Well-designed and properly planted shade gardens are the most refreshing parts of any landscape, but you can't plant them properly unless you understand the characteristics of shade. Many homeowners start out with mostly full sun, but then either plant too many trees or let volunteers grow wherever they plant themselves. After a few years on this course a sunny garden can become a shady or even gloomy one.

It takes real courage to cut down mature trees, but sometimes this is the only way to reclaim the sun. In some cases you can lace trees out to let adequate light through. The best shade is that which you create yourself, either by building a shade structure or by planting an appropriate number of well-chosen trees in the right places. The most difficult shade is that which you can't control — solid shadows of buildings or walls, sometimes alternating with an hour or two of burning hot sun.

Shadows don't stand still; every day they move from west to east as the sun moves across the sky from east to west. They also lengthen northward as the sun moves south during fall and winter, and then they gradually shorten again as the sun moves north in winter and spring. These factors make gardening in the shade a lot trickier than gardening in full sun. So if you're interested in shade gardening, begin by observing and understanding the shadows in your own garden; notice where they occur, how dense they are, and their duration.

Not all semi-shade or even dense shade is alike. It differs widely according to what causes it and its exposure (the direction it faces). It's important to learn how to distinguish among these various degrees and exposures of shade and to learn which plants are most likely to succeed in each of them. Shade plants vary greatly in shade tolerance. Most shade plants, particularly flowering ones, need semi-shade, which, by definition, means partial sun. Only a small number of plants will grow with no sun at all, but many gardeners have created beautiful gardens even in dense shade.

Some good plants to consider when planning your shade garden are fuchsias, begonias, coleus, impatiens, monkey flower, heuchera, clivia miniata, cyclamen, calla lily, Japanese anemone, astilbe, bleeding heart, foxglove, brunfelsia, ajuga, hellebore, mondo grass, campanula, hydrangea, camellia, rhoododendron, zephranthes, English ivy, liriope, ferns and azalea. When these plants are given homes in the appropriate environment, they thrive and are beautiful additions to any shade garden.

We have more than 30 new introductions this year and will be featuring a couple of them in each week in our newsletter. As always, these new varieties tend to sell out quickly, so make sure and come in early for the greatest selection.

For more information, pictures, and a complete description of every variety we stock, visit our online Day Lily Catalog at www.almadenvalleynursery.com or pick up your free copy of our 2005 Day Lily Catalog.

Bella Lugosi: Evergreen 33" high, with 6" blooms. Outstanding saturated true-purple blooms with a lime green throat. Very colorfast and a strong grower. One of the two darkest day lilies we stock.

Prairie Blossoms: Deciduous 25" high, 31/2" blooms. Slightly ruffled deep peach to rose pink blooms with white mid ribs and flaring golden yellow throat.

Almaden Valley Nursery has always had a love affair with perennials. And you are the beneficiary! Each year, we scan lists from high quality plug growers around the U.S. looking for the newest introductions and best-performing perennials offered. These are plants that look great in and out of bloom, plants that will last year after year with minimal effort in your garden.

We pride ourselves on our unsurpassed selection, and we love to share our excitement, knowledge, and passion with our customers. There are some outstanding new varieties this year and we have included a sampling of some of the best.

Big Sky Sunrise Coneflower: Your eyes are not deceiving you, it's a yellow coneflower. This Echinacea is the first introduction of the new series called Big Sky. It is a very strong grower sending out branches from the base. It reaches a height of 30 inches, with the flowers emerging as bright yellow, then fading to a pale yellow with a green cone. Best of all, the flowers are fragrant and its crisp color will really stand out in your garden. We will have a limited supply this first season so we invite you to take one home before our supply runs out.

Tokajer Blanket Flower: The new Gaillardia Tokajer is an outstanding but rare selection. The huge 4 inch blooms have mango-orange petals with peach tips. The marmalade-orange flower petals are darker towards the eye than at the tips and come together at the reddish-brown, button-like center. The plant grows to 24 inches tall and equally wide. Since the blooms keep on coming from early summer into fall, they provide continuous color in containers and will keep your vases full of fresh blanket flower bouquets all season long. They even attract butterflies!

This gaillardia requires little care once established. It is heat tolerant and actually prefers to be grown in poorer soils. Gaillardia get their name from the manner in which they used to blanket North American prairies with their blooms. They can still be found in fields and along roadsides in the prairie region and into the Rockies.

Stokesia (Stokes Aster) 'Peachie's Pick' : Discovered by Peachie Saxton of Mississippi, 'Peachie's Pick' is the latest and longest blooming Stokesia yet. It has large, 2 inch, lavender-blue flowers on upright 18 inch stems from mid-summer on. The healthy deep green foliage forms a tidy 12 inch clump and is evergreen, so it remains attractive all season. Its longer stems make it a good variety for cut flowers. It looks stunning when planted with Gaillardia 'Fanfare.' It is a rock-solid performer in the landscape and prefers full sun and average soil conditions.

Sometimes, despite a gardener's best efforts to improve the soil and care for the grass, a lawn fails to thrive.  Insufficient light is often the cause of the problem. Other times the location is too hot or steep to keep well watered and fertilized. On such sites a gardener is well advised to consider low maintenance alternatives to turf grass. The following plants are excellent choices for difficult locations:

For Shade:

Pachysandra: Spreads quickly through underground runners but is not invasive; thrives in acid soil

Lily Turf: Ideal for use around ponds and the edge of streams; best with well drained soil and light feeding.

Baby Tears: An evergreen, emerald-green creeping ground cover with tiny leaves. It is a soft, velvet-like carpet growing 2.5cm (1") high. This must be kept moist.

Sword Fern: A tough fern that tolerates some sun and looks good through winter. This can look more like a shrub than a ground cover

Hosta (hardy cultivars): Lush yet elegant appearance; dozens of varieties and easy care make hostas a popular choice for shade. This can look more like a shrub than a ground cover.

For Sun:

Thyme: Thyme is low growing and rugged. It requires a minimum in watering, loves loose sandy soil and as an added bonus, it blooms. Most low growing varieties, under 2 inches, take light foot traffic and therefore are great between stepping stones in those sunny warm areas.

Sedum:This is a large group of hardy and tender succulent annuals and perennials. Sedums are very easy to propagate as almost any tiny leaf or piece of stem that touches the ground will root.

Trailing Gazania: 12" high perennial from South Africa. It is a perennial that flowers in the summer and requires little water.

Erica Margarito

Erica was born and raised in San Jose. She developed her love of plants at age 10 when she once fell into five rose bushes playing tag with her brother.

In high school Erica was an honor roll student and a skilled soccer player. She is now an honor student at San Jose State where she is studying to become an emergency room nurse so she can "fix people."

Her craziest adventure was driving through Hurricane Charlie without windshield wipers on a trip to North Carolina.

Not one to shy away from needles, pain or the sight of blood, Erica can easily become unraveled at the sound of two pieces of Styrofoam being rubbed together.