Can't help you but is sounds beautiful!

Check with CSU Extension Service at:
www.ext.colostate.edu

See Jane H's info, she is also at 10,000' and her lot appears to be very shady also. She has lots of pictures on her website. http://www.picturetrail.com/hendrix.

Good luck!

Hi, a good book to read is High Altitude Planting by Ann Barrett, I found it in a graden center, but maybe you can find it online. It gives month to month hints, also lists of plants that will grow for you you can grow a whole lot more then wild flowers. Good luck

I'm guessing your shade is produced by conifer (needle) trees, not aspens. If that is the case, you will find it very difficult to grow anything under those trees. The soil is very acidic, nutrient-poor and dry because of the evergreen trees. If you see large areas under those trees where nothing is growing, it's because nothing CAN grow there. All the resources have been spoken for.

If you decide to try to change the soil pH, nutrient content and water deficiency to support an understory of perennials, you will end up fighting a losing battle.

If your shade is from aspens, you are in a much better situation. The soil pH will be less acidic, the soil will have a good humus content, sunlight will be able to reach your plants in spring before the trees leaf out, you'll have dappled shade during the summer, a protective mulch of leaves at the end of fall and a deeper layer of snow in winter that will protect your dormant perennials from wide temperature fluctuations and frost heave. The soil will also be more moisture-retentive because of the humus from the decaying leaves.

My experimental garden is at 10,000 feet. I'm on the west side of the Continental Divide so I have more rain and winter snow than you. There are currently about 700 species of perennials from all over the world on display in my garden. The garden is open to the public from June 1 through November 1. If you would like to visit it and bring your questions, leave me a message & your email address in my guest book at the link below.

A short list of species for non-conifer shade is: hosta, columbine, monkshood, Lamium maculatum (spotted dead nettle), Hepatica, meadowrue (Thalictrum), globeflower, hardy geraniums (not bedding "geraniums" which are Pelargoniums), pansies, foamflower (Tiarella), dusky or Whipple's penstemon (Penstemon whippleanus), foxglove.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mountain View Experimental Gardens

malamo, I would try to contact the gardening club in Summit County. There are some breathtaking gardens. I checked yahoo and found this:

www.summitcountygardenclub.org

I don't have any experience with this group but it is the first place I would start.