was already a winning combination for the shade.
Eric Hofley / Michigan Gardener
This shady foliage combination looks great, and the flowers in late summer will be a bonus. The maple-shaped leaves of the wax bells (Kirengeshoma) act as a contrast to the lacy-textured black snakeroot (Cimicifuga).
Karen Bovio is the owner of Specialty Growers in Howell, MI.
At a glance Black snakeroot (Cimicifuga ramosa) • Dissected, lacy dark foliage on plants 4 to 6 feet tall • Fragrant white to near-pink, spike-shaped flowers in late summer/fall • Prefers moist, well-drained soil in shade to part sun • Varieties include ‘Brunette,’ ‘Hillside Black Beauty,’ ‘Pink Spike,’ ‘Chocoholic,’ and ‘James Compton’ Wax bells (Kirengeshoma palmata and K. koreana) • Matte-textured, maple-leaf shaped foliage • Shrubby habit, 3 to 4 feet tall with nearly equal width • Waxy, pale yellow, bell-shaped flowers in August • Prefers partial shade in cool, humus-rich soil Ferns (many genera, including Athyrium, Dryopteris, Phegopteris, Polystichum and more) • Mostly upright-growing fronds • Varying heights, from 1 to 3 feet • Prefer shade to partial shade and humus-rich soil • Recommended textural or colorful varieties include Japanese painted, ghost, autumn, Japanese beech, and Christmas ferns
Eric Hofley / Michigan Gardener
The dark foliage of this black snakeroot (Cimicifuga) provides striking color against the adjacent fern and varying shades of green.