A Little Bit of Magic

I want a magic wand. It doesn't have to be big or fancy just magical. I want to be able to zap my dry shade into something moist and rich.

But I don't think it's going to happen. Perhaps instead of moaning about what I don't have I need to find the beauty in what I do have.

Native ruellia humilis, also known as wild petunia, pops up all over my garden and is just as happy in bright, dry shade as it is in sun. 

Native monarda punctata is my new favorite plant. Even though the flowers are beige, which is weird and boring, the plant just glows in bright shade. Soaker hoses keep this bed from turning into the Sahara.

These flowers remind me of pineapples. The pollinators love them.

Calamintha, another lover of dry soil, grows at the front of the border.

Another southeastern native, scutellaria incana, commonly known as hoary skullcap, which sounds either very naughty or slightly deadly, thrives in dry shade as long as you provide extra water during dry spells. It's another dry shade plant that attracts pollinators.

The flowers look like funky hats.

Northern sea oats and coleus

Northern sea oats thrive in dry soils with bright shade, which describes about seventy five percent of my garden.

Variegated beautyberry, callicarpa 'Duet', keeps my shade garden from looking like a black hole. It's one of the few shrubs that grows well in dry shade. A container with a variegated pennisetum 'Fireworks' gives this spot some extra zing.

'Millenium' alliums love dry, bright partial shade. The pollinators have been nuts for them and they bloom for weeks. Perhaps I have more magic in my garden than I realize.