Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here today to talk about yet another strange burst of energy. You may remember me from such posts as “Unhappy Landings”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
This is what I did for most of the day. It was too hot for me.
It wasn’t too hot for the guy I live with, and he told me he was tired of looking at all the “stupid vinca” and Brunnera macrophylla in the shade garden under the Wasatch or canyon maples, Acer grandidentatum.
So out he went. I could hear all the spading and hacking from my vantage point.
The guy I live with said some people claim Brunnera macrophylla is a good plant for “dry shade”. This is what it looks like in dry shade.
The late Henry Mitchell said something like “If you have to water it, why call it dry shade?”, and this is what the guy I live with thinks, too.
If someone printed a list of plants for “dry shade”, the guy I live with with say no to almost all of them. It’s true, as Olivier Filippi said in one of his excellent books, “everyone’s drought is different”, but the guy I live with said he only knows about the conditions in our garden, and would say no. Yes to Mahonia repens, yes to ivy (which he doesn’t want).
I think the brunnera is all gone now. The guy I live with said it’s hard to tell if it’s really all gone, because some will appear next spring and look fine, then collapse like this when it gets dry.
There should have been pictures of this garden before all the work started, but this is what it looks like now. Pretty empty.
Aside from the maples, there’s Rubus ‘Benenden’, which is a cross between our native Rubus deliciosus and the Mexican species R. trilobus. As Trees and Shrubs Online says, after it flowers “one has a large, dull shrub for the rest of the year”, but that doesn’t bother the guy I live with. The lilacs here are duller.
And there are the three geraniums, which are holding their own in this extremely dry soil, made drier by the maples, no doubt.
There’s Geranium × magnificum, or something similar, which is sort of barely alive, but still alive instead of dead.
And Geranium renardii.
And, finally, Geranium macrorrhizum, which is doing the best of the three. The guy I live with likes the smell of the leaves, a lot.
And that’s my short post about the three geraniums. I’m not sure what’s going to happen next, but I know the guy I live with has been as happy working out in the back garden as I’ve been lying in front of the swamp cooler.
We make a good, complementary team.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
I have been sucked in by the promise of “dry shade” plant marketing many times. Well done to those three geraniums! Tough plants, I reckon.
The guy I live with says he’s bought quite a few plants for “dry shade” that wither to nothing.
I guess it depends on how shady. The boulder raspberry, Rubus deliciosus, has been here in mostly shade for years, and doesn’t need any watering once it’s established. The snowberry, Symphoricarpos albus, has been here for ages, in dry shade, but it would be happier with some watering. There’s also that low pink one that you see all over the place in some forested areas.
Some epimediums will do well, flowering in spring and then just sitting there, in shade, for the rest of the year.
Do the Japanese beetles bother your Rubus deliciosus boulder raspberry or the snowberry Symphoricarpos albus? I’ve been reluctant to plant berry plants like raspberry or blackberry or even honey berry, which I covet and saw in a glorious Front Range garden during an open garden tour day.
The guy I live with used to grow raspberries, but that was long ago.
There are almost no Japanese beetles in the garden here. It’s possible that the garden is too dry for them. Also, there were a lot on a bunch of roses in a neighboring yard, which attracted beetles, but all the roses died except for one.
I concur, it does all depend on the type of dry shade you have. I do water my Brunnera macrophylla about once every two weeks and find that an acceptable trade-off to having none at all. But, you are so right – Mahonia repens doesn’t need any supplemental watering at all and it still looks good. I should probably take cuttings and move it to other parts of the garden where I don’t want to water. Interesting that my Geranium macrorrhizum already died back a month ago. It will return next spring, but it just goes to show that results may vary.
The guy I live with said we did get a downpour the last week in June. About two and a third inches, so the geraniums liked that a lot. But endless days of 95 degrees canceled out all that rain, eventually. The brunnera looked really good after the rain but then collapsed.
Mahonia repens is all over the place here, thanks to the birds.
The guy I live with says there are a bunch of mahonias at Denver Botanic Gardens and repens has crossed with aquifolium; some of the repens are tall like aquifolium and have black foliage in the winter. The guy I live with says these should be propagated because the winter foliage is so cool-looking, but they are in sun, not shade.
I find that geranium x cantabrigiense is good in dry shade too. It also takes a sunny position
That’s here too, but it has been suffering with constant temperatures of 35C and 10 percent humidity.
Hello,
In your book, High and Dry, on page 22, you mention a tool called the Yo-Ho by Yeoman and Company , a foot long trowel with a heavy, sharp blade. If you still have it, would you post a photo of it? There are way too many choices on their website to know which one you mentioned. If it is gone, what are your current favorite digging tools?
Thank you
The guy I live with says the Yo Ho is the “trapping trowel”.
The other two digging things he likes best are the Sampson spade and Garden Shark from Way Cool Tools.
And also the U.S. Army Model 1945 Entrenching Tool, which saw action in Korea in 1952. It was his father’s, and the blade is very worn now.
Please thank the guy you live with for the “Way Cool” info including keeping his dad’s army shovel in service!
You’re welcome. The Army shovel no longer folds back, but it’s still a value garden tool.
Love those geraniums for the tenaciousness. Bravo.
Yes, the guy I live with was surprised. Things changed today, though.
Blessed rain now? Flood warnings?
Yes, lots.