Shade Perennial Plants

One of the key elements of choosing the appropriate shade perennial plants for your gardening is knowing what kind of shade you have in your garden. Once you know whether you are gardening in light shade, medium shade or full shade you will be able to better select shade loving perennial plants for your garden that will thrive in your shade garden.

Probably the most popular shade perennial plant currently grown in the United States and Canada is the Hosta. Hostas make wonderful anchor plants for your design as you plan your shade perennial garden, and when the fall rolls around they will also produce beautiful shade perennial flowers. But there are many other shade loving plants suitable for a shade garden, so you should not feel you are limited to hostas when planning your shade perennial garden.

To find out about more shade perennial plants check out the articles "Ten Top Shade Perennial Garden Plants" and "Shade Loving Garden Plants." You may also want to check out the article "Five Evergreen Shrubs" for some ideas about how to ensure you have green in your shade garden year long.

If you are interested in tips on how to design your shade perennial garden using shade loving plants, you should also read "Tips for a Great Shade Perennial Garden" as well as "Some FAQ's about Shade Perennial Gardens" and "Shade Perennial Garden Design Tips."

To help select shade perennial plants for your garden, you may also want to consider purchasing (or borrowing) An Encyclopedia of Shade Perennials by George W. Schmidt or the book Making the Most of the Shade by Larry Hodgson. I have found both of these books to be excellent resources when planning my own shade perennial garden.

Hopefully you will find these articles about shade perennial plants of use as you plan your shade garden. Also be sure to bookmark the Shade Perennial Garden Page so you can visit regularly and read new articles about shade loving plants and flowers. And do feel free to use the "Contact Me" link below if you have any comments or suggestions. Thank you for visiting!

Shade Perennial Flower Profile: Aquilegia (or Columbine)

Shade Perennial Flower Profile: The Columbine (Aquilegia). The Columbine flower is one of my favorites shade perennial flowers to grow. Their bi-colored blooms come in a wide variety of colors, hummingbirds just love them, and they are suitable for a wide variety of climate zones (from zone two up to zone nine).

These shade loving perennial flowers tend to bloom in late spring or early summer for up to a month, and bloom colors can be blue, red, pink , purple, maroon, yellow or white. Depending on the variety, they can tolerate a wide range of shade conditions from full sun to partial shade. They prefer a rich soil, that is moist but also well drained. The best way to propagate these is via seeding, and they tend to self-seed well. Plants generally grow about a foot and a half in height and up to a foot in width.

There are a few downsides to growing columbines, however. Columbines tend to be attractive to certain pests, including leaf miners and caterpillars, so you will want to watch and see how they fare in your shade perennial garden. Also, their blooms are not as long lasting as some other shade perennial flowers (although I believe their beauty makes up for their shortness of blooms).

Some top performing columbine varieties include the Aquilegia canadensis (Canadian columbine) which is one of the earliest columbines to bloom, and the famous Rocky Mountain columbine (Aquilegia caerulea), which has some varieties that are especially long lived.

The columbine is definitely a shade perennial flower you should try in your shade perennial garden. For other great suggestions on shade perennial flowers for your shade garden, you should also read the article Top Five Shade Perennial Garden Flowers or return to the Shade Perennial Garden Home Page and browse through the numerous articles on shade perennial flowers and plants posted there.

Photo Source: KENPEI's photo

Advantages and Disadvantages of Shade Perennial Gardens

When planning a shade perennial garden, it is good to first take stock of what are some of the advantages and disadvantages of gardening in the shade. By having a clear idea of what benefits you will reap and challenges you will face, you will be far less likely to be frustrated or disappointed by your shade perennial garden.

Some Advantages of Shade Perennial Gardens

• Shade perennial flower blooms tend to last longer than their full sun counterparts.
• Shade perennial flower blooms are also often more intense in color when out of the sun.
• Shade perennial plant foliage is unlikely to suffer burns on the leaves from the sun.
• Shade perennial flowers and plants tend to need less fertilizer than their full sun counterparts (because they grow more slowly in the shade)
• Weeds tend to be less of a problem in shade perennial gardens.
• Shade perennial gardens tend to need less routine maintenance, such as the deadheading of flowers.
• There tend to be fewer insect problems in shade perennial gardens, since many insects are sun loving.
• Trees often help provide a natural mulch in the form of leaves for your shade perennial garden during winter months.
  

Some Disadvantages of Shade Perennial Gardens

• There are fewer plants and flowers to choose from when creating a shade perennial garden.
• Plants grow more slowly in shade perennial gardens than in the sun (this can also, however, be an advantage as shown above).
• Although there are fewer insects in shade perennial gardens, there may be more problems with disease because foliage tends to remain wet longer.
  
• Slugs and snails can be a persistent problem in many shade perennial gardens.
• Shade perennial gardens must often compete with trees for nutrients and water, and may suffer if this is not taken into consideration.
• There tend to be fewer colors to choose from when selecting shade perennial flowers for your garden space.
• Shade perennial gardens may suffer from soil acidity problems, particularly if there are conifers producing the shade.

For tips and advice in how to combat some of the disadvantages, please refer to my other shade perennial garden articles listed on the Shade Perennial Garden Home Page.

Solving Two Common Water Problems for Shade Perennial Gardens

Shade perennial gardens often have many fewer problems to deal with than their full-sun counterparts, but they do have some issues that should be considered when planning and caring for your shade garden. One of the major problems shade perennial gardens face is that of water: either too much of it - or to little.

