Plants For Dry Shade

Areas where there is little direct sunlight and which it is uneconomic or otherwise impracticable to water — near mature evergreen trees for example — provide some of gardening’s greatest problems. The author, a partner in Western Hills Nursery, offers some suggestions for planting such places.
Nature herself (and not just the local nurseryman) often does not give us the plants we need. From leisure world the cry is heard: “I dream of a Japanese garden.” A voice replies: “Japan is far away, mosses will not grow nor maples nor azaleas in your sun and Santa Ana winds.” It is Nature who speaks, and the prudent man listens, plants a weeping Atlas cedar, some Irish moss and a cast stone lantern. His garden, if not Japanese, is “Japanese,” and who will begrudge his contentment?

There are degrees of difficulty in finding the plants we need. For some situations — gardening on sand, gardening on clay, in sun, in shade — there are suggestions to be found in the Sunset Western Garden Book, in Bean’s Trees and Shrubs, in Lord’s Shrubs and Trees, in Graham Stuart Thomas’ excellent books on perennials and groundcovers, and in many others. More difficult are such special situations as reclaim...