need suggestions for flowering schrubs that will grow under a redwood tree
By Darla
Humboldt California,
United States 
The border of my property is surrounded by redwood trees and ferns. I love living in the trees and ferns, but I crave color. I need color! I'd like to get some color under the trees among the ferns. One side of property gets am sun the other pm sun so each side is in shade half the day. Any suggestions?
6 May, 2009
Answers
Welcome to Goy, Darla.
I know very little about your planting needs with ferns and such, but here is a link to a site that specializes in Plants for Shade so you may find something there that helps you.
http://www.plantsforshade.co.uk/acatalog/index.html
6 May, 2009
Hi Darla, welcome to GOY. I'm quite new here too.
If you have ferns it sounds like the soil is moist which is a bonus as normally the problem under trees is that they are quite thirsty and dry it up.
For Spring you could plant rhododendrons or azaleas, which do well in partial shade under trees and the flowering depending on the type, lasts from around April to June (in the UK) . Putting early, mid and late season ones can give a fantastic show of flowers when a lot of shrubs have not yet started blooming.
For a longer list of flowers and shrubs I found a web page for plants for partial shade. You will need to copy and paste the link into your browser:
http://www.thegardenhelper.com/ps~perennials.html
I'm not sure if all of them are suitable for the particular zone you live in, but hopefully some of them will be.
6 May, 2009