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Be sure to place soaker hoses around the plants during their first two summers in the ground. After their second year, all these plants will manage with no extra summer irrigation. Even with potential dry conditions this coming summer, it's a good time to put in native and drought-tolerant plants which will settle down as great performers for future dry times (we're going to have them, because that's a climate reality here.)
"Shade" doesn't specifically indicate how much light is available. If the area is dark throughout the day, never receiving either light or "skyshine" from above, such as a spot under the lower limbs of a large Douglas fir, the best approach is to cover the ground with 2-4 inches of mulch.
If the spot gets 2-4 hours of light a day, the plants listed below will grow fine. "Skyshine" is the open sky falling on a courtyard surrounded by walls. No direct light penetrates, but the area receives some light. Those conditions also work for these adaptable plants.
Aucuba japonica takes deep shade, and sulks in sunshine. The plants, which grow from 3 to 10 feet in height, do need watering for their first two years, but will then manage on normal summer rainfall, whatever it may be. Small maroon flowers in spring turn into bright red berries in fall and winter, making a showy accent for the darker corners of the garden. Aucuba can be green-leaved, or can be green with splashes of yellow (Aucuba japonica 'Crotonifolia' and others.)
Jack in the pulpit, Arum italicum, copes with dry summers by disappearing. This plant is a fine winter and spring ground cover, with a long 8-inch leaf edged in white. Leaves emerge in late fall, grow beautifully all winter, and begin to die back in May. This is a good ground cover under deciduous trees or on the edges of woodland plantings. After June, mulch over the ground where the arum has gone dormant. The amazing feature of this plant is the spires of red-berries that emerge in August and September; the color accent is good with fall leaf color. Berries drop off and sprout just as the leaves begin their late fall return.
Another good dry shade plant that has spring interest but goes dormant in late summer is bleeding heart. The native bleeding heart Dicentra formosa grows about 8 inches tall with small stems of rosy hearts in April and May. The bigger hybrid form, Dicentra spectabilis, can reach 3 feet in height with an arching stem of flowers. It will go dormant and disappear in August, and needs some irrigation during early summer. This is a showy dry shade plant.
Experimenting in your own garden and talking with nurseries will give you other specifically suited plants for dry shade. Be sure to amend the soil well before planting and use 2-3 inches of mulch over the soaker hoses after planting.
A: Many gardeners are aware that chemicals formerly used for cranefly control have been under review by the Environmental Protection Agency during the past few years.
Be sure to identify the problem before considering treatment. Check by cutting a one-foot square piece of turf 2 inches deep and counting the grayish-brown larval craneflies. (It's their chewing that does the damage.) If the sample shows fewer than 25 cranefly larva per square foot, the turf will be likely to outgrow the damage. If more than 35-40 per square foot, treatment may be needed.
Healthy lawns cope better with the occasional cranefly infestation. Sometimes people mistake compaction, disease problems, and lack of good care for cranefly damage. Keep the lawn properly fertilized, watered, and mowed to allow it to grow strongly.
Birds control some cranefly larvae by pecking them out of the ground. If chemical controls are chosen, be aware that Washington State University specialists do not recommend the insecticide diazinon because it is toxic to birds and has killed birds in western Washington. Another insecticide, Dursban (chlorpyrifos) will be off the market as of December 31, 2001 as a result of the EPA's environmental concerns. Good care and tolerance may be the best cranefly management tools just now, though specialists are looking into substitutes for these two toxic materials. For more information, check the cranefly web site at http://whatcom.wsu.edu/cranefly.
Hortsense: Managing plant problems with Integrated Pest Management
