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Dry Shade What to plant in that shady spot that you can’t seem to get enough water to? These dry shade plants. Anyway if you did water it heavily the slugs would march in in force.
In late summer intense true blue blossoms of Hardy Plumbago are a butterfly favorite and blossoming often continues into fall even while the foliage is turning mahogany red. What a visual treat for us humans! Mature height of 8 inches makes it useful for either an accent plant or as colorful ground cover. Sun without reflected heat to shade.
Not as desired by deer or slugs as Hosta, these mounds of gray-green parasol like leaves are topped by primrose yellow blooms in late spring bringing a glow into an otherwise dark spot! ‘Thriller' is different from the chartreuse variety you may remember.
Zone 3
A tough decorative groundcover for dry shade. This smaller selection grows 12” tall and matures to 18” wide. Glabrous green leaves are edged in a strong cream-yellow and flowers are light blue. This Zone 4 moderately low water plant belongs in part shade to shade.
Zone 4
Upright perennial lobelia is a beauty for the Partial Sun to Shade garden. Scarlet flower spikes rise up to 3’ Height from July to September above 3’ Width (at maturity) mounded green foliage. This Zone 3 hardy species is longer-lived than ‘Queen Victoria.’ Don’t over-water in heavy soil. Height: 3' Width: 3'
Zone 3
Plant Select® 2003 Our grower introduced these to the trade and the Plant Select organization recognized their vigor and beauty. Mounded foliage up to 1’ wide is a medium green with creamy variegation and the cerise-red flower spikes rise to 1’ total height. Not only will the butterflies and hummingbirds visit but you may cut these for addition to bouquets! Sun without reflected heat to shade.
very sweetly fragrant, creamy-white panicles bloom in early summer atop 3-4’H dark green stems with palmate leaflets on plants 2’ W. Native to western mountains (Tetons) its been grown in early Casper for decades. While hiking near Jenny Lake it provided a wonderful burst of fragrance and the contrast of the white flower against the dark evergreens was a nice surprise! Zone 4
a tough ground cover plant for dry shade with strong cream-yellow variegation along the edges of the contrasting blue-green leaves. Clusters of bell shaped light blue flowers provide early summer interest. H-12”, W-18” Zone 4
2004 GreatPlants®. Pairs of medium green, white edged leaves line the 2' arching stems of this woodland native and small white bell-shaped flowers hang from the leaf axials in late Spring. The Loess Hills along the Missouri River between Nebraska and Iowa where Solomon’s Seal is native have alkaline soils like ours. Use this plant as an accent or taller groundcover instead of or with Hosta. Iowa experience says that slugs and deer do not trouble this one! More mature than last year’s plants.
Zone 3
This compact plant makes a spectacular ground cover for an alpine or rock garden with morning sun to part shade. Small seven-lobed leaves are palmate compound and trimmed with a silvery edge. Yellow, foamy flower clusters appear in summer above the 6” tall foliage. Expect 24” spread in due time.
Zone 3
Plant Select® 1997 Semi-evergreen broad-leaved shrub suitable for life in our dry air are rare. This compact rounded mound of a shrub with medium green leaves edged in cream white belongs in shaded to morning sun gardens. (Best suited to cooler soils so keep out of reflected heat and full or afternoon sun.) In mid-spring intense cotton candy like fragrance, one half inch pink tubular flowers add to the allure.
Zone 4
Ugh slugs! The bane of shade gardeners. Don’t create damp slug havens by overwatering well mulched beds. Salt shaken on a slug is only a temporary irritation to them but a long term detriment to your soil and plants. Metaldehyde based baits are not suited to use around pets and desirable wildlife—don’t let them eat it. “Natural” baits can kill but are they too much work to keep tending traps? Are you doing everything right but an uneducable neighbor isn’t, so the pests slither in every night? Try a line of pure uncoated copper tape that they must cross to enter your garden (or planter!). It must stay unburied to be effective by giving them a little natural electrical zap! If only we could get the Robins to eat at night!
Plant Select® is a cooperative research program of the Denver Botanical Garden, the horticulture industry and Colorado State University. The goal is to evaluate and introduce plants that are suited to the Rocky Mountain West. They are found either in the wild or in regional experimental stations like at Cheyenne. We value this research and are proud to offer Plant Select.
Rain Gauge Throughout this site, the following are used as guidelines for watering established plants:
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Hardy Plumbago (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides)
Sun to shade
Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis) 
Partial sun to shade
White Valerian (Valeriana officinalis)
Variegated Comfrey (Symphytum grandiflorum ‘Hidcote Variegated’)
Part shade to shade
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