These shade perennials grace my hosta garden. The photo to the right shows Pulmonaria - also known as Lungwort. These blossom in early spring with red, pink, white and blue flowers – depending on the variety. Some varieties have more a white colored leaf, while some are speckled or blotched, while others are mostly green. They look soft and have a velvety feel.
We have a bermed area with a birch tree in one of the hosta garden islands and between the tree and the outer row of hosta, we have a grouping of Lamium. The variety we have in this location is ‘White Nancy’, and it sports white flowers during the summer. There are a couple of varieties that have pink flowers and perhaps one of my favorites – ‘Orchid Frost’ with purple flowers. Lamium has smaller leaves that are green with white on top, again soft looking, and will flower.
A shade perennial with glossy green leaves that spreads out and fills in an area very nicely is Pachysandra. Also known as Japanese Spurge, it will form a compact looking plant, will spread once established, and produces a white, bottlebrush flower in the early spring.
Perhaps the most pretty of my groundcovers (and most aggressive) is the Ranunculus – or creeping buttercup. The lime green with a yellow cast to the leaves crawl around the area, and circles the plants. Bright butter yellow flowers in the spring will certainly brighten up your shade garden.
I have several other groundcovers in my hosta garden – Snow on the Mountain, Lysimachia, and Sweet Woodruff. As the name implies, these are groundcovers – basically meaning that they will spread. Where I want to keep a contained area, I simply pull out the runners to keep it in check. When you pull the runners out, if done carefully, you can transplant to another area that you’d like to have a groundcover in. I usually “thin” my groundcovers only once or twice during the summer and it keeps them where I want them!
