Plants for woodlands

Woodland Plants to Grow | BBC Gardeners World Magazine

Woodlands cover millions of hectares of land in the UK and abroad, so it's no surprise that many woodland plants have made their way into gardens.

To grow them, you don't have to live next to or amongst woodland. Creating the habitat woodland plants enjoy is simple – plant trees or shrubs to provide shade, or utilise the shade provided by garden boundaries.

Be mindful that the soil in these areas may be rather dry, so incorporate lots of well-rotted organic matter when planting, and mulch generously in spring. Leaf mould is ideal for this.

Discover the types of organic matter to use in your garden. As for planting, watch this video guide on planting woodland perennials.

Follow Monty Don's lead and brighten up a lightly shaded spot by planting a selection of woodland perennials in spring. Discover the conditions that best suit these charming gems to ensure they give you plentiful flowers for years to come:

We recommend 10 of the best woodland plants to grow, below.

1

Wood anemones

Wood anemones (Anemone nemorosa) are pretty perennials native to Europe, including the UK, where they carpet woodland floors with their blooms. There are lots of cultivars to grow, including 'Vestal' and 'Bowles' Purple'. Flowers late winter to mid-spring.

White wood anemone blooms

2

Primroses

Common primroses, Primula vulgaris, are a familiar sight in spring. They thrive in areas of damp shade, clay soils included, and are a source of nectar and pollen for pollinators in early spring. Other primulas to grow include Primula vialii and Primula sieboldii.

Lemon and yellow common primrose flowers

3

Red campion

This beautiful perennial is often found growing wild on broadleaf woodland floors. When the flowers are finished, give the seedheads a shake where desired to help them self-seed. Try growing red campions alongside bugle and Welsh poppies. Brilliant for bees.

Pretty pink flowers of red campion

4

Foxgloves

Foxgloves are an essential component of any woodland planting scheme. The tall flower spikes bring height and structure, and are especially loved by bumblebees. Check out the huge variety of foxgloves to grow on our Plant Finder.

Peachy-pink foxglove 'Suttons Apricot'

5

Erythroniums

Erythroniums are commonly known as dog's tooth lilies, due to the fanged shape of the bulbs. The petals have a distinctive swept-back appearance, with the flowers appearing from March to May. Try combining erythroniums with snake's head fritillaries, trilliums and corydalis.

White and yellow Erythronium 'Harvington Snowgoose'

6

Sweet woodruff

This vigorous, robust perennial is ideal for growing in difficult, shady spots. Sweet woodruff has fragrant, white flowers that appear from April to June, and can be used to provide ground cover under shrubs and trees.

Tiny, white sweet woodruff flowers

7

Wood sage

Wood sage (Teucrium scorodonia) grows best in well-drained, acidic soils, in a position of dappled or part shade. While not especially showy, the pale green-yellow flowers will help to brighten shady areas. Attractive to pollinators.

Pale yellow-green wood sage flowers

8

Ferns

Like foxgloves, no woodland border is complete without the rich greenness of ferns, and with so many species and cultivars, you're spoilt for choice. Shuttlecock ferns look fantastic planted en masse, while royal ferns impress with their grand size. For evergreen colour, try the hart's tongue fern or hard fern.

Frilly-edged Asplenium 'Crispum Boltons Nobile'

9

Solomon's seal

This graceful perennial produces arching stems, with dangling white blooms in spring and early summer. Solomon's seal looks exquisite paired with ferns, Dicentra and hostas. You could also consider false Solomon's seal (Maianthemum).

Dangling white flowers of Solomon's seal

10

Ivy

Ivy is a brilliant climber for shady, woodland plantings. It'll provide a leafy backdrop for other plants and will provide nectar, pollen, berries and shelter for wildlife. Browse the cultivars to choose from in our Plant Finder.

A yellow and green variegated ivy

Yellow and white, pompom blooms of the paper bush

• Birch
• Pines
• Japanese maples
• Snowy mespilus
• Magnolias
• Tree ferns
• Cornus kousa
• Cornus controversa
• Cornus mas
• Edgeworthia chrysantha

Woodland Garden Design - How To Plant A Woodland Garden

Do you have large trees or unused wooded areas in your yard? Put them to use by creating a woodland garden. These garden designs provide a more relaxed and natural look to your landscape, and as a bonus, many of the carefree plants that are used make woodland garden maintenance simple. Learning how to plant a woodland garden is easy and rewarding.

Creating a Woodland Garden Design

The best way to create a woodland garden in your yard is by taking clues from nature. Look to your surroundings for help. How do the natural wooded areas grow? What native plants do you see? Now look at your own area. How is the light, the soil, drainage, etc.? Once you have examined all of these factors, you’re ready to design a plan for your woodland garden.

When laying out your flower bed, it often helps to use a hose, chalk, or flour to outline the garden area. Get it ready for planting by clearing the area you wish to use. Remove all trash and debris. This includes unwanted plants that may be growing there as well, like saplings, poison oak, and poison ivy (dress appropriately for this), and any underbrush or roots that may be in the area.

Prior to planting, add any paths or stepping stones that may be desired, meandering these throughout the garden.

