Suggestions please - plants for dry shade?

ro42, Nov 26, 10:44pm
I have a small area I want to plant. It's near a ponga, so the ground is very dry and it's shaded by large native beech. Having just weeded it, I know that rangiora, coprosma and pandanus do OK there, but I would like to put something in to fill the space that's a bit, well, prettier! It's near virgin forest, so nothing invasive. I want something bigish but not to big - maybe large hostas or something. flowers/colour would be nice. Any suggestions!
ro42, Nov 26, 10:44pm
I have a small area I want to plant. It's near a ponga, so the ground is very dry and it's shaded by large native beech. Having just weeded it, I know that rangiora, coprosma and pandanus do OK there, but I would like to put something in to fill the space that's a bit, well, prettier! It's near virgin forest, so nothing invasive. I want something bigish but not too big - maybe large hostas or something. flowers/colour would be nice. Any suggestions!
antoniab, Nov 26, 10:52pm
Dianella! One of my faves, they get to about 1m3 in size, small white flowers and beautiful purple berries.
ro42, Nov 26, 10:58pm
Oh that's a good idea - I've got some of those somewhere else, too.
trah, Nov 26, 11:33pm
Clivias love dry shade - not many plants do!They come in a limited flower colour range.
piquant, Nov 27, 12:01am
Epimediums are good in this situation too.
stevee6, Nov 27, 12:48am
Rengarengas also cope extremely well with dry shade once established(which means watering them in well when you plant them, and deeply every other week for the first summer).
ro42, Nov 27, 2:36am
yes, they are the ideal - wish they were coloured! I have a lot of them already in that bit of my garden, so really wanted something a bit different.

Thanks all.
antoniab, Nov 27, 2:45am
No problem :)
stevee6, Nov 23, 2:49am
Good point.
I love white flowers but a bit of colour is wonderful. Bugle is a great groundcover with blue flowers, and of course violets come in several shades - pink, white, yellow and violet.