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Tuesday - May 04, 2010

From: Round Rock, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Shade Tolerant
Title: Landscaping in shade in Round Rock, TX
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

I have a flower bed that is 3' deep by 15' wide. It is in front of my front porch. Half of it only gets sun right now from about 3:30-5pm (a little filtered sun for maybe another hour). The other half of the bed gets sun maybe 3:30-6:30. To the far left (closest to the driveway) I'm going to try a bicolor iris. But I need something to anchor that far right side that would kind of balance the iris, but would do well with only very limited afternoon Texas sun. And then a mass planting of some perennials that can also tolerate that little amount of sun. I'd like an evergreen shrub or plant for the one end and ideally for the perennials in the middle as well. Suggestions on what might work for that far right side and also for the center mass plantings (was thinking 2 different plants for the middle, possibly divided by a bird bath)?

ANSWER:

From a distance, we can't give you a landscaping plan. It sounds like what you have is almost entirely in either part shade (2 to 6 hours of sun daily) or shade (2 hours or less of sun.) It would probably help you choose if you watch your garden for a day or two, estimating how long each area is in sun. The choices for that much shade are pretty limited, and there isn't much with prominent blooms that will do well without more sun. We will give you a list of perennial herbaceous blooming plants as well as a couple of shrubs that are evergreen, all for part shade or shade. This is going to narrow the choices down quite a lot, as most blooming plants bloom better in more sunlight; however, there are some native to Central Texas, so we'll see what we can come up with. As for where they will go and which you will use, that will have to be your decision. You can follow each plant link to our webpage on that plant, and find out when it blooms, how big it gets and what conditions it needs in terms of soil and water.

Shrubs for Part Shade or Shade in Round Rock, TX:

Ilex vomitoria (yaupon)

Morella cerifera (wax myrtle)

Perennial Blooming Plants for Part Shade or Shade in Round Rock, TX:

Asclepias tuberosa (butterfly milkweed)

Conoclinium coelestinum (blue mistflower)

Coreopsis lanceolata (lanceleaf tickseed)

Echinacea purpurea (eastern purple coneflower)

Lobelia cardinalis (cardinalflower)

Gaillardia suavis (perfumeballs)

Hibiscus martianus (heartleaf rosemallow)

Melampodium leucanthum (plains blackfoot)