In nature everything is layered with high to mid canopies, understory plantings and ground cover. Since plantings are not perfectly lined up in nature, nor should they be in your woodland garden. Therefore, strategically place your plantings in the cleared off area. It is helpful to keep them in their containers until you plant so you can simply place them where you want, playing around with the design until you find something that suits you.

Prune any the dense foliage growth of the taller trees to open up the canopy. Prepare the soil by adding compost as needed to amend the soil. Then you can dig your holes and add your plants, watering generously. Begin by adding your smaller trees and shrubs. Once these are all in place and planted, you can put in your understory plantings.

For additional interest, you can add a birdbath, bench or other feature to your woodland garden design. Top it off with some mulch, preferably using one that matches your natural woodlands, like pine needles, shredded leaves, or bark.

Plants for Woodland Gardens

There are a number of suitable plants for woodland gardens. In addition to small shrubs and trees, ground covers, and mosses make good choices for a woodland garden, along with other shade-loving perennials. For more impact, combine contrasting feathery plants with plants that have big broad leaves.

Small Shrubs and Trees

• Azalea
• Birch
• Flowering dogwood
• Holly
• Hydrangea
• Japanese maple
• Magnolia

Perennials and Bulbs

• Anemone
• Bleeding heart
• Blue-eyed grass
• Bloodroot
• Calla lily
• Campanula
• Cast iron plant
• Columbine
• Coralberry
• Elephant ear
• Dutchman’s breeches
• Ferns
• Foamflower
• Ginger
• Goldenrod
• Heuchera coral bells
• Hosta
• Mayapple
• Phlox
• Trillium
• Tuberous begonia
• Violet
• Watsonia
• Wood lily
• Wild geranium

Ground Cover Plants

• Ajuga
• Ivy
• Lily of the valley
• Liriope
• Moss
• Vinca
• Virginia creeper

Woodland Garden Maintenance

Native plants in a woodland garden design offer the advantage of lower maintenance. While new plants may require supplemental watering during the first year of establishment, the care of your woodland garden will be minimal, much like it is in a natural woodland setting.

Keeping the area mulched will help retain moisture and reduce weed growth. Organic or humus-rich mulch will also keep the soil well nourished, minimizing the need for fertilizing.

The only other care your garden will need is occasional pruning of the shrubs and trees as necessary.

report on plants in a pine forest

Forest - plant community dominated by woody plants. Types of forest plant communities have a specific species composition, which includes one or more dominant (dominant) species. It is by the dominant trees among the plants of the forest that one can determine its type. There are coniferous, broad-leaved, small-leaved and mixed forests. The forests have the following main tiers: tree (1-2 tiers), shrubs, herbs, lichen-moss. The largest areas in Russia are occupied by coniferous forests, stretching far to the north and in a wide strip from west to east. Coniferous forests are represented by gymnosperms: spruce, pine, larch. Pine forests grow on soils of various types, including poor sandy ones. And spruce forests need moist, humus-rich soil. Since the pine is a light-loving plant, its needles are located on the upper branches of the tree. Therefore, pine forests are very light. Spruce forests, on the contrary, are dark and gloomy, because with a close arrangement of branches of shade-tolerant fir trees, little light penetrates into the spruce thicket. In the European part of Eurasia, the predominant type of spruce forest is European spruce, and in the east beyond the Ural Mountains it is replaced by Siberian spruce. Accordingly, Scotch pine is common in pine forests in the west, and Siberian pine (cedar) grows to the east. In Siberia, coniferous forests are formed mainly by larch, and in the western part of Siberia, Siberian larch grows, and in the eastern and Far East, Dahurian larch predominates in coniferous forests. Larch is a light-loving plant that grows on dry soils, rarely in swamps. To the south of coniferous forests in the middle zone of Eurasia, broad-leaved forests grow, being the conditional northern border of the steppes. Broad-leaved forests occupy approximately 1/5 of the forest area in Russia. Oak is the dominant species of woody plants in forests. Therefore, often broad-leaved forests of southern latitudes are called oak forests. In the regions to the north, along with oaks, other broad-leaved trees grow - maple, linden, ash, elm. Small-leaved forests occupy smaller areas compared to broad-leaved forests. They consist mainly of aspens and birches. These trees have small leaves and are the first to occupy free areas after deforestation or forest fires. These are the most light-loving woody plants. Sunlight through small leaves easily penetrates to the ground, and therefore, small-leaved forests are light, and their grass cover is well developed. Rarely, forests consist of any one type of tree. One tree species can gradually replace another. So, a spruce forest can replace a pine forest when pines are replaced by more shade-tolerant spruces. Often there are mixed forests. They may include coniferous evergreen trees (spruce, pine) and broad-leaved trees (linden, oak). Small-leaved forests are also rare, since more often birch and aspen are an admixture with other types of forest plants. In addition to the main (dominant) trees, trees of other species, shrubs, grasses, grow in the forest, mosses, lichens, fungi forming forest layers. Shrubs (hazel, raspberry), herbaceous plants (lily of the valley, crow's eye), hat mushrooms (butter, white, mushrooms, chanterelles, aspen mushrooms) grow in the lower tiers of forests. Tinder fungi parasitize trees. There are many lichens, unicellular algae (chlorella) and mosses (cuckoo flax) on the soil surface and tree trunks.