hi
IME Calathear/marantas do MUCH better in pots and require a lot of water .I love them but they do need care how about some of the aroid family Alocasia/colocasia you can get about any color size you would like .. There are gingers that don't go dormant Alpinia comes to mind but many get gigantic lol one of my favorite plants is Persian shield flowers aren't much but the leaves are fantastic ,can be kept any size you choose .
BTW Caladiums go dormant also even the so called evergreen types though it's much shorter than the regulars
how about some of the codiums?? there are even super dwarf cultivars with many leaf shapes.,Many types of Bromeliads do very well in shade gary

How about variegated cast iron plant, but it get's about 18 inches tall. But I love it for a shady spot.

Thanks to you both.

Prayer plant/zebra plants are out then. I'm going to investigate bromeliads. The trick will be finding one that's small enough, hardy enough, and shade tolerant enough. (I feel like I'm entering another universe, whenever I start reading about bromeliads). I also like the colocasia idea! What are codiums? I googled it, but all that come up is seaweed.

Katkin, I like cast iron plants. I'm going to think about them. The smart thing to do would be to plant something totally hardy--and tough--like that. But I think they're going to be too tall.

Thanks again.

Bill

In my shade I have a variety of things for seasonal interest. Bromeliads make it all year around in my yard. Peacock ginger and many other gingers are going dormant. Camelias are evergreen and I have winter daphne that is evergreen. Hawaiin Ti is mostly evergreen during the average winter. I also have miniature azaleas, that have a deciduous period. The majority of my caladiums are dormant and my elephant ears are at a standstill. I have tree ferns and ground orchids, but in my area I have to use a frost blanket for those plants. Firespike and Justicia are great shade plants have fall flowers but are also seasonal. Try some Angel Wing begonias!

Hi
that's because I misspelled Codaieum the latin name for the genus usually called Crotons.lol They are used ad nauseum all over florida you can chose the size leafshape colors and ARE very hardy.. Kind of gaudy in groups but are colorful for sure.
Broms are fantastic because of the variety !! If you get a few you'll become a collector . Many are quite cold tolerant just going dormant during a frost.. alocasia /colocasia are fantastic for the same reason, many will tolerate a hard freeze . Just do your research on them to get the types yopu want. I'm redoing my heavy shade area but going with the rare and exotic lol Good luck gary

My bromeliad, Queen's tears loves the shade. You just have to keep water in the cups or center of the plants. Tree frogs love to hang out there.

Thanks to you all for the suggestions. I love many of the plants you all are mentioning--firespike, crotons, camellias-- but unless I re-work my plan, they'll be too big for the spot I have in mind. Basically I have a group of five cabbage palms. I like the trunks (they're covered with "boots") and I want to keep them visible, but I want to plant something beneath them that compliments them (without covering them), so I'm thinking very low. I had a wild groundcover of native rouge berries before, and I like them except they grew too tall. The area didn't "breathe" the way I wanted it to.

Zackey, I really like the queen's tears idea. I see there is "queens tears mini" too, which guess is smaller. I'm going to check it out!

I've actually considered making an arrangement of low flat rocks and pieces of driftwood in this area and mounting different sorts of air plants on them, planting spike mosses and the peacock gingers in between (the dormancy issue wouldn't matter so much then) but I'm having trouble visualizing it, and I would have to figure out how to make the air plants easy to move when we have a freeze.

But whatever I do I'm sure it has to be LOW.

Thanks again!

Bill

If you mount the air plants on small pieces of drift wood you could take them in when it gets too cold.

That's a good idea. I'm reading up on mounting techniques. I don't know much about air plants or bromeliads in general. A place that sells air plants not far from where I live suggests using some sort of glue. . . Thanks!

Bill

There is a very hardy bromeliad that has green leaves with simple red blooms that doesn't grow more then a foot high. I can't remember the name of it but both my parents and I have decent sized patches of them and I've never seen any frost damage on them even though we live in a cold spot in zone 9a. You could plant something like that and mix some other plants like jungle gold peacock ginger or purple queen in for some extra summer time color.
Here's what the brom looks like when not in bloom. If you're interested I can probably bread off a few starts from one of the larger clumps of plants and mail them to you.

Here's another tough variety of brom that I unfortuneatly don't know the name of. The trick to finding cold hardy broms seems to be in how serrated the leaf edges are. It seems like the more teeth a plant has the hardier it is!

And here's a variety of brom that I think is related to the painted finger nail. These are growing at the base of a large oak and I've never covered them even in the hardest freeze.

Jungle gold peacock ginger and another type that again I can't quite remember the name of. I believe that jungle gold is the largest of the peacock gingers but it still doesn't get over a foot tall.

Kara

Thanks so much for the information and pictures, Kara. The broms and gingers are beautiful! That's the look I'm imagining for this shady spot I have. I didn't realize those types of broms are so hardy. Maybe I'll see you at one of the spring plant trades? I haven't been going to any lately but I want to start again. Haven't seen you in a long time.. I have the aloes you gave me years ago growing everywhere, and those white four o'clocks too.
Hope you're doing well.

Bill