We all know that flowers love sunshine, but did you realize that there are perennials that love the shade?
You can create a beautiful garden in the shade that can act as a cooling retreat on those hot summer days. By using perennials, your flowers will come up year after year for a lifetime of enjoyment.
Shade gardens offer much more than gardens that sit in the blazing sun all day. You can actually sit in them and enjoy them. Pull up a nice lounge chair or have a beautiful granite bench installed. Sit and read on a hot day, or just sip a drink and enjoy the birds and butterflies.
Like any other garden the best shade gardens will have taller plants in the back against the house or woods, medium growing plants in the middle and the shorter or ground cover plants on the inner edge. Since most perennials bloom for a short time, you ‘ll want to plant them so that you always have color in the garden. Stage the planting so that each area has a blooming plant at all times of the season.
Here’s a list of some perennials that thrive in the shade:
Astibe – This plant comes in 3 “sizes” which grow to 20″, 30″ and 40″ in a variety of colors. You can make a whole garden just with this 1 flower! It looks best planted in groups and has clumps of fluffy flower spikes.
Foxglove – This is a great plant for the back row of the flower garden as it can grow to 5 feet tall. It comes in a variety of colors and has large spikes filled with bell shaped flowers. This beautiful flower is highly toxic if ingested so be careful with it around animals and small children.
Lily of the valley – This wonderfully fragrant plant has dainty white bell shaped flowers. It is great for a ground cover or the front of the garden as it grows to only about 6″ tall.
Lousiana Iris – This beautiful velvety purple black flower produces 4″ blooms that last well into June. Plant in groups for best effect. Grows about 2 feet tall.
Virginia Blue Bells – This medium sized plant has lavender bell shaped clusters. It grows to about 2 feet in height and is very hardy and easy to grow despite it’s fragile appearance.
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About the Author: Lee Dobbins is a contributing writer for Backyard Garden And Patio.com where you can find out more about building your dream garden and growing garden flowers
Here is another interesting article about shade gardening:
When making a shade garden, it’s important to match your plant choice to the type of shade. Budding shade gardeners should bear in mind that you get different kinds of shade, namely: dry shade, moist shade, and wet shade.
When you begin planning your shade garden, you should take into consideration the type of shade you’ll be working with. Remember, the amount of moisture present will have a significant impact on what type of plants and flowers you’ll be able to grow. Essentially, unless you want to be bitterly disappointed, you should make a point of matching your plants to the type of shade you’re dealing with.
Dry shade is perhaps the most challenging condition of all when it comes to shade gardens. However, don’t for a minute believe people who try to convince you that you cannot grow anything under trees such as pine, fir, cedar or spruce. Some gardeners will tell you that this is because the needles which drop to the ground end up turning the soil acidic, but the truth is that there are several types of plants which actually thrive in these conditions.
If you have a garden in the shade of coniferous evergreen trees, then you need to compensate by adding organic matter to the soil, and by watering thoroughly at least once a week. You should also use a few inches of mulch on the soil in order to help retain moisture.
Those who are dealing with dry shade under large trees should seriously consider using a drought tolerant ground cover such as sweet woodruff, ajuga, lily of the valley, periwinkle or pachysandra. You could also use Bishop’s weed but I have found it to be quite invasive. Likewise, providing you have eight to ten inches of good soil, you can also grow hosta, hardy geranium, bergenia, and hellebore.
On the other hand, if you’re dealing with a wet shade garden then you may want to try sedges and rushes. This is because most of these actually enjoy having wet feet and plenty of shade. Astilbe, primrose, perennial lobelia, witchhazel, spicebush, jack-in-the-pulpit, Indian pipe, rue, spiderwort, bleeding heart, and Japanese iris are some others which also tend to do well in wet shade. If you’re wondering what type of shrubs you can plant in wet shade, then I would suggest ones such as oakleaf hydrangea, red twig dogwoods, and forsythia.
If you’re really lucky then you’ll have a shade garden which is neither wet nor dry, and if so, you’ll be able to plant any plants mentioned in this article. However, you’ll also have the advantage of being able to plant ferns, forget-me-not, Scotch moss, campanula, epimedium, leopard’s bane, foxglove, and pulmonaria.
Want to find out more about Shade Gardens? Visit my website for photos and recommendations on how to choose the best shade plants for your needs.
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best perennials for shade gardenPosted in flowergardening, Gardening, Perennials
