42 
HOUSE & GARDEN 
AN AMATEUR’S GARDEN IN A SHADY PLACE 
The Experience of a House & Garden Reader 
Who Made a Wilderness Backyard Blossom 
MARGUERITE H. FISHER 
I HAD a problem, a 
real garden problem: 
to grow flowers under 
big, overhanging trees 
in the suburbs of a large 
city. Perhaps, after all, 
“backyard” would be a 
better term than garden, 
for that is about what 
it was when I began. 
Three large maple trees 
stood in it, casting such 
broad shadows that the 
sun could peep in only 
early in the morning and 
late in the afternoon. 
Not a promising outlook 
for flowers, but flowers 
I must have, circum¬ 
stances to the contrary 
notwithstanding. 
First I read books 
and studied folders un¬ 
til my brain was in a 
whirl, but theories didn’t 
seem to work. There 
would be lists of flowers 
for shady places, but most of these men¬ 
tioned wouldn’t grow. So 1 just plodded 
along until at last my garden does show 
some signs of beauty, and I have had flowers 
to pick from early April. 
There seemed to be two very shady spots 
—spots that were bare all summer. But, 
of course, you realize that early in the 
spring before the leaves come out these 
spots are sure to get the sun. There I 
planted bulbs—planted them in the fall. I 
had read that by scattering crocus bulbs and 
planting them where they fall one could 
achieve a far more artistic effect than bv 
that the place it occupies 
is hard to make produce. 
Another plant about 
2' high and a long 
bloomer is the feverfew ; 
it will seed itself as well 
as live over the winter, 
and begins to bloom in 
June. Foxglove, monk¬ 
shood and larkspur will 
give striking results the 
second year and increase 
wonderfully. I have 
found that it pays to 
buy a few yearling 
plants rather than try to 
grow from seed — the 
labor is worth much 
more than the difference 
in cost, and results are 
immediate. Hollyhocks 
will bloom in shady 
places and iris and al¬ 
most all the lilies. These 
things my experience has 
taught me. 
I had an idea that 
getting back to Nature itself would be a way 
of getting at some shady flowers, and so I 
went into the woods early in the spring and 
recognized the wild azalea. I transplanted 
it just before the leaves came out and took 
plenty of root and root soil with it. It grew 
in very shallow soil—in fact, almost on the 
rock itself—and so when I planted it I dug 
quite a hole and filled the bottom with a 
basket of stones, which, by the way, I al¬ 
ways save, as there are many plants that 
need drainage systems under their roots. 
And so my azaleas never stopped growing at 
(Continued on page 58) 
Although the iris does best in a rich, well-drained soil with full exposure to 
the sun. it is readily acclimated to a dry location in shady places 
planting in rows; so 1 treated all my bulbs 
that way. ! had purchased white tulips, 
narcissus, white, lavender and yellow cro¬ 
cuses—not many were needed, and in April 
my usually barren spots were the beauty 
spots of the whole garden. 
There is a plant, very nearly a weed, but 
beautiful—eupatorium that comes in blue 
and white and grows about 3' high. It will 
grow anywhere, even right next to a tree 
or under an arbor, and bloom profusely— 
in August. It makes a clump of fine green 
leaves from early spring, and looks so pros¬ 
perous and healthy that you never dream 
Feverfew (Chrysanthemum Parthenium) 
thrives in shade, a flower vagabond, a 
runaway from the cultivated garden 
The eupatorium—this is var. pur- 
pureum—will bloom anywhere, even 
next to a tree or under an arbor 
Anemone Japonica is a useful species for 
the flower border. It does well and blooms 
splendidly in shade or partial shade 
