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Perennial selections for NW-facing garden - did I screw up?

Posted by jlc102482 6 (My Page) on
Sun, Jul 3, 11 at 17:52

I have a garden that faces somewhere between North and Northwest. It's right in front of the house so the shadow of the house shades the area until 1:00 - 3:00PM, depending on the time of year.

I got some plants today that I'd really like to put in this garden, but I am concerned they will need more sun than this area can provide. Here's what I want to plant:

veronica "Christy" (pink)
blanketflower "gallo series" (yellow)
delphinium "guardian" (blue)
wormwood "silver mound"

Can anyone advise if it would be completely stupid to plant all of these in a NW-facing area? If so, would I be better off with things like ferns, foxglove, hostas, astilbes and bleeding hearts? I'm confused because I've heard SO many definitions of what kind of sun requirement NW-facing equates to!


Follow-Up Postings:

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RE: Perennial selections for NW-facing garden - did I screw up?

plant garden..

observe ...

move things that dont work out.. before they die ...

its not really harder than that.. lol ...

such a site could have sun from 3 to sunset.. which is 5 to 8 hours of sun.. for most of the growing season.. it would be impossible for anyone not living there.. not planting there.. to tell you it will or will not work

just give it a go ... and quit worrying about it

ken


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RE: Perennial selections for NW-facing garden - did I screw up?

My guess would be that they won't do well, not enough sun. But you could try.


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RE: Perennial selections for NW-facing garden - did I screw up?

Here's what I have growing at the northwest corner of my house where it's shaded up until 11 a.m. and then again after 2 p.m.:

Butterfly bush
Baptisia/false indigo
Rose campion
Sedum 'Autumn Joy'
Trollius/Chinese globeflower
Peony
Adenophora/ladybells
Shasta daisy
Phalaris/ribbon grass
Euphorbia polychroma
Daphne
Rose of Sharon

They're all doing fantastic altho' a couple of them aren't growing quite as tall as the same plants in full sun (which is fine with me). The shade in my case isn't dense shade--there's a huge tree that blocks the sun so it's bright shade with lots of indirect light. I'd go ahead and try growing the plants you listed in your northwest area and see how they do, keeping in mind they might need to be moved to more sun at some point.


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RE: Perennial selections for NW-facing garden - did I screw up?

Thanks, everyone. I'll give it a try and will also try to stop worrying about it, LOL.


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RE: Perennial selections for NW-facing garden - did I screw up?

Well, I got everything in the ground and happily, everything seems to be perky and thriving so far. The only plants that don't look too pleased are some hostas I split up and transplanted from my backyard and the black eyed susans. Both are droopy and a little wilty but it has been pretty hot and humid lately. I'm still not sure if the delphiniums will receive enough sun, but if they end up failing I plan to replace them with blue campanula.

Garden 1

Garden 2e

Garden 3

Thanks again for the help!


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RE: Perennial selections for NW-facing garden - did I screw up?

  • Posted by chohio 5-6 Dayton Ohio (My Page) on
    Tue, Jul 12, 11 at 12:05

Everything looks really lovely. Great job.
Cher


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RE: Perennial selections for NW-facing garden - did I screw up?

  • Posted by nancyd 5/Rochester NY (My Page) on
    Thu, Jul 14, 11 at 13:39

I have gardens like this in my yard. In fact MOST of my yard is some kind of part-sun other than the middle of the backyard. It is definitely trial and error. This is a tricky spot. Your beds look great - and you'll find out soon enough what will work and what won't. For me, I can plant petunias, coreopsis, artemesia, Joe Pye weed, bleeding heart, hosta, peonies, sedum, Japanese anemone, perennial geraniums and lilies. I still experiment from time to time. Anything that requires full sun won't do well there, but it is surprising how many plants will.


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