Design Sleuth: The Ultimate Shade Garden - Gardenista
Behind an old house in upstate New York, on a hillside covered in vines and mustard weed, there lurked a hidden junk pile: broken bottles, rusty hinges, toilet seats, and a layer of roof shingles. Mr. Ziegler, the Wall Street Journal’s “Weekend Gardener” columnist, has a shady hillside where leaf colors, shapes, and textures complement each other to create visual interest all season long beneath sugar maples. Silver-leaved ferns, wine-colored coral bells, variegated-leaf hostas and a perennial geranium with a small purple bloom (L) complement each other–and are extremely hardy. The spiky leaves of a Japanese Painted Fern have deep purple veining; $24 for three, the ferns ship for fall planting from White Flower Farm. Behind the ferns, at the front of the border, creeping geraniums echo the purple tones, both with their blooms and the maroon splotches on their leaves. Image via White Flower Farm. In the back of the border, a large-leafed hosta anchors the grouping. Consider Hosta ‘Cathedral Windows.’ It is $16.50 from Perennial Nursery.