What This Summer Has Taught Us About Planting in Shade

This extraordinary summer has left many established shade gardens looking almost unrecognisable. Hellebores have collapsed, astilbes have disappeared, hostas have fried around the edges, and even dependable ferns and hydrangeas have struggled. In this episode of The Shade Gardening Podcast, Marcus looks at what prolonged heat and almost no meaningful rain have done to the plants we normally regard as protected by shade. Has being out of direct sunlight been enough—and how do we tell whether a plant has died or simply retreated until conditions improve? This isn’t another conversation about conventional dry shade. It’s an honest look at what happened to ordinarily reliable shade planting during an exceptional British summer, what surprised us, and why the real answers may not become clear until the rain returns and growth begins again next spring.