Flowers to Plant in Shady Areas
The overhead canopies of mature trees brighten yards with fall color and cool them with summer shade. They also, however, present gardeners with the challenge of finding flowers to plant in those shady areas. Many successful gardeners rely on flowering perennials as their shade garden's foundation plantings. These plants provide reliable performance over several years. Selecting those that bloom in succession ensures a shade garden glowing with colorful flowers from spring until fall. Does this Spark an idea?
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Spring Flowers
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Wild blue phlox (Phlox divaricata) starts the shade garden season with its clusters of white, lavender or light blue branch-topping flowers. The evergreen perennial's sprawling, upwardly curving stems grow up to 18 inches and root wherever they touch the ground. The fragrant, March-to-May flowers bring early butterflies to the garden. Lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis), far sturdier than its delicate flowers suggest, tolerates winter temperatures approaching minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit. The 6-inch to 1-foot plant has arching, tapering green leaves. Dainty, urnlike, white April blooms line one side of each of its curving stems. Its foliage makes an attractive ground cover. Both these plants thrive in partial to dense shade and rich, moist soil.
Early Summer Flowers
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Cordyalis (Cordyalis spp.) Blackberry Wine has a 10-inch mound of fernlike, greenish blue foliage. Its small, tubular purple blooms open along straight, slender stems between May and July. In cool summers, the bloom may continue sporadically into September. Golden star (Chrysogonum virginianum var. australe) is another low-growing, cool-weather plant. Its 3- to 4-inch mats of oval, bright green leaves root along the ground. Its five-petaled flowers make eye-catching, brilliant yellow shade displays from early summer to early fall where summers are mild. Cordyalis and golden star need partial or full shade. They prefer moist, well-drained fertile soil.
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Middle to Late Summer Flowers
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Korean and Japanese native yellow wax bells (Kirengeshoma palmata) have green, maplelike foliage and erect, purple stems. The 3- to 4-foot, shrubby perennial's clusters of belled, yellow blooms open beneath its upper leaves and atop its stems between late summer and fall. The waxy flowers produce unusual, horned seedpods. Astilbe (Astilbe x arendsii "Augustleuchten") August Light blooms as late as July, well after most astilbes. Its airy stems of scarlet flowers wave above clumps of delicate, lobed green foliage. The 2- to 3-foot, feathery blooms call attention to the middle and back of shady borders. Both plants flourish in rich, moist acidic soil and partial to deep shade.
Late Summer to Fall Flowers
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Closed gentian (Gentiana andrewsii), a 1- to 2-foot-high perennial, grows in moist woodlands and along ponds and stream banks across the Eastern United States. It colors those shady areas in early fall with deep blue clusters of tubular flowers that remain partially closed. The blooms crown erect stems of oval, green foliage. Closed gentian suffers in high nighttime temperatures. Turtlehead (Chelone glabra), another stream and moist woods plant, has mounds of dark green, lancelike foliage. Its 2- to 3-foot stems of hooded, white or pale pink tubular flowers resemble snapdragon blossoms. They light sun-deprived gardens between August and October. Closed gentian and turtlehead are at home in acidic, moist or wet, organically rich soil and partial shade.
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References
- University of Tennessee Extension; Annual and Perennial Flower Shade Gardening in Tennessee; Susan Wilson Hamilton, et al.; 2004
- University of Texas at Austin Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Phlox Divaricata
- Missouri Botanical Garden Kemper Center for Home Gardening: Convallaria Majalis
- Missouri Botanical Garden Kemper Center for Home Gardening: Cordyalis "Blackberry Wine"
- Missouri Botanical Garden Kemper Center for Home Gardening: Chrysogonum Virginianum
- Missouri Botanical Garden Kemper Center for Home Gardening: Kirengeshoma Palmatum
Resources
- Photo Credit Lily of the valley on black image by Eva Floxsy from Fotolia.com
