Southampton - If you have mature trees in your yard, creating a woodland garden can bring color to the shady places. The perfect site for a woodland garden is under trees that cast dappled shade - with small leaves and branches high above the ground. But don't cut down healthy trees to let more light into a heavily shaded area. Instead, remove a few low branches to raise the canopy, or have an arborist thin out some branches higher up to brighten the garden-to-be.

The toughest place to attempt a woodland garden is under mature conifers, or close to the north wall of your house, both of which cast very deep shade all year. In this kind of location only the most shade tolerant groundcovers have a chance. But in lighter shade you've got lots of plant options.

Wild blue phlox (Phlox divaricata). In spring this low, spreading plant bears clusters of saucer-shaped, lavender blue or white flowers.

To create a garden with the look of a natural forest, think in layers. The highest layer, called the canopy, is made up of the crowns of the tallest trees - you've already got those. The next layer down is the understory, made up of smaller trees, saplings, and shrubs. Below the understory grow wildflowers, perennials and ferns. Spreading and trailing groundcovers and mosses cover the ground.

The soil in a woodland is loose and humusy, full of organic matter from leaves that drop in autumn and decompose on the ground. If you aren't blessed with Bridgehampton loam - the ideal soil for growing plants - you'll need to add compost to the soil in your woodland garden before planting. (Many local nurseries sell compost in bulk and will deliver). Other than that, woodland gardens don't require much work. You don't have to dig the soil every spring - it's better left undisturbed. Weed until the groundcovers fill in, and water during prolonged dry spells. If poison ivy or Virginia creeper or other undesirables pop up, remove them before they can establish a population.

Make your woodland garden a place to explore. To make a small garden feel bigger, lay out winding paths and place some of the understory plants where they will screen parts of the garden from view. The sense of mystery will entice visitors to wander the paths to see what's around the corner.

Pick The Plants
When you set about choosing plants for your woodland garden, try to include some white-flowered perennials (such as foamflower, white astilbe, and climbing hydrangea) to light up the shadows. A grouping of yellow-striped hakone grass or golden-leaved hostas can look like a shaft of sunlight when glimpsed through the trees.

Lots of woodland wildflowers bloom in spring, before the trees leaf out, and some are ephemerals that go dormant after they bloom. It's easy to have a colorful woodland garden in spring, when forget-me-nots, wild blue phlox, and violets spread their soft colors through the landscape. The challenge is to keep color happening under the trees in summer and beyond.

Columbine (Aquilegia). Hybrids come in many colors.

When spring passes and summer heat sets in, later bloomers like tradescantia (a/k/a spiderwort) and hardy geraniums (not the kind that inhabit summer pots) continue the show. This is the time of year when interesting foliage is a decided asset, too. Heucheras display their lovely marbled, mottled, and silver-frosted leaves from spring to late fall. And hostas come in sizes from a few inches to four feet, with leaves in solid shades or combinations of blue-green to emerald to chartreuse, gold, and creamy white. (They can be a garden all by themselves. That is, if you can keep the deer away from them). Ferns add graceful, structural forms to woodland gardens. Try native ostrich and cinnamon ferns, or a dazzling import like Japanese painted fern, with its maroon midribs and silver-dusted fronds.

As the days grow shorter and summer edges toward autumn, the summersweet bush will scent the air with its wands of softly fragrant white flowers. Snakeroot or bugbane shoots its tall, branched spires of white toward the sky.

When fall arrives, you'll want some hot-hued autumn foliage for a last blaze of color. Japanese maples turn fiery reds, oranges, and yellows in fall, and your summersweet will glow golden.

So don't wish you had more sun on your property. Embrace your environment, and create a garden in the shade. Don't forget to add a couple of comfy chairs.

A Few Plants for Woodland Gardens

Columbine (Aquilegia) - Graceful, spurred blossoms that dance in the breeze on their slender stems in spring to early summer. They bloom above a low mound of divided, scalloped leaves.Hybrids come in many colors. The native wild columbine (Aquilegia Canadensis) bears dainty red-and-yellow flowers in late spring.

Astilbe (Astilbe) - Lovely feathery plumes of flowers in shades of red, pink, lavender, and white in late spring to summer. The dark green leaves are deeply toothed and segmented, and handsome all season. Lots of varieties to choose from.

Heuchera, or alumroot (Heuchera) - A mound of ruffled leaves that can be green, deep red-purple, chocolate brown, hazy orange or pale gold, in some varieties splashed, marbled, veined or overlaid with silver, lavender or burgundy in gorgeous patterns. More new varieties are appearing every year. Plants bear clusters of tiny white flowers on thin stems in summer, but grow them for their enchanting foliage.

Woodland gardens don't require much work. You don't have to dig the soil every spring - it's better left undisturbed.

Forget-me-nots (Myosotis sylvatica). Blooming now, these small plants send out spray after spray of little sky blue flowers with yellow centers. This species is biennial and will sow its own seeds if you let the plants alone until the seeds turn dry and dark in summer. You'll see new plants coming up later in summer - they'll bloom next year. Forget-me-nots spread around the garden, but they're easy to pull out if they come up where you don't want them.

Wild blue phlox (Phlox divaricata). In spring this low, spreading plant bears clusters of saucer-shaped, lavender blue or white flowers above a mat of oval leaves.

Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia). A charming little plant with pointed leaves divided into triangular segments, and wands of minute, foamy white flowers. The plants will spread to fill in an area, but they're not invasive or troublesome.

Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola'). This ornamental grass grows just a foot or so high, with a fountainy, almost weeping form. The bright yellow leaves are striped with green, and light up a shady spot.