My spring/early summer garden was LOVELY but now its drab green.
Half of my garden is heavily shaded by neighbours Leylandii trees so need colourful shrubs, preferably that like shade? Are there such things?
Gen in Northumberland UK
Try Acers in large tubs (minimum of 18x18x18 inchs) lovely colours! Will enjoy the shade and you only need to water twice a week. Plus you can take them with you ;)
Japanese painted fern for amazing foliage and pyracantha for berries. If it's not totally shaded some ground cover geraniuns will repeat flower. Hydrangea maybe theres some lovely ones and they will grow in shade.
Thank you gpgirl.... I love acers so they are a good suggestion. Don't like spikey things so maybe not the pyracanthus. Will try the geraniums and hydrangeas too. Off to the garden centre tomorrow if I cant beg, borrow or steal from someone:-)
Gen in Northumberland
I have a japanese woodland garden, took me 8 years to develop. It looks fabulous at any point in the year, including the snow (as viewed from the Snow Viewing Window in the Tea House). Lots of evergreens and stuff that turns different colours at various points in the year.
Pretentious? Moi?
Have you gorra pic Mr Pretentious....er Lincsyokel? ;) I'd love to see your Japanese garden :)
Mine is still very colourful with yellow and orange pot and French marigolds, nasturtiums, and "Mirabilis jalapa" which i think you call the 4 o'clock flower, they flower after August and are very pretty.
The japaness anemone, flowers quite a long time, into Autumn, grows about 5ft likes shade.
You could try some Cornus - it's a leafy shrub in the spring & summer, but once they drop their leaves they have the really bright red or green stems. The colour is best if they get to grown in sunshine, but I had a couple that did ok in shade (though as they were container plants, didn't survive last years very harsh winter, sadly)
Rudbeckias also flower well into autumn. So do Schizostilis (?) or I believe its common name is Kaffir lily, though Im probably wrong about the name....they do flower well into Oct :)
These sedums are nice. I have them and they are a lovely blast of colour :)
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=sedum+autumn+joy&hl=en&biw=1024&bih=677&prmd=ivnso&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=2ShpTs-yIYzD8QOktqQ_&ved=0CDsQsAQ