Well I have made my decision on what to look for in trade this fall for this shady spot in my garden. Now mind you let me know if this will work. The area I'm working with is only about 6' x 4' in a semi-circle in the direct south. It gets some dappled light in morning to about 9am and then due to the placement of the cherry tree I get lots of shade until about 2pm with more dappled light until about 3pm. Then it gets good west sun as the sun travels to the west (again because of the tree placement)and it stays pretty sunny then until about 5pm. Of course even though it gets that good light it's not getting that much intense heat as it seems the sun makes that transistion pretty quickly from SW to directly west.

I've decided on 1 or 2 old fashioned Bleeding Heart; the nice dark pink ones, Hosta (I don't care which), Heuchera and some type of Geranium (Cranebill) that is low growing with a mounding habit type. The Geranium could be placed more towards the perimeter outside of the circle in front of the Hosta where it can recieve better light.

Yesterday I took the chance since we had a cool day. First I dug up and removed 2 big clumps of Big Bluestem grass and replanted next to the daylily. I replaced this area with my five 2 yr. old Foxglove (I think D. lutea not grandiflora as labled), watered well and mulched with straw. So far they are behaving like I never budged them, but will keep my eye on them. It's supposed to be 90 tomorrow and 92 sunday. The day before yesterday I also dug up and moved in chives which I divided the other day from older clumps. Those were planted in sunnier areas of the bed, some small purple snapdragon...we will see if they will continue to winter over...shoot they should be ok! If they can manage the northeast side with our cold north winds they should be even more protected in the south :D

Well this weekend is our 2nd 100 years of Motorcycle Rodeo/Rally here in Rosalia. I'm gonna have fun!

Vera