Cool & calm

Inspired by a springtime woodland floor, Adam Frost shows how to create a container that will thrive in dappled shade. It relies predominantly on the texture, shapes and forms of the foliage, and how they play off against one another. The Semiaquilegia provides colour among the fresh greens, but the container still holds interest even when the flowers have gone.

- By Adam Frost. Photographs by Jason Ingram

You will need

Galvanised container

Compost suitable for woodland plants: I used 2 parts peat-free compost, 1 part topsoil, 1 part composted bark and a half part horticultural grit

Compost scoop

Watering can/hose

Plants

Epimedium 'Amber Queen'

Dryopteris stewartii

Semiaquilegia ecalcarata

Thalictrum 'Purple Marble'

Polystichum setiferum

Dryopteris sieboldii

How to create a shade-loving pot