I have been fighting a losing battle in our back garden. It is a courtyard surrounded by buildings (and with some trees that cast shade in summer), so it ranges from places that get strong sun for several hours per day, to places that get indirect sunlight only, to a few areas with deep shade. I put in raised beds and put "all purpose" garden soil in that, mixed with something to help it drain properly (as it tends to be damp back there). The weather is more damp in winter, but can be pretty dry/hot in the summer. I checked the ph of the soil, and it seems to be right at 6.0. We travel for work, so I have to plant stuff that will be hardy even with some relative neglect (I can do thinks to help the garden along at certain set times of year, and I get a neighbor to water when we are away in high summer, but otherwise can't depend on anything that is sensitive to careful treatment).
I am not picky--I'd just like flowers back here. When we moved in it was a barren brown wasteland. So I have had some success in that lots of green stuff is now growing back there. But I struggle to get any flowers to bloom, and I don't understand why. I have tried planting many, many things (listed below), but what survives and what dies seems illogically inconsistent and changes from year to year. I was hoping that if I could list the things that have thrived/died, that those of you here with more expertise might recognize what the problem is or what kinds of flowers we should be planting instead? I don't know if we should be doing something differently (e.g., using a particular fertilizer at set times of year, etc.) or if there are flowers we could plant that we have not yet tried.
I'd really love to have a bunch of flowers throughout early spring and mid-summer, but I'm not that picky about which flowers--I would just like to be able to enjoy variety of color and have healthy-looking plants, and have the flowers that do grow actually take over areas in clumps (even the stuff that has successfully bloomed just grows for years in tiny isolated patches--the only exception is the bleeding heart, which does great every year). Most of the time the garden just looks green with no flowers. It feels like a battle to get anything to bloom except for a few rare types.
So, apologies for the long details below, but here is a summary of what has/hasn't worked. Is there any obvious pattern (i.e., hints that we need a certain type of fertilizer or to do something else to improve the soil; some particular flower types we have not yet tried)? I have tried a bunch of shade plants that are supposed to be "easy" (e.g., corydalis lutea, Virginia bluebells, Astilbe, Columbine, fall Anemone), but they all seem to either die out or to barely survive with little-to-no blooms at all...
I welcome any thoughts/advice from those of you with more knowledge/experience!
The plants that have consistently thrived:
These are mostly groundcovers or plants that bloom for a short period--the one geranium that blooms for a long period has small pale flowers that are hard to see and disappear in the foliage. I'm really happy with the forgetmenot, although I'd love for it to propagate better, and the bleeding heart do well, but completely die off by summer.
--Bleeding heart/Dicentra spectabilis--Does fantastically well every year in a single area of deep shade. Blooms this year were a pale pink color compared to the vibrant fuchsia pink of prior years.
--Forgetmenot/Brunnera macrophylla--The "Caucus" variety (with big broad green, not silver leaves) has been slow to take over, but does bloom every year. Another variety of forgetmenot that I bought at the local shop down the street (it has small pointy leaves, I don't know what it is called) has struggled and practically died out, even though it looked fantastic when I bought it.
--Geranium nodosum--These are downright invasive in our garden--I have to weed them out of the beds so that they don't overtake everything else and they have taken over the yard. I'm glad to have something blooming, but I don't love them, as the flowers are small and pale so I can barely see them.
--Epimedium warleyense Ellen Willmott--These have done well over the years (but they are tiny and only bloom for a very short period).
--Creeping bellflower/Campanula rapunculoides--I found these growing wild in the yard, dug them up and put them into the beds. They do well each year and have been gradually turning into more each year. (They did completely dry out in the last heat wave despite watering, which they didn't do in the past.) I don't understand this since they are described as only growing in sun, but I have them in the same partial shade as the rest of the garden.
--English bluebells/Hyacinthoides non-scripta--These didn't bloom for years and then one year came up strong and have bloomed every year since; this year their blooms were oddly pale compared to prior years.
--Lesser periwinkle/Vinca minor 'Marie'--Does very well, and fills in the areas under other plants (I do wonder though if it is choking out other plants, and if so what I should do about it?)
--Galium odoratum--Does fine, some years more than others. Died out in some areas of the garden, has taken over well in others. Like with vinca minor, I have sometimes worried about whether it might be overcompeting with other plants.
--Cymbalaria muralis--this fills in lots of areas in the flower bed between plants and spills down the side, but just in one area. Blooms often (but these are tiny flowers and it is a groundcover essentially).
