I have some in the northwest corner of my house , which is mostly shade. They are doing fine. In fact, I think it would be preferable to have them in a shaded location. The city of albuquerque xerisape plants list shows 'sun/shade'.

It can take shade but may not be performing due to poor plant quality, poor drainage or poor soil conditions. Do you think any of these may be an issue?

It also depends on where you are located...could you give a more specific location?

I could recommend some subsitutes, but would need to know what kind of look you are going for and what general area you live in...

Mine have been in their location under eaves for 15+ years. I think they are more of an informal look and I have had to heavily prune mine a few times to keep them under control. Mine do get light, but not direct sun. They get by on very little water. I like to add Burgundy and Bronzy colors with the Pink of the Indian Hawthorns I have.
As for Grasses, I really like the Purple Fountain Grass, also Mexican Sage, Daylillies, Lavender & Flax can be Grass Like. I cut my Purple Fountain Grass down as soon as the new growth was showing...made the area look a little bare, but now it is growing back nicely. I am in So CA zone 9, so my pruning is done earlier than alot of areas. I also like salvias, agastache & alliums for their informal look with bright colors.
Go to highcountrygardens.com and look for grasses... They have a good selection of grasses and good info. There are some with a Pink top that look pretty. In our neigborhood, someone has some in a semi wild looking border and it really looks nice.
One thing I have found is that rather than randomly buy plants that I like and then try and figure out where they go..I now stand back and take a good look at the bed I am working on and imagine forms and colors before I go to the nursery. Of course if I had hired a landscape architect..I probably would not have had to moving so many plants and wondering what to do with some others, that I just can't find a home for! There are also some really nice wild looking roses that might compliment your "look"

inkneedeep ------ I totally agree with your last paragraph. Having learned the hard -- and expensive -- way, I now look at the area to be planted, noting the sun/ wind exposure of the site and imagine what it will look like in terms of form, color, and appropriate plants for the sight, and then buy accordingly. High Country Gardens also has some pre-planned designs for certain spaces, e.g., hot/ narrow strips, and suggested plant combinations for the site. These groups of plants work very well, and have taught me much about garden design.

Oh Yes..The Exposure of the site is important. I like the HCC Catalog too...Great ideas, but I hate to admit, I haven't purchased any plants from them... Have You?

Another thing I have found with the plant info tags that come with the plants, is that because we have such long hot summers, some plants that say full sun...really prefer some afternoon shade. Also mulching really helps retain the water.

Yes, I have purchased from HCC, at their nurseries in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, but also had shipped. Very good quality plants. Great resource for xeric and SW natives. A lot of their stuff, which is full sun in Northern NM, needs afternoon shade here near Las Cruces. Mulching makes all the difference.

Thanks Desert Lover.. Once I get our yard leveled, I think I will take another look at the HCC catalog. I like the variety of plants they have. Thanks for the input!

Hi Carmody,

I'm not sure where you are, except "Zone 7". If you live in the desert, *please* be careful in choosing ornamental grasses as they are incredibly invasive to the point of killing of many native species.

I live in Tucson, AZ and there are millions of dollars spent yearly trying to keep various grasses from killing of native plants. It's terrible! I have some photos where various fountain grasses are smothering out *all* other plants, to the point of looking like some kind of weird fur!

That said, there are really pretty grasses which *aren't* invasive. Here's a page about non-invasives where there are photos and a little info on some grasses you could try. http://aznps.org/invasives/GrowNative/main_pages/fountain_grass.htm

There's one that we've been thinking about but haven't seen in person. It looks great in photos online though :) - Bull Grass - Muhlenbergia emersleyi
"Grows as a clumping perennial grass up to 5 ft tall with light pink flowering plumes blooming in summer. Makes a nice accent in rocky areas or flat terrain."

We've been looking for an ornamental grass (besides the low-growing Blue Gramma), and we might try it out, but I'm afraid our neighbors fountain grass that's invading our *entire* yard and might start growing in with it - then it would be really hard to remove... At any rate, if we do try it out I'll post about it here.

Oh, if you want an informal looking hedge, Rosemary is nice. I'm not sure how quickly it will grow from a young plant but we have one here that's about 4' tall by 4' wide. It looked kind of like a fluffy bonsai when I trimmed it 2 years ago (it was about 5' - 5.5' across), but it's already poofing out to a nice, natural shape again.

It's in partial sun, smells wonderful when bumped (it's along a little path), and in early spring it has lovely little blue flowers covering it. It doesn't need a lot of water. I deep water every week to every couple of weeks in summer depending on how hot it's been. If it's 115+ - it gets weekly watering. In winter it's been doing well with monthly deep watering, and to tell you the truth, sometimes just rainfall as it's not on our watering system and I've forgotten it a few times!

Hope my rambling has been helpful. Good luck with your garden :)

-A.

http://aznps.org/invasives/GrowNative/main_pages/fountain_grass.htm
http://aznps.org/invasives/GrowNative/invasives.html

Here is a link that might be useful: Non-Invasive & Pretty - Ornamental Grasses