Wanted - dry, shade lovers

[Mrs Ava]

A beautiful dark dry corner is desperately seeking someone, or lots of someones, to spend the long shady, dusky summer days blowing in the breeze with and long chilly winter nights huddled up together with.  Big or small, fat or thin.  A good sense of humour a must and a non smoker prefered.  I know this is a long shot, I don't think there are many of you dry shade lovers out there, but I am so empty and lonely.

[Mrs Ava]

[Mrs Ava]

Hmmm, okay, I shall re-word this.....

Have got a very dark dry area in the garden which, even after other changes, will remain in deep shade and dry.  Does anyone have any ideas of what will grow there - there are very few plants that can cope with the dry and deep shade,  but if any of you have that sort of area, and are growing something that really doesn't mind, could you let me know as I am struggling!

[supersprout]

snap E-J, I am going to Beth Chatto's nursery this weekend to get ideas for the space under our 150-year-old horse chestnut tree in the communal garden where only ivy and feverfew flourish :-\. In the meantime, I found this on the Web:
http://www.tmac.clara.net/urgring/faqshd01.htm
Will report back on what we find!
:)

... but I don't think any veg will be happy there :'(

[grawrc]

I grow fatsia and ivies and hostas in my dark corner. I also have tubs which currently have Hydrangias in but when they start to complain I'll move them into the sun and put something else instead. Also berberis and cotoneaster horizontalis.

[sarah]

i have a dry shady spot which has also been a real problem, but like the others i have found the hostas and fatsias do well there as well as ferns ( i love the harts tongue fern and it does surprisingly well in the dry once establishes) pulmaniria (spelling) and dogwood.  variagated ivy. aquilage. foxglove.  some of those may require more damp i guess but if you can mulch with lots of leaf mould it can help. geraniums do well.

sarah - i am very envious of you going to beth chatto garden i hope we will see lots of pics. ;D

[grawrc]

If you need moisture I seem to remember Geoff Hamilton??? Alan Titchmarsh??? burying some plastic to trap moisture for ferns.

[Robert_Brenchley]

A lot depends on exactly how dark and dry it is, obviously, but Cyclamen might do well.

[Mrs Ava]

100% shade, and the ground is like dust from about May through until November time really.  Aqui's do well during the spring, but they are long gone now and I am left with bare, dry, unattractive soil.  I did have bugle there, but even that has given up the ghost.  Ferns really really struggle, but I am planning to get them out and replant them in large pots of good compost as you said grawrc.  I had a lovely fatsia, but it couldn't cope with the dry.  I know I could water, but there is competition from the weeping willow and the neighbours conifers so it is a loosing battle really.

[froglets]

ssecond the sugegstion of digging out the soil and lining a trench with old compost bags with some holes pricked in them.  Might retain just a bit more moisture & make all the difference.

it's how I keep rhubarb going in dry sandy soil - that and lots of stable manure before planting.

[beejay]

Have you tried Iris foetidus? Insignificant flowers but lovely seed heads starting to burst open about now. They cope pretty well in dry shade.

[dandelion]

I grow Geranium Maccrorhizum in a dry shady border backed by trees. Good ground cover and pretty flowers in the spring. PM me if you'd like a  division in autumn. It spreads quickly, but is never a nuisance because it's easy to pull up.