Wishlist Plants for Shade

Hi GPODers, your editor Joseph here again today with more plants from my spring shopping wishlist. And today I’m sharing some things I’m eyeing to add – or reaquire – for my shade garden.

To start off, this wonderful woodland spring bloomer, Anemone nemorosa ‘Vestal’ (Zone 5 – 9). This is a photo I took at a fantastic garden in Oregon, and I’ve been wanting a patch of this plant ever since.

The best of the yellow wood poppies, Hylomecon japonicum (Zone 4 – 8) comes up in the spring looking absolutely perfect and covers itself with sunny yellow blooms. This is a photo from my friend Brigitta’s garden in Michigan. High time I added some clumps to my own garden.

This is a wildflower I remember from my childhood that I rarely see in gardens for some reason. Purple flowering raspberry (Rubus odoratus, Zone 3 – 8) is native to open woodlands around much of eastern North America. It has fragrant. Purple flowers all summer followed by small raspberries that are edible if not amazing tasting. Oh, and unlike other raspberries, no thorns here.

The leaves of purple flowering raspberry are pretty beautiful too! Big and bold.

This is what the whole plant looks like. It does sucker a bit, so it can spread too much for a small garden, but I think I have a perfect spot for it.

This is an unusual hosta that I just love, Hosta clausa (Zone 3 – 8) which is unlike most hostas for many reasons. Instead of clumping, it spreads to make a ground-cover. And the flowers are intensely colored, and stay in these tight buds, never fully opening, for a long-lasting display in late summer when the shade garden needs a punch of color.

This is what a clump of Hosta clausa looks like in my friend’s garden. Such a great ground-cover.

The double form of our