Gardening : Splashing Some Color on Those Shady Spots

Southern California gardens are growing up and, as a result, are getting shadier and shadier as trees (and some houses with their second story additions) cast longer or deeper shadows. What do you plant in these shady gardens? You begin with shrubs.

Camellias can be the backbone of any shady garden, excelling on the north side of the house or under trees that are not too dense.

A shrub called yesterday-today-and-tomorrow, Brunfelsia pauciflora ‘Floribunda,’ looks somewhat like a camellia and grows to about the same size but has flowers that turn purple, then fade to lavender and finally white (hence the common name).

It grows in shade too but does best where it gets some sun. It flowers a little later in spring than the camellias.

Hydrangeas are another candidate for a shady garden and they are especially valuable because they flower well after the camellias and azaleas, carrying the show into summer.

Color Depends on Soil

But, if you want a blue hydrangea, you had better buy it in flower. Hydrangeas must be forced to turn blue in California because the color is dependant on an acid soil, and ours is at best neutral and at worst alkaline. In New Zealand and in Seattle, where the soils are quite acid, they naturally turn a bright, even brilliant blue.

If you scatter aluminum sulfate (sold at nurseries) around the base of a hydrangea before it makes buds and then once again when the buds are about half-size, you may turn the flowers blue.

In my experience, not all hydrangeas will turn blue so that is why it is best to buy one that is blue to begin with. Otherwise, you will have pink hydrangeas and, unfortunately, it is not a soft baby-pink but a slightly unpleasant shade of the color. You can also take the safe route and plant a white-flowered hydrangea. White flowers are particularly visible in the shade.

Camellias, azaleas, brunfelsia and hydrangeas like a rich, porous soil such as you might find on a forest floor. Before planting, mix in bags of organic soil amendment such as redwood or ground bark. I usually till in a 6-inch layer of amendment, that has been spread on top, to a depth of about a foot. This is a lot of bags-full.

Abutilons are nearly perfect shrubs for a shady situation, and unlike the hydrangeas, they will also take a direct blast of sun during the day without wilting. They broaden the palette by blooming primarily in winter and early spring. No other plant in my garden flowers as long--10 months by my count--and it is one of the few plants that grows quickly to its appointed size and then seems to stop.

Many Colors Available

Mine grow to about 6 or 8 feet and then stay there, and they get to that size in about a year, with lots of water and fertilizer. The best have large, bell-like flowers but smallish leaves.

Others have small flowers and some very large leaves--they are a varied lot. They come in many colors, from pink, through red, to yellow and orange. They are not common at nurseries so you must hunt a little to find a good one.

Another champion shrub for the shade, even deep shade, is the dark, glossy-green Japanese aucuba. The gold-splattered variegated varieties are the most popular but I have always found them difficult to grow. Not so the plain green variety named ‘Serratifolia.’ Aucubas are as slow as a freight train, so don’t expect a big shrub for many years.

Tough as Nails

If you need one more big shrub to round out your shade planting, try Pittosporum tobira ‘Variegata,’ a two-toned shrub that is tough as nails though in two years it will grow to 6 feet across and they can grow to 15 feet. They don’t grow too tall, however, and pruning can keep them smaller.

The cream-splashed leaves look like shafts of sunlight in the shade. If you want something smaller, try ‘Turner’s Variegated Dwarf’ (from Hines wholesale nursery), a new dwarf variegated pittosporum that should grow to about 4 feet tall by 6 feet wide. It is a cream-splattered version of ‘Wheeler’s Dwarf,’ a plain, green-leaved pittosporum that also takes shade and grows to about 6 or 8 feet across, but only 4 or 5 feet tall. It does fine on the north side of the house and can stand sun, so it is a good bet to plant farther away from the house where the ground is in shadow all winter, but is sunny in summer as it climbs higher in the sky.