SILVER AND GOLD
Last week I wrote about visiting the gardens at a designer show house and being struck by the number of chartreuse or golden-leafed plants used to lighten up dark spaces. I have been thinking about it ever since, and noticing such plants everywhere I go.
Another great landscape lightener is silver or white, either in flowers, like fluffy rose-form begonias; or on leaves. The vast expansion of variegated-leafed specimens over the last fifteen years means that a lot of cream and white patches, streaks and leaf margins are showing up on foliage plants.
The following is a top ten list of my favorite plants for providing light in the darkness–or at least the shadiness.
Golden Leaves
Green and Gold Euonymus: There are few plants easier to grow and easier to love than this upright form of the ubiquitous euonymus. My specimen is about four feet tall and three feet wide, with dark green leaves edged in golden yellow. It is absolutely trouble-free, makes great filler for bouquets and might as well have a spotlight on it in the midst of green-leafed plants.
Lamium: One of my favorite of the newish lamiums is ‘Anne Greenaway’, which is a ground cover, featuring dark green leaves, with a white streak down each center and greenish-gold leaf margins. It is lovely planted en masse and has the added bonus of pink flowers.
Chartreuse-Leafed Hosta: There are more hosta cultivars on the market than there are grains of sand on the average beach. I especially like the large-leafed ‘Summer Breeze’, which has chartreuse leaves and green central flames. The smaller, ‘Cherry Tart’, combines reddish stems with yellowish-green, elongated leaves. ‘Dancing Queen’ is another large-leafed specimen with lightly ruffled, piecrust-type edges.
Tradescantia: Spiderworts have lovely blue, blue-purple, white or pink flowers, which don’t last in a vase, but are beautiful in the shade garden. ‘Sunshine Charm’ is a cultivar with chartreuse leaves and it is striking. If your shade garden is a container garden, tradescantia also work in pots. For rebloom, cut back the plants after the flowers fade.
Heuchera: If new heuchera cultivars were taxed, there would be enough revenue to reduce the national debt substantially. However, the plant is useful in part shade and ‘Lime Rickey’, with its yellow-green leaves, has been around long enough now to have proved its garden mettle.
Silver and White:
Pulmonaria: Low-growing pulmonaria glow in the spring shade garden, especially cultivars whose leaves are mostly silver, like ‘Silver Bouquet’ and ‘Excaliber’, which, not surprisingly, has long, silvery leaves with green edges. The flowers are a bonus, starting out pink and aging to true blue.
Brunnera: Brunnera is sometimes referred to as “false forget-me-not” because most cultivars have small, bright blue flowers. ‘Jack Frost’ features heart-shaped leaves that are mostly white with bits of green. The plant would be pretty even without the flowers and grows low to the ground in the spring.
Japanese Painted Fern: Masses of this low-growing fern form a pattern of silvery swirls, with contrasting dark red in the center of each frond. The Latin name is complicated–Athyrium niponicum var. pictum and they are not cheap, but they add both delicacy and interest in damp, shady spots.
White Astilbe: The same damp, semi-dim spaces that favor Japanese painted ferns are also congenial to astilbe. I like ‘Bridal Veil’, a white-flowered variety that grows 2-3 feet tall. ‘Younique White’ is slightly shorter, at about 16 inches tall, with fluffy white plumes.
Impatiens and New Guinea Impatiens: Every garden center stocks hundreds of white impatiens at this time of y ear for one simple reason–they are among the easiest shade plants to grow and require little care beyond watering when conditions are dry. They are most effective in pots or planted in drifts or masses. I especially like the flashier, more expensive New Guinea impatiens, which have bigger flowers and leaves. Some years I have been able to get my hands on cultivars that have green and gold variegated leaves, making the show stunning even when the plants are between flushes of bloom.
By picking a few plants with variegated leaves–either green and gold or silvery-white and green and a few with white flowers–you will have yourself a most interesting shade garden. Cultivars mentioned above can be obtained at many well-stocked nurseries or garden centers. You can also try forestfarm, 990 Tehterow Road, Williams, OR 97544, (541) 846-7269, www.forestfarm.com. Catalog $5.00.