Incarvillea Flowers for Shade Gardens

Shade gardens would not be a shade garden without Incarvillea or Flowering Fern or Hardy Gloxinia. There's lots of nicknames for this plant and I think it's a gorgeous plant. There's a lot of nicknames for Incarvilliea. They are called Flowering Fern, or they call them Hardy Gloxinia. They look just like a fern with big pink flowers on them and they're gorgeous in the shade because you never see color in the shade. So, you plant them now; anytime of the year pretty much and they look like a tube. So, again, whenever you have a bulb that's a tube, the growth is going to come out of the eye side; but I just plant them sideways about three inches deep in the shade or part sun. I've even planted this particular plant in full sun and it's done really well. You just have to keep it really watered in the summer, so that it never dries out. My Incarvillea bloom summer through fall. I just think they are delightful. They are native to China, so they're very hardy. Sometimes in the hardest winters in the North West we can loose them, but especially, because in the shade, and I mulch them real well, they come back for years and years. They're a great addition to your shade garden. Next, we'll talk about Aconitum, also known as Monk's-Hood.