Plants For Shade

[masma]

My daughter has trees/shrubs at the bottom of her garden, underneath them it's very bare. She'd like to plant some colour and would like the plants to be hardy - any idea's please?

[sandyRoe]

The soil would be bone dry. Could she plant in tubs?

[Buenchico]

Have a play with this:
http://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/search-form

[ladybirder]

All you need to know here mama.
http://www.plantsforshade.co.uk/cgi-bin/ca000001.pl?ACTION=SHOWCART

[Buenchico]

^^^An excellent idea from Sandy

[ladybirder]

Sorry this is a better link masma.

http://www.plantsforshade.co.uk

[ladybirder]

And there's a section for plants for dry shade and other areas. I've just planted a whole border with their suggestions.

[gness]

Hi, Masma...my favourites for that position are Pachysandra and Vinca..x

[Chipchopper]

There are plenty of woodland plants that will grow in these conditions but you may find it useful if you can determine whether it is dry shade, damp shade, dappled or deep shade and also acidic or alkaline soil, this could save £££'s later on.
Some herbaceous perennials that do well in my slightly acidic woodland garden, which is wet in the winter but dries right out in the summer are :- Hardy ferns, Hostas, Epimedium, Digitalis, Ajuga, Helibores, Dicentra, Aqualegia, Tiarella.

[Chipchopper]

I meant to add that spring bulbs like snowdrops and bluebells may also be an option.

[rowanwitch]

raising the soil depth above the tree roots will help too add loads of compost it will help retain a little moisture

[masma]

Thank you all - ground is very dry so adding some compost is a good idea. I'm useless at gardening and she's much worse, I'll make her a list of your suggestions and we'll go garden centre shopping.