Under the Ash tree

welcome to GoY
my garden is shady and tends to be dry too, I have found
Erythronium to be very successful recently, Amy has planted a lovely yellow one:
http://www.growsonyou.com/photo/slideshow/236800-erythronium-pagoda/member/amy

also hostas and hellebores do well.

You'll be able to get spring colour before the tree leafs up by using small bulbs such as snowdrops and crocus - though you'll need to make sure they don't dry out whilst they are green. Erythronium is a woodland plant but does need good soil, can you dig in some compost without raising the level of the soil around the trunk of the ash?

i have been surprised how well they have done moon grower ~ does that mean this is quite good soil here?

Must do Stickitoffee

nice to know, thank you, possibly all the oak leaves that fall. have, over the years made it richer?

Just thinking of a few of the plants that do well in our shady wooded area, although you do need to keep them well watered till they become established, epimedium, bergenia,pulmonaria, tellima(seeds around profusely), some of the hardy geraniums do well in a shady spot especially macrorrhizum, solomons seal, aquilegia.

Stephan ignore the strange posting above, I've reported as spam to the boys by flagging and you can do also...

Which way does the border face?

Had you thought of adding a shrub in there? Mahonia Aquifolium would cope well with the shade and dryness.

It is surprising how much difference you can make to a dry soil by mixing a good amount of gel water retaining crystals into the planting hole and the ground immediately surrounding it, depending on how wide that roots are likely to spread. Some of the tougher perennial geraniums should do fine with this treatment but as there are so many varieties with different requirements make sure you get suitable ones. There are folk on here who have lots of geraniums and could probably advise you, or get in touch with Long Acre Plants and ask them for suggestions. With a small selection of these and some Spring bulbs you could have some flowers most of the time.

Thanks stickitoffee, Erythronium look nice so we will consider this when planning. Moon growe - yes we can add some compost to help improve the soil, I'm popping to the garden centre tomorrow so I'll keep an eye out for the bulbs. The border under the ash tree is facing west. Thanks for all the suggestions, I wasn't expecting a reply, never mind all this advice - great web site :)

Simbad, again thank for the advice, much appreciated. Bergenia, Macrorrhizum and Aquilegia look really nice so I'll be keeping my eyes open for these. Steragram - I have just visited Long Acre Plants, I am impressed with the variety of plants for shaded areas and will be placing a order with them soon.

Its a very friendly [addictive] helpful site stephen!!

if you click on 'S' at the bottom of the page you will see one of the options is shade plants ~ that may help too.
or use this link:

http://www.growsonyou.com/gardening/shade-plants

I find Campanula Punctata will grow well under trees Stephen. It tends to be a bit invasive though in my garden, so take care!

Wow these look really nice, how tall do they normally grow Karensusan63?

Handy tip Stickitoffee, I was wondering what the alphabet done at the bottom of the page. The GoYpedia pages are an excellent idea, well done GoY team.

They grow quite tall Stephen, to about 2' if I remember rightly.

I will definitely be adding these to the border, I need a little height with some plants to set off the tree.

Yes, they would be good for that. Their roots are extremely shallow...they spread out across the soil...sometimes too much! Have a look at the white double one 'Wedding Bells' it is lovely, and there are a couple of reddish pink ones too.

That's great, I'm sure it will fit in well.

:) Welcome to GoY....enjoy your garden!

... and a big welcome from me too Stephen! Happy gardening.