Shade Perennials in the Landscape

Do you have many old trees on your property creating shade? Do not despair! By using shade perennials, you can create a beautiful perennial shade garden.

By the way, if your property gets a half a day of sun, you can use plants that like sun. They don't require an entire day of sunshine, just about 4 hours or so.

So, how do you approach a perennial shade garden? First, decide if you want the garden to be all flowers or include shrubs (and possibly a small ornamental flowering tree). Some shrubs can provide features that you can't attain with perennials or annuals.

For example, Drooping Leucothoe is a shrub that is evergreen. If your shade garden is in a main view, this will provide greenery in the winter.

Arrowood Viburnum is a large shrub which flowers and has great fall color.

Shade Perennials And Textures

But let's just say.....you want a perennial garden design.The basis of your design should be to have the larger shade loving perennials in the back with lower ones in the front. Break this rule here and there for interest. You might place a tall, wispy perennial in one area towards the front. And don't forget to plant the perennials in groups for greater impact of features.

For example, the perennial 'Campanula' has very beautiful blue flowers. By planting many of these together, the multitude of flowers will be extremely showy.

Hosta is a beautiful plant, with its very attractive foliage. There are many types offering a variety of leaf color, shape and sizes. Pant one alone and it can look lonely. Yet place five or seven together and now you have something!

Here are some shade perennials that I like to work with:

Hosta - not if you have a deer problem!
Wild Bleeding Heart - low, blooms on and off most of the season.
Common Bleeding Heart - tall, blooms once and disappears until next year.
Turtlehead - good for fall color.
Hakonechloa - a pretty, soft grass.
Spotted Dead Nettle (Lamium) - nice groundcover - I hate the name.
Liriope - low, grass like plant with purple or white flowers.
Epimedium - nice groundcover - various leaf choices.
Astilbe - various heights and flower colors.
Tiarella - soft purple flowers.
Campanula - partial shade, many types..nice!
Ferns - leafy green color, soft.


The following are not perennials, but they are very nice plants and you might consider them.

Hydrangea - deciduous shrub, Endless Summer is a good variety but I love them all.
China Girl Blue Holly - evergreen shrub with lots of berries in the fall.
Coleus - colorful annual, must plant every year.

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