Shady Characters: 10 Best Flowers and Plants For Shade Gardens (2024)

Many gardeners complain they can’t grow plants in the shade other than hostas and ferns. Not true! Here are 10 beautiful shade plants from my own garden—plus a list of perennial flowers and annual flowers forshade!

Shade gardens often bring to mind hostas, ferns, and perhaps some astilbe. However, plenty of gorgeous, unique, colorful plants seek shady nooks.Most are also cold-hardy and need little maintenance once they are plantedcorrectly.

10 Best Shade Plants for theGarden

1. Heuchera (CoralBells)

My shade garden iscolorful and work-free. I started with heuchera,commonly known as Coral Bells. Foliage color is their strength, ranging from the washed amber of ‘Ginger Ale’ to the glossy black-red of ‘Black Beauty.’Add a couple of unusual ones like ‘Midnight Rose’ with hot pink-splashed black leaves or the vivid orange of ‘Peach Flambe,’ and you don’t needflowers.

They keep their color throughout the year, are slug-proof, and deer hate them. Plus, their tiny flowers, which appear in mid-spring, attract hummingbirds! They turn brown by midsummer and should be removed along with old leaves. Cut a few flower stalks and three or four leaves for a quick, high-impact bouquet when blooms are at theirpeak.

Coral Bells are easy to plant and grow. I only haveto add plenty of humus to the soil and mulch thickly with wood chips. Even -27F in the winter doesn’t fazethem.

I also found a host of other plants that were just as tough and lit up the north and northeast borders of against my house. They also are unattractive to deer and slugs. Here are the ones in my garden and why I lovethem.

2. Black Bugbane (also called Black Cohosh and BlackBaneberry)

Dark-purple, almost black foliage is gorgeous and retains its color all season. Then tall, furry white flowers grow above the foliage in late summer, addingarchitectural style.Use dark-colored foliage plants tocreate “shadows” between other plants to providedimension.

3.Hellebores

The first buds open, covered with snow, in late winter. Flowers are still on plants in July. But, they brown and tatter. Plan on cleaning up old flowers and leaves from them and heuchera after the Fourth ofJuly.

4. BleedingHeart

Who doesn’t love the arched sprays of tiny pink hearts that cover plants in early spring? If the weather stays cool, the flowers remain for weeks. Lacy foliage goes dormant in early summer, making room for later flowering plants like Bugbane and Thalictrum. See how to grow a Bleeding Heart.

5. Hakonechloa & Carexgrasses

These grassespop with color, are tidy in growth, and add a different texture to the shade garden filled with big, broad leaves.Learn more about some of our favorite ornamentalgrasses.

6. Thalictrum (MeadowRue)

Thalictrumprovides floral interest in my shade garden after Bleeding Heart and various primroses have ended their bloom cycles.I love Black-stemmed Thalictrum ‘Black Stockings,’ which starts growing and sending up tall stalks (5-6 feet) about when Bleeding Heart is going into dormancy. Place them nearby so Thalictrum’s emerging growth covers Bleeding Heart’s dying leaves. Fluffy pink blooms last forweeks.

7.Ferns

My favorites are Dre’s Dagger and ‘Silver Falls’, a Japanese painted fern. Ostrich ferns are great, too, but be mindful that they grow tall and spread. They’re perfect for creating a fern dell, as I have in part of my shadegarden.

If you’re looking for ferns with color, look up the “Lady in Red” cultivar with striking bright red stalks and delicate lacy fronds. Or, check out the autumn fern Brilliance, which is coppery pink in spring and then goes to green in summer and colors up again inautumn.

8. Solomon’sSeal

Thisshade-loving perennial (Polygonatum odoratum) grows onlow, gracefully arching stems with pale green leaves edged in white.In spring, white bell flowers dangle from the stem. It’s rarely bothered by insects ordisease, deer-resistant,and grows well undertrees.

9. Dianthus(Pinks)

An old-fashioned favorite,perennial dianthus (commonly known as “pinks”), is ignored by deer and attracts pollinating insects, butterflies, and hummingbirds with theirnectar!

There are many, many varieties of dianthus, including Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus), chedder pinks (Dianthus grataniapolitensis), Chinese pinks (Dianthus chinensis), alpine pinks (Dianthus alpinus), and, of course, the one you will see most often, garden pinks (Dianthus plumaris).

Learn more about Dianthus.

10.Astilbe

Astilbeis a perennial with beautiful, showy flowers atop glossy, fern-like foliage. A deer-resistant plant, astilbe comes in a variety of colors and looks best when planted in groupings (versus alone). They also offer interesting textures as the seasonschange.

Astilbes’ flower clusters vary in size from 6 inches to 2 feet, and their height ranges from 6 inches to 5 feet, depending on thevariety. If you have ashady area, astilbes are a great way to add color and texture to a place where other flowerswon’tthrive.

Learn more about growing astilbe.

A Word onHostas

The hosta, of course, is the quintessential shade plant.For deer, however, hosta plants are like candy. If you do not have deer, hostas are wonderful plants that come in peaceful shades of green, blue, and yellow—with variegated leaves or solidleaves.

While it’s easy to get carried away with fancy, colorful flowers, remember that a shade garden’s strength is as a calming place. Keep that comforting feeling by separating different kinds of showy plants or variegated plants with quieter companions like this quintessential shadeplant.

See deer-resistant plants.

Perennial Flowers forShade

Here’s a more complete list of perennial plants for shade.Perennials form the backbone of your garden, coming back year afteryear.

• Astilbe
• Asters (blue wood is gorgeous, as is whitewood)
• Bear’s Breeches (Acanthus mollis)
• Bee Balm (Monarda)
• Bellflowers
• Bleeding-Heart
• Brunnera (aka falseforget-me-not)
• Columbines
• Forget-me-not
• Foxglove
• Hardygeranium
• Hellebore
• Hydrangea (somevarieties)
• Jacob’sladder
• Lamb’sEar
• Lamium,WhiteNancy
• Ligularia
• Lily-of-the-Valley
• Liriope
• Lungwort
• Wintercyclamen
• Lamium Hermann’sPride
• Kirengeshoma
• Monkshood
• Phlox divaricata, Phloxstolonifera
• Primroses
• Scillasiberica
• SiberianIris
• Snowdrops
• SpottedDeadnettle
• Tiarella
• Toadlilies
• Virginiabluebells
• Violets
• Woodpoppy
• Woodlandsunflower
• Yellowcorydalis

Annual Plants forShade

Here’s a short list of great annual shade plants to consider. Annual flowers add color and interest and fun during the gardening season. (Some can be perennials in warmerclimates.)

• Alyssum
• Baby BlueEyes
• Begonia
• Browallia
• Calendula
• Cleome
• Coleus,Red
• Copper plant (Acalypha wilkesiana)
• Fuchsia
• Monkey-flower
• Nicotiana
• Pansy
• Snapdragon
• Wishbone Flower (Torenia)

Understanding ShadeDefinitions

When we speak about “shade plants,” we are generally talking about plants that grow in “partial shade” (a few hours a day) or dappled shade, not “deep shade” where even indirect light rarely penetrates. Take a look at your garden and consider how many hours of light it receives. Of course, your plants will also tell you when they don’t get enough light with weak stems or brownedleaves.

There are many different interpretations of “shade” plants. It may help to reviewthese plant shade definitions.

Interested in vegetables and fruit that grow in the shade? See which edibles grow well in the shade.