Things that struggle to survive, or did well for a while and then died:
--Many different types of corydalis--Several of these did ok for several years (although they always had anemic blooms--we never got these bushes of blooms that you see in photos) and then one year when I suspect their roots must have frozen, they all died. I tried replanting, but I only get a few anemic blooms in a few isolated places (with no rhyme or reason for why in some places but not others). In particular, I expected at least the corydalis lutea to do well, as it is supposed to do well in shade, be relatively robust, and to bloom for months. However, in one location with partial sun it has never progressed beyond a few skimpy strands of leaves that get a few blooms for a short period of time and the leaves are also a bit yellow; in another location in deep shade the leaves look healthy and grow better, but there are only a few isolated blooms. I would really love to find a way to get the corydalis lutea to bloom and expand!
--Virginia bluebells/Mertensia virginica--These did pretty well for a few years, and then a few years ago all the leaves turned suddenly completely black and dried out. There was nothing particularly different about that year that I can tell. They have never come back since.
--Columbine/Aquilegia caerulea 'Biedermeier'--Planted something like 12 of these last year (all blooming at the time), and got about 2 blooms this year total. Lots of the leaves are reddish and don't look good (they appear to be stressed).
--Geranium wallichianum 'Rozanne'--These produce a few blooms each year and are scraggly, with just a few leggy stalks instead of producing the healthy clump of plants that one sees in photos. Their blooms are also really small compared to others I have seen nearby. I know they are supposed to do better in sun, but I see other healthy clumps of these with a ton of much larger blooms within walking distance of where I live in shady areas under trees (which is why I tried planting them in our garden).
--Anemone hupehensis Splendens--These bloomed like gangbusters the first year, but at this point have all but died out.
--Three types of clematis: Clematis viticella Madame Julia Correvon is in deep shade, yet is the one that actually appears to bloom a bit (although anemically). Clematis viticella Venosa Violacea and Clematis viticella Star of India both get partial sun, usually we get a few sad looking blooms, but this year nothing. There are also not that many leaves--they look sad--I assumed it was a lack of sun, but the one in deep shade actually does best, so I am baffled.
--Star of Bethlehem/Ornithogalum umbellatum--These popped up wild and bloomed for several years (odd because we did not plant them and they are not native to our area). They then died out and have not come back.
Things that pretty much almost instantly died out:
--Lysimachia nummularia--Never bloomed, died out completely within a year of planting.
--Helebores of all kinds--None ever bloomed, all died out completely. It is possible that some random leaves persist in a few places, but as they have never bloomed, I can't tell what they are. They tend to immediately get root rot, even if I hardly water them, even if I buy them in pots and don't remove them from those pots and keep them completely separate from everything else in the garden.
--Astilbe japonica 'Younique Cerise' and 'Younique Carmine'--planted last year and this year got one tiny bloom that died immediately after the recent heat wave even with repeated watering.
--Dicentra formosa 'Luxuriant'--got maybe one bloom last year, and this year nothing--not sure that I even see any leaves.
Thanks for taking the time to read my post!
I am not picky--I'd just like flowers back here. When we moved in it was a barren brown wasteland. So I have had some success in that lots of green stuff is now growing back there. But I struggle to get any flowers to bloom, and I don't understand why. I have tried planting many, many things (listed below), but what survives and what dies seems illogically inconsistent and changes from year to year. I was hoping that if I could list the things that have thrived/died, that those of you here with more expertise might recognize what the problem is or what kinds of flowers we should be planting instead? I don't know if we should be doing something differently (e.g., using a particular fertilizer at set times of year, etc.) or if there are flowers we could plant that we have not yet tried.
I'd really love to have a bunch of flowers throughout early spring and mid-summer, but I'm not that picky about which flowers--I would just like to be able to enjoy variety of color and have healthy-looking plants, and have the flowers that do grow actually take over areas in clumps (even the stuff that has successfully bloomed just grows for years in tiny isolated patches--the only exception is the bleeding heart, which does great every year). Most of the time the garden just looks green with no flowers. It feels like a battle to get anything to bloom except for a few rare types.
So, apologies for the long details below, but here is a summary of what has/hasn't worked. Is there any obvious pattern (i.e., hints that we need a certain type of fertilizer or to do something else to improve the soil; some particular flower types we have not yet tried)? I have tried a bunch of shade plants that are supposed to be "easy" (e.g., corydalis lutea, Virginia bluebells, Astilbe, Columbine, fall Anemone), but they all seem to either die out or to barely survive with little-to-no blooms at all...
I welcome any thoughts/advice from those of you with more knowledge/experience!
The plants that have consistently thrived:
These are mostly groundcovers or plants that bloom for a short period--the one geranium that blooms for a long period has small pale flowers that are hard to see and disappear in the foliage. I'm really happy with the forgetmenot, although I'd love for it to propagate better, and the bleeding heart do well, but completely die off by summer.
--Bleeding heart/Dicentra spectabilis--Does fantastically well every year in a single area of deep shade. Blooms this year were a pale pink color compared to the vibrant fuchsia pink of prior years.
