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Shady Highlights: Summer Shrubs Part Three

© Barbara M. Martin

This series is growing nicely nearly all by itself, which is just the way I like my plants to grow; don't you?

Part One pumped some favorites, but I ran out of space and moved on to more favorite "little" ones in Part Two and am now up to Part Three with suggestions for shadier spots I do hope you will find some inspiration for your own summer garden!

Each shrub can be easily searched for at either the Time Life Searchable Plant Encyclopedia or the Gardening.Com Plant Encyclopedia which will show you an image and a brief thumbnail description. For more complete information I would suggest you check in the Manual of Woody Landscape Plants: Their Identification, Ornamental Characteristics, Culture, Propagation and Uses by Michael A. Dirr. Your library or County Extension should have this excellent reference book. You might also, even better yet, consult with experienced gardeners in your local area and/or with nursery staff you trust to be knowledgeable to find out if these will do well for you.

Once we leave the bright annual flowers section of the nursery, it's always a challenge to find substantial summer blooms for shade either on small plants or even tougher, larger shrubs and trees. It's a shame, because while many lovely shade plants offer wonderful texture and foliage variations they drop the ball by offering inconsequential flowers. In other words, many of the blooms are just not much to write home about.

To be honest, the easy care and reliable summer blooming shrub selection for shade is not huge: for serious shade you might try Summersweet Clethra (Clethra alnifolia), Sweetshrub (Calycanthus floridus), the recently popular Virginia Sweetspire (Itea virginica) and the shrubby dogwoods (Cornus racemosa or Cornus sericea).

The first three are fragrant in bloom, the dogwoods in turn offer lovely winter stem interest. Coincidentally enough, these are all North American native plants. These will do better with at least some sun, however, such as in dappled shade or part shade.

Wondering what kind of shade is serious shade and what kind would be called dappled? Check out our Shade Garden topic!

Partial shade widens the choices to include the delightful varieties of shrubby St. John's Wort (such as this herbal Hypericum) as well as the cheerful Kerria mentioned in Part One of this series. Best of all, that dash of sun allows us to include the now seemingly precious blooming bonanza: hydrangeas.

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