Caley Shady Border @ Saughton Park

A couple of weeks ago, our  fantastic volunteers planted up our shady border with some new plants suitable for the dry, shady conditions that prevail there.  If you don’t know where it is in the park, it is the bed that runs between our Winter Border and the conservatory – just over the hedge from the Friends of Saughton Park’s Physic garden.

There are a couple of large trees in the area that give a lot of shade although, at times, parts of the border can be in full sun.  It is also a very dry area so you can see why we needed to get it right with our plant choices.   We are very lucky to have Jasmin Cann, who is a landscape gardener, in our team.  She is very knowledgeable about plants – we always know that she will make the right choices.  Jasmin has been heavily involved in the planting design for many areas in the park so you can see lots of examples of her work.

There are a variety of different plants that will tolerate the conditions in the border – ferns, hostas, epimedium, and bergenia to name but a few.  Many of the shade loving plants are grown for their foliage rather than flowers.  Go for various shades of green and different leaf textures in order to make your border interesting.

But don’t worry if you love flowers, there are some that do well in shady conditions. Foxgloves, aquilegia and geranium all flower well in shade.  Epimedium have small flowers (they are grown mainly for foliage) but they are lovely.  A favourite plant of mine is Omphalodes cappadocica which is a bit of a mouthful but it is a beautiful little plant.  The blue flowers shine in the shade.

The redesign of this border was made possible by a generous grant from the Stanley Smith (UK) Horticultural Trust for which we are very grateful.

If you have a problem area in your garden that is a bit dry and shady, why not pop by the park and pick up some planting ideas.