6 Sensational Container Recipes for Shade
Plant a Focal Point in Your Shade Beds
Jeremy, Plant Guru at our Sacramento location, has created six recipes for shade containers to inspire your creativity. And, he has a few tips for success:
- Shade is defined as up to five hours of morning sun, or filtered sun all day
- Use high-quality potting soil
- Group plants together according to water and light requirements
- Choose some evergreen plants to maintain interest all year, and swap out annuals as seasons change
- If the soil is dry three to four inches deep, then it's time to water
- Deadhead and pinch plants regularly to maintain sizes and to keep flowers blooming
- Get form and function by planting herbs as fillers
- Thriller: Striped Rush
- Filler: Japanese Spurge
- Filler: Coral Bells
- Spiller: Potato Vine 'Black Heart'
- Spiller: Lysimachia
Grasses always look their best next to plants with large leaves. They provide a foundation that makes the blades stand out.
- Thriller: Mahonia 'Soft Caress'
- Filler: Cranesbill Geranium 'Rozanne'
- Filler: Impatiens
- Spiller: Lamium 'White Nancy'
The purple pot plays well with the orange Impatiens and the silvery leaves of the Lamium.
- Thriller: Coleus 'Henna' and 'Hong Kong Red'
- Filler: Coral Bells 'Peppermint Spice'
- Spiller: Lysimachia 'Goldii'
- Spiller: Creeping Wire Vine
- Spiller: Lamium ‘White Nancy’
- Spiller: Dichondra ‘Silver Falls’
Leaf color and texture take the stage in this container. Contrasting dark and light colors with a variety of leaf sizes allows you to see each plant individually.
- Thriller: Foxglove
- Filler: Black Mondo Grass
- Filler: Lobelia
- Spiller: Sweet Potato Vine
- Spiller: Lysimachia 'Goldii'
Vibrant colors make this a winner. The intensity of the orange-pink Foxglove flowers plays well with blue, chartreuse and purple.
- Thriller: Asparagus Fern
- Filler: Impatiens
- Spiller: Needlepoint Ivy
- Spiller: Creeping Wire Vine
- Spiller: Dichondra 'Silver Falls'
Bright green Asparagus Fern, intensely-colored Impatiens and the silver leaves of the Dichondra pop against the black pot.
- Thriller: Echeveria varieties
- Filler: Echeveria varieties
- Spiller: String of Bananas
Succulents love afternoon shade in our area. As long as this container gets six hours of morning sun, it will continue to display its tapestry of color with little maintenance.
