Greater London garden - shady corner planting advice

I have never grown it but I can tell you that in my local country park they do have some growing in shade - you can but try.

 

true

 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but bamboo won’t be happy in a container restricted by that width for more than a year or two. You will be constantly watering it and collecting fallen brown leaves. I grow several varieties of bamboo but in the ground. Black bamboo also needs sun to produce the best coloured canes.

 

Can it be root pruned each year and repotted?

watering every other day/daily not an issue.

 

@JCT, this is an Italian Cypress bought many years ago and stands in a very small pot in this corner which is north facing so shady most of the time.I give it very little care, an occasional mulch of manure if I have any left over and gets water when I remember it. It was planted to hide the ugly breeze block pillar behind it which supports an arch over a wrought iron gate.

It's probably nearly 2 metres high now and is just beginning to reach the outer edge of the pillar so only 30cm wide or so at a guess. I think I will probably have to get rid of it soon before it gets too tall. It was a cheapy online offer from a newspaper/magazine if I remember rightly, about £10.

 

Maybe blueberry... mine are in ground though, but doing well on a shady side of the wall.

 

I can’t see the picture. Could you post one please?

 

Oh, so sorry JCT, got distracted.

 

Both clumping and non clumping bamboos expand outwards, like grasses, to produce their new canes. They really need width to grow and produce healthy new canes. I think that root pruning and repotting in the same sized pot will eventually exhaust the rootstock. But you could try .

 

This is Irish Yew, now about four years old. It's in quite a deep but narrow pot. Yew can be pruned without causing browning, often used in topiary.

​

 

These pics are great. Very helpful. Thank you very much.

 

Sorry - this site is loading so badly for me nowadays. I'd agree re the bamboo, and I'm not sure a black one would have been any good, given the colour of the fence! The gold stemmed one would be better, but they do need a fair bit of room, so a very large container is needed, and the container also has to be very sound/solid to prevent spreading into other properties. Even the clumping ones can get very big. The I. crenata would be fine in the location, but you'd need to prune to keep it small enough. Again, for a short while it's ok. Lots of shrubs would be ok short term, but I'm guessing that's not what you really want.
If you don't want another small climber in that corner, I think you'd be better allowing the exisiting plants to spread across the fence, as suggested earlier, and then having a separate set of planters for other interest. There really isn't a lot of room in that corner from what I can see, and you need a sizeable container for anything to thrive with minimal attention, and to be attractive.
Unless you don't want anything else in the main area of the garden - which doesn't look very large, you could have some decent beds constructed, either centrally or offset, which would then give you more scope for year round interest and additional colour.
I'm assuming the steps to the right of that door in your pic is access to your property? If so, and you're largely looking at the site from a 1st floor sort of level, then some good colour would be nice in the middle/side of the gravelled area.

 

What about a nice bird bath or some kind of statue to fit your taste.

I could see this little fella sitting comfortably in the corner .