Grape Hyacinths in Summer Shade?

[Smart Red]

What different shades do grape hyacinths come in? Are there colors besides the blue-ish and purplish hues? Pink?

Grape hyacinths come in several blue shades - light blue to navy, purple, white, pink, blue with white top, and just today I read of a yellow grape variety.('Wayside' garden catalog)

 

[Smart Red]

While you certainly could dedicate a raised shade bed to those big and beautiful hyacinths, their bloom time is rather short and their leaves do die back by summer. There would be a long period without anything growing and that invites weeds. Mother Nature does not like bare ground.

You could start with the hyacinths and plant shade loving annuals later in the spring to keep color there. Impatiens come to my mind, but there are other plants that would do well.

 

[GardenGeisha]

Well, the cats take to this raised bed in the summer, for shade, so I'm thinking the early blooming hyacinths would be perfect, and then the cats could laze in their drying foliage during the summer. I don't want to invest in annuals. But thanks for the idea. I might try a few impatiens, near the front, where the cats don't tend to hang out. What are some other shade loving annuals? I'm not a huge fan of impatiens. They are okay, but they don't arouse my passion...

 

[GardenGeisha]

But maybe I need to get turned on to impatiens. Can you think of some gorgeous varieties of them. I am big into fragrant plants. Any fragrant shade-loving annuals you can think of?

 

[Smart Red]

Impatiens seem to me to be pretty brittle. A passing cat just might break the stem. The New Guinea variety of impatiens takes more sun and more heat than the old fashioned kind -- and is much more expensive.

The older varieties come in a rainbow of colors (no blue yet that I've seen) and the NGs have variegated leaves, dark leaves, and larger flowers.

I'll do a bit more musing on later shade bloomers, but a layer of straw over the spent bed might be all that is needed to keep the weeds away, make a cozy resting place, and keep the bed from excessive heat and drying.

 

[Nyboy]

I have a all white grape Hyacinths, doesn't spread like like purple. For shade with fragrant can't beat lily of the valley. My favorite shade plant is bleeding heart comes in both red and white.

 

[Smart Red]

shade with fragrant can't beat lily of the valley. My favorite shade plant is bleeding heart comes in both red and white.

Lily of the valley will spread unless it is contained. And yes, @Nyboy it is delightfully fragrant and not so likely to be overpowering as the regular hyacinth can be.
Bleeding hearts come in red, several shades of pink, white, and a new red with white trim around the heart. These can have green or yellowish leaves. They also come in the well-known ethereal form (that dies back in the summer) and in fern-leaf varieties that will flower all summer and do nearly as well in the sun as in full shade.
Bleeding hearts -- like most of the shade lovers -- are first rate NEEDS in my book and garden.

 

[Nyboy]

Red my friend grew up calling the fern leaf wild bleeding heart. It self seeds freely in my garden which I love, don't think I have ever had common bleeding heart self seed.

 

[Smart Red]

Red my friend grew up calling the fern leaf wild bleeding heart. It self seeds freely in my garden which I love, don't think I have ever had common bleeding heart self seed.

I have had common bleeding heart self-seed, but it was an old and well-established specimen taken from my Aunt's farm. I suspect today's growers have made sure this plant doesn't self seed just as they have for many other varieties of flowering plants.

 

[Nyboy]

It is so easy to divide never care about self seeding. Mine just get better and better every year