If You Want To Add Flowers To Your Shady Garden, Try This Stunning Wildflower

Deciding what to plant in your yard's shady spots can be tricky, especially if large trees or buildings are casting shadows on your garden. Leafy perennials such as ferns can brighten up shaded areas of your garden, but sometimes you'll want to add petal power to your landscape. One option is twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla), a wildflower that's native to much of eastern North America and amenable to low-sunlight planting sites. Twinleaf grows best in USDA hardiness zones 4 through 9,and like a fern, it's a perennial, which means that it won't leave your garden anytime soon if it stays healthy.

Twinleaf does especially well beneath deciduous trees, its preferred habitat in the wild. Its purple stems pop out of the ground before most trees unfurl their leaves. Soon afterward, the plant's white flowers and butterfly-shaped leaves emerge in tandem, delivering early-spring beauty and then fading as summer-blooming flowers assume the spotlight. After flowering is finished, the plant continues to grow, reaching a height of up to 18 inches. As the growing season progresses, twinleaf makes greenish yellow seed pods with lid-like tops. When the time is right, the lids open and ants distribute the seeds.

Since twinleaf originates from damp forest environments, it appreciates soil with ample moisture and humus. Like most plants, it performs best in soil that drains properly. If your planting site contains clay or other materials that may impede water drainage, amend the soil with compost. Also weed around twinleaf regularly since more aggressive growers are likely to crowd it out. Mulch can slow weed growth while keeping twinleaf's roots at a comfortable temperature in the summertime.

Twinleaf tends to disappear when other plants compete with it for resources. In fact, it's endangered in some parts of the United States since it's so vulnerable to garlic mustard and other invasive plants. For these reasons, choose twinleaf companions with care. First, learn what companion plants are and how they can help your garden. After that, rule out plants that spread rapidly or show other signs of aggressive growth. In general, native plants that like damp ground, heavy shade, and other features of woodland habitats are solid selections. Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) and rue anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides) are well adapted to these conditions and might be native where you live. 

Wild twinleaf is often found in areas where the soil is rich in limestone, a natural source of lime. This makes their environment slightly alkaline. If your soil is very acidic, you may need to adjust your soil's pH level to create optimal growing conditions for twinleaf, which tends to thrive when the level falls between 7 and 8. Mixing lime into twinleaf's section of the garden is a simple and sensible way to raise the pH level. First, test your soil's pH with a kit like the GiftBag 2-in-1 complete soil test kit for pH and nitrogen.  If you confirm that your soil is overly acidic, add a product such as Earth Science fast-acting lime for gardens. Using too much lime can raise the pH to levels that will harm your plants, so be sure to follow the instructions on the package.