If you love gardening and enjoying big showy blooms every summer, you may be disappointed if your new home’s yard has more shade than sun. Before you start cutting down trees, however, consider the array of plants and flowers that thrive in shady spaces. You may find that you can create a beautiful, lush garden that relishes your yard’s shade. Here are a few varieties that spread quickly and require little care.
Hostas. Elegant hostas come in a multitude of varieties with leaves that range from dark to light green, variegated or solid. They also sprout delicate white or purple flowers that emerge from tall stems each summer. These perennials come in a wide range of shapes and sizes and can add endless and relatively care-free beauty to all of your shady to partially shady spots.Â
Woodland phlox. This shade-tolerant phlox variety sends out a carpet of blue, purple, white or pink flowers in spring, and spreads rapidly to create a blanket of color for your shady garden.
Ferns. These delicate and long-lasting plants add beautiful, soft abundance to the shaded areas of your garden. Like hostas, ferns come in a host of varieties, offering interest from both a color and shape perspective. Autumn ferns, for example, sprout in spring with a rusty colored hue that changes to all green in summer then copper in the fall, while Japanese painted ferns boast a silvery green tone with a touch of purple down the center. Meanwhile, vibrant green maidenhair ferns are perfect for deeply shaded areas of your yard.
Columbines. Lovely columbines sport blooms in a rainbow of colors—red, pink, white, purple, orange and even yellow to name a few. These shade-loving beauties are also attractive to pollinators, a plus for your yard and your entire community.
Lungwort. This low-maintenance perennial not only provides garden interest due to its silver-green foliage, but it also makes its presence known with bright purple-pink flowers in the spring. An added benefit is lungwort’s resistance to deers, making it truly carefree for gardeners.Â
These are just some of many plants that are happiest and healthiest in the shade. Before planting any of the above varieties, do some research online or at your local garden center to make sure they are appropriate for your particular planting zone and soil.
