Suggestions for a new border, lots of shade and north facing..?

One foot wide, in the shade of the house on the north side. I timed it today and it's in shade until after 3pm - but we do get daylight in midsummer here until almost 11pm. I need summer bedding plant ideas please - it's also quite a cold windy site.

 

Hiya fumanchu
Astilbes would like it there. They have some of the most stunning new foliage growth right now; copper red in varieties like Fanal. Feathery flowers of pink, red or white follow in early summer. They make large well behaved clumps. Check out astrantias too...they flower all summer.
Tiarellas too...delightful plants with white flowers. Pulmonarias are great early spring plants....Blue Ensign for example has stunning bright blue flowers for weeks
Plant a couple of hostas there too...they combine well to form brilliant contrast in colour and form.
Ferns too.....check out the Japanese painted ferns with wonderful marbled blue grey foliage .
I also like the acteas/cimicifugas with their architectural purple red foliage and scented spikes of white flowers in late summer.
You mention summer bedding...do you want just temporary plants for summer? If so, check out impatiens...busy lizzies. They flower all summer in shade.

 

I like astilbes, never had them so that's an idea. I have astrantia but they aren't doing well, think a couple have vanished over winter, unless they aren't through yet. Pulmonaria might do, it's easy isn't it? I'd prefer perennials but want something right now for colour this summer.

 

You said it’s windy there too so doubly problematic fumanchu ....in theory !
Incidentally, consider a grass. Not any old grass but a superb one, hackonechloa. Makes a beautiful mound of yellow or yellow variegated foliage that sways like the surf in the wind...so make the most of that wind. Gets better and better year on year. Deciduous but also has orange autumn leaf colour.
Astrantias? If too dry they can wither away but they are late in emerging again after winter
Just realised too, heucheras would grow there for you too....evergreen with red, orange, yellow or even near black foliage

 

Off to look at heucheras, these sound nice. I don't want grass V as I look out over fields and hills and moors covered in the stuff, I want flowers

 

Hi,

Ferns will do well, but probably too green for you ?

Mrs Popple fuchsias are happy in the same situation but can grow to 4ft after a few years, so would soon spill over your 1ft wide patch.

Small colourful bedding, Begonia Semperflorens , young plants in the shops now.

 

All types of hardy Fuchsias from 1" high ( F. Procumbens -usefull as groundcoveer ) to F. " Riccartonii " - can be kept anything from 3' to 6'
, and loads in between. NOTE..... Many half-hardy, tender and most tropical Fuchsias need some amount of sunlight as they come from Mexico, USA, The Caribbean and Australia whereas the hardies come from South America and New Zealand.

 

No ferns, I need some colour. I forgot all about fuchsias - I like them, they might be an idea.
The begonias would be nice but can't be planted for a while, frost free date here is 1st June. So I could do some hardier stuff now with colourful summer bedding in between, planted later. TY all!

 

As a slightly random idea, wild (alpine) strawberries will grow just about anywhere, and are perfectly happy in part shade. I've used them for ground cover before. Not exactly bedding plants, but they'll establish and send out runners pretty quickly. Plus you get little white flowers and the fruit tastes amazing.

 

This I could do! I have tons of them round the front garden, can just lift a few of them. Good ground cover yes.

 

Another option, and sow the seeds now, is night-scented stock. They're not much to look at in the daytime, but the pale mauve flowers come out in the evening and smell amazing. They self-seed brilliantly, so once a few have flowered the first year, you've got them forever after that. They work together nicely with other flowers providing daytime interest.

Your natural plants for a shady kind of area are anything woodland. Foxgloves, anemones, honesty, fritillary, forget-me-not, columbine, all those sorts of things. (Actually columbine are another good one generally - I've yet to find somewhere they won't try to spread to, and they're very pretty.)

Most traditional bedding plants are geared up for full sun, and they might not work too well in deep shade. It does depend how shaded it is though, and how much light it gets from 3pm onwards.

 

We're on a hillside and after 3pm there is full sun until very late. I love your selection of flowers! I did try NS stock round the front but only got a few out of a pkt of seeds, waiting to see if they come back this year. I think woodland plants are better than my idea of summer bedding, Brilliant help on this forum, thanks everybody and have a wee slice of cake on me

 

Cool, see what works then.

For night scented stocks, I've found you get a lot less plants growing from the seed than you'd expect. But once you've got a few, they'll self-seed forever. Just don't "tidy up" too much when they go over, so you let the seed heads open and spread like poppies.

 

Will do and will buy more seeds too.