Shade Gardening

Begonia grandis (Hardy Begonia)

Here is another can't miss shade perennial. This plant is hard to find in the nursery trade. You can find it in mail order catalogs and of course at the annual AOGC plant sale in June. I have grown this plant for years in the same place in my side garden. It has never succumbed to any of the savage weather we have had in the last five winters or summers. The book on this shade plant is height 18", Width 18" Zones 6-9.

Hardy Begonia plant never fails to amaze me. One year in the early part of spring (following a real mild winter) I was working on my flower bed, weeding and mulching. When I discovered that this begonia had already reached its full growth and was starting to bloom! I was indeed a happy gardener.

The leaves of this plant are shaped like an angel wing begonia. It normally blooms in late spring to frost. The flowers of this begonia are pale pink held loosely above the leaves. There are tiny bulb-like tubers that appear at the leaf joints in late summer. These can be used to increase your stock or to pot up and share with a fellow gardener. This plant needs shade and moist well-drained soil.

A brother or sister plant to this one is Begonia grandis 'Alba'. Alba has a wonderful white bloom and needs all of the conditions listed above. I have had a small start of this plant for three years. It is the smallest plant in my garden. It just sits there and has never bloomed for me yet. The jury is still out on this one!

Begonia grandis will need extra watering in the hot summer. In the winter it will freeze to the ground and leave no visible signs that it was ever there. Do not give up on it for this plant will come back with a vengeance the next year. If that is not good enough for you, look under the leaves of the plant and you will see a whole bunch of new plants coming up. This is the plant I pot up every year. It is best to get them potted up as soon as possible, while they are still small plants.

I grow my begonias with wood fern in the background. They are truly a wonderful sight together. As I usually say in this column, this plant is a true Texas star for the garden, in addition to, a superb southern heirloom perennial.

Cast Iron Plant (Aspidistra eliator)

To begin, let's talk about the Cast Iron Plant (Aspidistra eliator). It is an evergreen that grows in two forms: a dark green foliage and a variegated foliage (Aspidistra elatior 'Variegata).

The Cast Iron plant is native to Japan. This is truly a great plant. It is not called Cast Iron for nothing. It is extremely tough and drought tolerant (once it is established). A real cold winter will fray and brown the tips of the leaves and they will look pretty bad. Cutting away the bad and leaving the good can solve this problem. New leaves will be coming up from the ground in the middle of spring.

The height of the plant is 24". In addition, the spread (area of coverage) is 24". When planting, spacing should be 18"apart. This is what the gardening books tell you, but with my yard, the 'Variegata took ten years for a single plant to spread 24". Flowers are an inconspicuous brown and they bloom very low to the ground. The Cast Iron plant does not like a lot of fertilizer. Organic fertilizer, compost, and leaf matter is the best fertilizer. This plant can be used as an accent or tall ground cover and has the ability to thrive in the adverse conditions and low light of shade. The Cast Iron plant can be grown from Zone 7-9 with no difficulty. North of Zone 7 it can be grown in pots and used inside the house or in the greenhouse.

The 'Variegata' form of Cast Iron is really something to see. The variegation runs in stripes of white on the dark green leaf. Too much fertilizer will cause this plant to lose it's Variegation and the leaves will turn back to green. It is beautiful in the back of a dark garden bed or in an area you need to brighten up. It costs more than the standard Cast Iron Plant, usually double the price. It is definitely worth a try and is clearly a keeper.

So to sum it all up if you are looking for a plant to put into a dark garden area and you just want to plant it and forget it this is a must. Darwin himself would be a happy Gardener with this plant…………..

Purple Oxalis -- Oxalis regnellii 'Atropurpurea'

Going by whatever name you know it as, this is truly a wonderful plant. The Oxalis Genius has over 800 recognized species throughout the world. So considering the length of this article and TIME I will only talk about one, the Purple Leaf Oxalis. This particular species is native in Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay. It was first cultivated in the United States in 1930.

I have admired this plant for a long time. The beautiful purple color in the leaves is hard to beat. The long stems for the ground are topped with a cluster of three deltoid-shaped leaflets, which are one and a half inches long. The leaflets fold at the mid-vein and resemble purple butterflies.

My Mother had given a friend of hers a couple of these plants two years ago. During the second year the friend forgot that they were in a particular bed and proceeded to till up the flowerbed. The next year the only thing in that flowerbed was Purple Oxalis all over the place. This friend gave me countless quantities of this wonderful plant and I have traded and sold it all over Texas. I still have a lot left from my adventures and I could receive even more this year!

The root or rhizome is an interesting thing in itself. It looks like a fat zipper that is zipped up. It does not matter if you plant the rhizome straight up or lay it down, it will flourish either way.

The book on this plant is part-shade (at least protection from the hot afternoon sun), rich moist sandy soil, zone 7-11, height 6"-10" spreading to 12" spacing 9"-12". The winter's cold will knock it down to the ground, but don't worry, it will be back in the spring. This species does not have freestanding flowers, which tends to create a droopy look in certain instances. However, the plant's beautiful white blooms create a colorful look for any garden. It flowers best in the spring and then occasionally through the summer.

It's TOUGH, PERSISTENT, and RESILIENT. This is another true Texas tough perennial for bordering or edging flowerbeds.