Modern urban lifestyles are becoming less conducive to gardening all the time. Bigger and taller homes cast larger shadows over smaller garden spaces. The taller fences between these homes do not help. The densely evergreen trees employed to obscure the views of other larger and taller homes also obscure sunlight. Not much sunlight reaches the ground where shorter plants need it.
While all this is going on, we are supposed to be gardening with more sustainable plants that demand less water. Smaller, shadier and more sheltered gardens should naturally use less water than larger and more exposed gardens need. Yet, the plants that do not mind the shade naturally want more water than plants that want more sunlight. There are not many that are drought tolerant.
Drought tolerant plants are naturally endemic to dry climates. Many are from chaparral regions. Some are from deserts. In such ecosystems where water is too scarce to sustain much foliage, there is not much competition for sunlight. Shade tolerant plants are just the opposite. They are from forested ecosystems with taller and shadier trees. Such ecosystems are sustained by rainfall.
There are quite a few plants that do not mind a bit of shade. Heavenly bamboo, flowering maple, hydrangea, camellia, azalea, rhododendron, holly, daphne and andromeda (Pieris spp.) are some of the more familiar shade tolerant shrubbery; but alas, none are drought tolerant. Nor are the various ferns. Even small shade tolerant trees like dogwood want to be watered regularly.
Most of the plants that tolerate shade but are not too terribly thirsty are groundcover plants or perennials. They are not exactly drought tolerant, but can survive with minimal watering because they do not dry out so much in the shade. Once established in a cool shady environment, plumbago, lily turf, periwinkle Saint John’s wort and coral bells (Heuchera spp.) only need to be watered occasionally through summery weather, although they are thirstier in sunny spots. Both English and Algerian ivy need nothing in the shade.
I’ve never thought about the relationship between human-created shade and water use. Very interesting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Urban environments are increasingly synthetic.
LikeLike
Great post. I do have some very drought tolerant shade plants, the best of which is Turk’s Cap, Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii: https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=MAARD
LikeLiked by 1 person
I had no idea that it is drought tolerant. It ‘looks’ like a riparian species. Of course, our idea of drought is likely different from yours.
LikeLike
Epimedium!
Google satellite view shows me my formerly sunny little garden in Seattle is now shadowed and overlooked by a monster house.
>
LikeLiked by 1 person
How sad. My parents’ first home off the far western edge of San Jose was replaced with a monster home that fills the parcel. every wall of the building is right on the minimum setback from the property lines, and the roof is right at the height limit.
LikeLike
Also sad. 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, houses, tall fences and mature trees…so many people here look for plants that will thrive in shade–luckily we don’t have to worry about rain. It’s rained very day this week.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Weather changes like . . . the weather, but we can’t bring back sunlight without demolishing a few monster homes.
LikeLiked by 1 person