Today we are going to talk about some shady characters that could be in your neighborhood....
garden that is!
With so much sun here in South Florida one would question if we even have shady areas. Uhm yes...yes we do. So it begs to wonder what in the heck does well in shade. Well let's find out shall we...this may take awhile so put your phone on silent, hee hee.
First let me introduce you to three native/naturalized coffee plants which are adored not only by us but also by our native butterflies and birds. Especially since all of the coffee's have a small white flower the butterflies and bees pollinate turning it into a berry the birds eat. Even though all of these are shade lovers in their natural habitats, they can be adapted to some full sun.
First up is
Psychotria nervosa coffee simply known as
'wild coffee'. This cutie shrub is a gorgeous green leaved medium size shrub (~4-6 ft high) that loves it's shade from the canopy of larger trees. When I say the leaves are gorgeous, they truly are magnificent with their shiny and heavy undulating tops. They love the heat but can also withstand the cold so they can be planted all the way up to parts of north Florida. Though they prefer growing in moist, not wet, ground (usually seen in tropical hammocks), once established they can survive periods of drought in a
hammock type setting.
Second is the
Psychotria ligustrifolia, known as 'Bahama wild coffee'. This species is considered endagered in Florida habitats but is fine in the West Indies areas. It's a small to medium shrub with densely packed shiny super groovy leaves. This shrub grows in a compact form so it is perfect for the 'low maintenance' gardener...ha like that exists. This variety does not have a high caffeine level and is considered a poor plant for coffee production but a gah-orgeous addition to the landscape.
Third is the
Psychotria sulzneri aka 'Florida wild coffee' or 'short-leaved wild coffee'. This coffee has a similar leaf as the 'P. nervosa' but has a more velvety looking leaf. This coffee plants' range is to central Florida and commonly found in moist or wet hammock areas. It is historically known to possess medicinal qualities, like to reduce fever, treat colds, asthma, stomach problems, swelling of limbs, tumors as well as dermatological problems. Though it's unfortunate that most of us wouldn't know how to use it's medicinal qualities but we can sure grow it in our landscapes.
Next up is the gorgeous
ixora plant, ixora coccinia, which is one of only a handful of plants that not only can grow in shady areas (not deep shade) but will flower too, yes yah heard right...flower in shade! Of course they also grow in full sun but that's not what we're talking here. Historically this is one of the true "OG's" of Florida landscapes; dating back to 1950's/60's. Believe it or not, (believe it) some houses built in that time still have the original ixora's in their landscape...yup totally true.
There are so many varieties and will be doing a post on them later but for now I will tell you a few of my favorites; gosh which to pick...hmmmm ok so will go with 'Mia', 'super red king', 'Frankie Hipp', 'petite pink', 'taiwanese red', 'Maui sunset', 'Carmen' and 'Florida sunset'. Anywhoo they range from a "petite" size (2-3 ft high) to a "super king" size (12-15 ft high). Also depending on the variety, they can either be used as a hedge or as a stand alone, but who wants to sand alone, am I right!?! They can withstand a handful of different soil types though are not drought tolerant. This plant is a heavy feeder due to it's continuous blooming habit so fertilize, fertilize, fertilize...oh did I forget to say fertilize? By keeping a consistent feeding schedule, you too can have these beauties growing in your landscape for like forever!
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| Ixora 'Florida sunset' |
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| Ixora 'petite pink' |
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| Ixora 'super king' |
Ginger, you spicy lady you...oh how you make a garden fun again! Gingers hail from Asian countries and we are super duper lucky to have such a wide variety to use here in South Florida. Some commonly found varieties are alpinia gingers (shell, pink, red, white, variegated), costus gingers (spiral, button, variegated spiral, voodoo flame, crepe, indian-head, bamboo), curcuma gingers (pink gecko, raspberry, chocolate zebra and so many more), hedychium gingers (white, yellow, orange, pink), etlinger gingers (pink, white and red torches) and last but certainly not least are the zingiber gingers (shampoo, beehive, pagoda jewel, pinstripe). So now that your head's swimming in ginger, you should now know how to grow them. Preferably they grow best in filtered light with a slight bit of full sun, this way the ground stays fairly moist but not wet. They do love a nice rich organic type soil. Most will take up a considerable square footage of garden so make sure you know how big the variety you choose will max out at so you don't cramp it's style. It will most definitely be a stunner in your garden!