--Forgetmenot/Brunnera macrophylla--The "Caucus" variety (with big broad green, not silver leaves) has been slow to take over, but does bloom every year. Another variety of forgetmenot that I bought at the local shop down the street (it has small pointy leaves, I don't know what it is called) has struggled and practically died out, even though it looked fantastic when I bought it.
--Geranium nodosum--These are downright invasive in our garden--I have to weed them out of the beds so that they don't overtake everything else and they have taken over the yard. I'm glad to have something blooming, but I don't love them, as the flowers are small and pale so I can barely see them.
--Epimedium warleyense Ellen Willmott--These have done well over the years (but they are tiny and only bloom for a very short period).
--Creeping bellflower/Campanula rapunculoides--I found these growing wild in the yard, dug them up and put them into the beds. They do well each year and have been gradually turning into more each year. (They did completely dry out in the last heat wave despite watering, which they didn't do in the past.) I don't understand this since they are described as only growing in sun, but I have them in the same partial shade as the rest of the garden.
--English bluebells/Hyacinthoides non-scripta--These didn't bloom for years and then one year came up strong and have bloomed every year since; this year their blooms were oddly pale compared to prior years.
--Lesser periwinkle/Vinca minor 'Marie'--Does very well, and fills in the areas under other plants (I do wonder though if it is choking out other plants, and if so what I should do about it?)
--Galium odoratum--Does fine, some years more than others. Died out in some areas of the garden, has taken over well in others. Like with vinca minor, I have sometimes worried about whether it might be overcompeting with other plants.
--Cymbalaria muralis--this fills in lots of areas in the flower bed between plants and spills down the side, but just in one area. Blooms often (but these are tiny flowers and it is a groundcover essentially).
Things that struggle to survive, or did well for a while and then died:
--Many different types of corydalis--Several of these did ok for several years (although they always had anemic blooms--we never got these bushes of blooms that you see in photos) and then one year when I suspect their roots must have frozen, they all died. I tried replanting, but I only get a few anemic blooms in a few isolated places (with no rhyme or reason for why in some places but not others). In particular, I expected at least the corydalis lutea to do well, as it is supposed to do well in shade, be relatively robust, and to bloom for months. However, in one location with partial sun it has never progressed beyond a few skimpy strands of leaves that get a few blooms for a short period of time and the leaves are also a bit yellow; in another location in deep shade the leaves look healthy and grow better, but there are only a few isolated blooms. I would really love to find a way to get the corydalis lutea to bloom and expand!
--Virginia bluebells/Mertensia virginica--These did pretty well for a few years, and then a few years ago all the leaves turned suddenly completely black and dried out. There was nothing particularly different about that year that I can tell. They have never come back since.
--Columbine/Aquilegia caerulea 'Biedermeier'--Planted something like 12 of these last year (all blooming at the time), and got about 2 blooms this year total. Lots of the leaves are reddish and don't look good (they appear to be stressed).
--Geranium wallichianum 'Rozanne'--These produce a few blooms each year and are scraggly, with just a few leggy stalks instead of producing the healthy clump of plants that one sees in photos. Their blooms are also really small compared to others I have seen nearby. I know they are supposed to do better in sun, but I see other healthy clumps of these with a ton of much larger blooms within walking distance of where I live in shady areas under trees (which is why I tried planting them in our garden).
--Anemone hupehensis Splendens--These bloomed like gangbusters the first year, but at this point have all but died out.
--Three types of clematis: Clematis viticella Madame Julia Correvon is in deep shade, yet is the one that actually appears to bloom a bit (although anemically). Clematis viticella Venosa Violacea and Clematis viticella Star of India both get partial sun, usually we get a few sad looking blooms, but this year nothing. There are also not that many leaves--they look sad--I assumed it was a lack of sun, but the one in deep shade actually does best, so I am baffled.
--Star of Bethlehem/Ornithogalum umbellatum--These popped up wild and bloomed for several years (odd because we did not plant them and they are not native to our area). They then died out and have not come back.
Things that pretty much almost instantly died out:
--Lysimachia nummularia--Never bloomed, died out completely within a year of planting.
--Helebores of all kinds--None ever bloomed, all died out completely. It is possible that some random leaves persist in a few places, but as they have never bloomed, I can't tell what they are. They tend to immediately get root rot, even if I hardly water them, even if I buy them in pots and don't remove them from those pots and keep them completely separate from everything else in the garden.
--Astilbe japonica 'Younique Cerise' and 'Younique Carmine'--planted last year and this year got one tiny bloom that died immediately after the recent heat wave even with repeated watering.
--Dicentra formosa 'Luxuriant'--got maybe one bloom last year, and this year nothing--not sure that I even see any leaves.
Thanks for taking the time to read my post!
