Native Plants for Dry Shade
Trees with spreading, shallow roots such as beech, maple, and some conifers often leave the surrounding soil both shady and dry.
Dry shade is considered the trickiest type of shade by many gardeners because many shade loving plants prefer moist soil. However, there are a number of native perennials that can tolerate or even thrive in dry shade. These include:
- Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) – This shade garden favorite has lovely, multicolored flowers that attract butterflies and hummingbirds.
- White Woodland Aster (Aster divaricatus) – Prolific, pretty white flowers attract butterflies and pollinators.
- Virgin’s bower (Clematis virginiana) – An aggressive, spreading vine with pretty white flowers.
- Broad-leaved shooting star (Dodecathon hendersonii) – This wildflower has bright magenta blosoms that resemble a falling star.
- Trout lily (Erythronium americanum) – This low-growing lily has beautiful yellow flowers.
- Coastal strawberry (Fragaria chiloensis) – Unlike the Barren strawberry, Coastal strawberries do produce tasty berries that are popular with both humans and birds.
- Wild geranium (Geranium maculatum) – Wild geranium has attractive pink blossoms and does best in partial shade.
- Sharp-lobed hepatica (Hepatica acutiloba) – An early spring bloomer with delicate, pretty white flowers.
- Bottlebrush grass (Hystrix patula) – The attractive spiky seedheads on this shade-loving grass resemble a bottlebrush.
- Wild lupine (Lupinus perennis) – A nitrogen-fixing legume with beautiful blue flowers that is the host plant for the endangered Karner Blue Butterfly.
- Foxglove beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis) – A handsome, prolific bloomer, Foxglove beardtongue prefers partial shade in open woodlands.
- Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum biflorum) – A handsome, flowering perennial that looks especially good around the base of trees.
- False Solomon’s Seal (Smilacina racemosa) – Showy clusters of white flowers are followed by bright red berries that are popular with birds.
- Zig Zag goldenrod (Solidago flexicaulis) – Pretty yellow flowers that bloom in late summer.
- Barren strawberry (Waldsteinia fragarioides) – This spreading groundcover does not have edible berries, but does produce multitudes of small but pretty yellow flowers.
Good choices for non-native plants that tolerate dry shade include hostas, snowdrops, Spanish bluebell, lily-of-the-valley, and some coral bells. Some tough plants commonly grown in dry shade, such as vinca and English ivy, are well-behaved in some regions and invasive in others, so consult your local garden center or extension service before planting.
Dry shade can be improved by adding plenty of organic matter to the soil when planting, and mulching to conserve soil moisture.
I was looking for information on Quercus lyrata when I came across a link to your Mast information. This is a super site!! Congratulations on your wonderful information, your obvious acumen, and for being First Order Tree Huggers! I have added this to my favorites list. I live in the xeric Yolla Bolly foothills near the Middle Eel Wilderness in N. CA. I have been gardening and installing fruit trees here (in the middle of nowhere) for ten years with a well yeild of about 250 gallons a day. Everything that gets water has to be tough, heat tolerant, and preferrably, edible. I am very encouraged by your information about coppicing, since I had a pasture full of black oak that was “thinned” when a mare girdled about 30 trees one summer. I used them as firewood, and now, most of them have sprouted back with no help from me. I don’t water the oaks. I have a friend in the waste tire business, so I was also pleased to see the article about rubber sidewalks. I have used equipment tires as planters for a lot of my fruit trees. They are mostly buried in the ground. I had the sidewall removed from one side, and set them in with the remaining sidewall down, forming sort of a cup. Since the holes are huge (54″ x 20″ rounds) the excavation revealed the reason it was so hard to establish trees up here–a 10″ to 15″ thick layer of compacted cobble lying about 6″ below the surface. Once one digs below that, roots are able to penetrate. The hole in the tire base is 24″ wide, and since I used bare root stock, I was able to direct the roots toward the hole. The tires provide a gopher barrier, insulate the tree from the blazing heat, and hold a small amount of water in the cup, before it is either soaked up by the planting medium or drains out below the tire. This means I have a deeper column of moist soil, and my drips don’t have to try to soak a huge area of exposed ground. Today it will reach 112, and this is the forecast for the week. We usually have forty or so days in the 110s each summer, with a lot more over 100. The ground bakes, and only deep rooted plants will succeed with the amount of water I can offer. I am sure some people would find fault with using these huge equipment tires, but, it is working really well here. I realize that conditions in most parts of the country don’t require as much water conservation attention, but I am in a hot dry area where ground water is hit and miss. I have two decent vegetable garden areas, and 18 tire planters growing cherries, figs, citrus, apples, pears, a pluot, peach, grape, pomogranate. The blueberries just are a no-go here, it is just too hot. I will replace them next fall with some other edible hedge. I am thinking pineapple guava, but it might be just a little too cold in winter. I like raspberries, but I think the trellising and canes are sort of unattractive.
Thanks for your wonderful work, I will be checking back in from time to time. Cheers, happy growing.