1. Dry Shade. Although you may think that shade perennial gardens would naturally conserve water (in part because there would be less evaporation than in a sunny location), the opposite is actually often true. The shade in many shade perennial gardens is what gardeners sometimes refer to as a "dry shade." There are many factors that produce dry shade issues in a shade perennial garden, but one of the top ones is root competition from trees (the same trees that are often providing the shade). Other factors leading to dry shade problems include soil composition (sandy and rocky soils, for example, tend to be dry) and slope, as well as limited rainfall amounts. If you are gardening in an area suffering from dry shade, you have two main strategies: 1) plant drought-resistant but shade-tolerant plants) or 2) water your shade perennial garden frequently when needed. When you water, it is better to water occasionally but thoroughly (ideally, make sure the top foot of soil is moist) rather than watering shallowly but frequently. This is because shallow watering will cause plants to produce shallow roots, whereas deep watering will promote deep root growth.
   
   
2. Drainage Problems. Not all water problems have to do with inadequate water, however, and the inverse can easily be true as well. Most shade perennial flowers and plants do not like to have their roots wet for extended periods of time, and many will die if they find themselves in a location with poor drainage. There are some exceptions, however, so if you have a serious drainage issue in your shade perennial garden, consider planting shade-loving plants that can tolerate soil on the wet side (including ferns and hostas). However, if you still want to plant shade perennial flowers and plants that do not appreciate wet soil, you do have options. One of the best is to create raised beds. A raised bed built just a foot above a soggy location should provide an ideal growing location for most shade plants. Another option is to add drainage tiles or soil amendments to help solve the drainage problem you are facing in your shade perennial garden.

For even more tips and advice on how to create a beautiful shade perennial garden, please return to the Shade Perennial Garden Home Page.

Five Evergreen Shrubs for Shade Perennial Gardens

Evergreen shrubs are wonderful additions to shade perennial gardens. They will continue to provide color during the winter months after the shade perennial flowers are gone and many shade plants have died back to the ground. However, not all evergreen shrubs are suitable for shade gardens. Here is a list of five evergreen shrubs that do well in a shade garden:

1. Rhododendrons (also known as azaleas). This evergreen shrub also has beautiful, showy flower. They do well in filtered shade areas of the garden, but are not suitable for full shade perennial gardens. Many species are toxic, especially to horses, and care should be taken when planting them to ensure they are growing in a safe location.
   
   
2. Andromedas shrub (Pieris japonica). These evergreen shrubs do well in partial to full shade. They can grow up to ten feet in height and eight feet wide, although many varieties are much smaller. This shade loving perennial shrub has pretty flowers as well that are cream in color and bloom in early spring. They are suitable to grow in zones 5 to 8.
   
   
3. Holly. Nothing seems to symbolize winter better than the holly plant. The red berries found on holly bushes in fall and winter will add beautiful color to your shade garden, and are a great winter source of food for birds (although mildly toxic to humans). These shrubs also can offer winter protection to wildlife in your shade garden as well. Hardiness will depend on variety, but many are suitable for zones 5-9.
   
   
4. Cypress (Chamaecyparis spp.). There are many beautiful varieties of cypress shrubs available. The Siberian cypress may be an excellent choice. It is a smaller evergreen shrub that can tolerate light shade. It is also very hardy, surviving into zone 3 or even zone 2 with proper mulching.
   
   
5. Spotted Laurel (Aucuba japonica). This is a deciduous shrub with mottled leaves that is suitable for dense shade gardens. It grows between six and ten feet in height, has broad leaves, red berries in the fall and purplish-brown flowers. Is drought tolerant, and suitable for warmer zones (7-10).

For even more suggestions on shade perennial flowers and plants, please visit the Shade Perennial Garden Plants Home Page. Thank you for visiting!

FAQ's about Shade Perennial Flowers

Shade perennial flowers present their own unique challenges when being used in a shade perennial garden. Here are some frequently asked questions readers have about shade perennial flowers:

Q: Will my flowers bloom in the shade?

A: If you select the right kinds of flowers for the amount of shade you have in your garden, the answer should be yes. To figure out what kind of shade you have in your garden, I suggest you read my article How Shady Is Your Garden? Defining Shade Categories. In this article, you will find there are at least three primary shade categories that you need to know about before selecting the appropriate shade perennial flower for your garden.

Q: I know what kind of shade I have, what kind of flowers should I plant in it?

A: There are several articles here on the Shade Perennial Garden Page that should help you with your selection. For a general overview of some of the best shade perennial flowers, read Top Five Shade Perennial Flowers. If you would like to read selections that are particularly best for your shade level, read Light Shade Perennial Garden Flowers, Medium Shade Perennial Garden Flowers or Full Shade Perennial Garden Flowers. If you are interested in flowers from perennial bulbs, you should look at the article Shade Perennial Flowers: Five Spring Bulbs for Your Garden.

Q: When will my shade perennial flowers bloom?

A: This will depend on the flower you have planted. It is good to try to select both early and late season blooming shade perennial flowers for your garden, so you can have flowers in your garden for much of the gardening season. To help with selecting early and late season shade perennial flowers, take a look at the articles Five Spring Blooming Shade Perennial Flowers and Five Fall Blooming Shade Perennial Flowers.

Q: I am planting my flowers under a tree, is there anything special I need to know?

A: You should know that you may need to water and fertilize your flowers even more frequently than if they were located in the sun. This is because the tree will be competing with your flowers for both water and nutrients in the soil. Read Keys for a Successful Shade Perennial Garden for even more tips on how to garden successfully with shade perennial flowers.

Hopefully these articles will help you answer some of your basics questions about shade perennial flowers. For even more helpful articles on shade perennial gardening, please visit the Shade Perennial Garden Home Page.