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| Alpinia red, alpinia pink and variegated shell ginger |
Pink crepe spiral gingers
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| Costa gingers behind philodendron 'rojo congo' and simpson's stoppers behind gingers |
Ferns are most definitely a no brainer shade plant and we have such an awesome variety to chose from. Though they do require some square footage to spread out especially if you don't want to constantly keep them in check like unruly kids. Some great ferns are the Florida native sword fern, maidenhair fern, holly ferns, bird's nest fern, cinnamon fern, autumn fern, silver ribbon fern and silver lace fern.
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| Autumn fern |
Chamaedorea metallica is a completely under used palm that is an understory palm, meaning it prefers the shade of taller trees and palms. The soil should be a rich organic one but not wet. It's a stunningly blueish silverish green that has a shimmery almost metallic look to the fishtail shaped fronds. I like using them in groups with different heights to show off their beauty. You will have these gorgeous palms forever as they are very slow growers and max out at about 5-8 ft high.
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| Metallica palm |
One of my absolute favorite plants to use is the infamous
alocasia or is it the famous alocasia, either way it screams tropical. There are a few varieties that can take full sun but most prefer the consoles of shade. They are so many to choose from though some of my fav's varieties that grow outstandingly well here are 'portora', 'stingray', 'black stem', 'callidora', 'regal shield', 'boa', 'borneo giant' and 'nigra'.
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| Alocasia 'portora' |
Oh my gosh where to start with this plant,
calathea, in my opinion, calathea's are not used nearly enough in the landscape. Though with that said, most of South Florida has been scraped of it's original tree canopy to make way for strip malls and housing developments. Which the developers never, and I say NEVER, put back large trees because they are all super cheap and really don't care. South Florida is normally super duper sunny, then add no tree canopy and man it sucks getting in your car in the summer in the middle of a parking lot. Which comes back to the aforementioned statement that calathea's are under used because they really prefer shade and will not take any kind of Florida full sun for over an hour or so. But boy will you be happy to have these in your shade area...such stunner's! Especially that there are so many different varieties to choose from. Some of my fav's are 'pink gecko', 'lancifolia', 'indri', 'makoyana', 'zebrina', 'majestica', 'rufibarba', 'burle marx', 'amagris', 'lutea', 'orbifolia', 'warscewiczii' and 'ornata'.
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| Calathea 'pink gecko' |
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Calathea 'leopardenia' under alocasia 'portora' and green liriope as ground cover.
In raised plant bed are green wart ferns, cordyline and queen emma crimum lilies. |
Red & purple firespikes are another fun way to add some pizzazz in your shade area with their beautiful plumage of flowers as well as their gorgeous green foliage. Very easy to maintain though word to the wise the red variety can get out of control if not kept in check. The purple variety is a shorter more compact plant so it's usually my go to one to use in the landscape.
Ground orchids are truly a no brainer plant to use since they are beautiful all year round. As a ground cover they have deep kelly green strapping leaves which are a perfect accent to the garden. Their flowers seem to float magically in the air as they are lifted high up from the plant with their spikes of flora. They used to be hard to find and super duper expensive but they have gained such popularity within the past few years that there are many beautiful hybrids for a decent price. So take home like 30 of them, just kidding, ok like 28 of them. You will be a happy gardener with these beauties smiling at you all year round, you might even think they were up to something, hmmmm.
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| Ground orchid 'tropical punch' |
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| Ground orchid 'mellow yellow' |
Oh
croton how I love and not love thee sometimes....and I'm not alone, at least I think I'm not alone here. In my experience, people either like them or can't stand them, same with
cordylines. Which is for another topic of debate for some other time, cause it's like talking about politics, it can be a pretty heated conversation depending on who you are talking to about cordylines. For the record I really like them; it's all about the right plant in the right place. Anywhoo, back to crotons...I like them now but there was a time when I wasn't too thrilled with them. I guess cause I grew up with them everywhere in South Florida. But there are literally hundreds and hundreds of varieties of them that are super duper cool! Thailand is producing some crazy hybrids that I would love to bring here! *sigh* one day...oh yes American crotons, right, so I love using them with other bright solid color plants to help blend them into a landscape. I know they are seen in full sun and yes some varieties thrive in that light but and it's a big BUT South Florida sun is brutal! So I find that most crotons show off their best attributes in part shade. I have another post totally about crotons so I will now direct you there or else I'll keep rambling, hee hee....
click for croton post here.
Well that's where we'll have to end it here since I just took up like half your day, just kidding, only a few hours. Think of it this way, it was educational, right? So we can say you weren't really wasting time, you were learning something, hee hee. Whatever your plans are today, I hope you are able to go outside to enjoy this wonderful weather we are having. You deserve it after all the hard studying you just went through.
Thank you for coming by and hope to see you soon!
Happy Gardening and Best Wishes,
Sheri B...that's me
xoxo
Pink crepe spiral gingers
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