I am thrilled to welcome Holly from Your Gardening Friend as a special guest poster today! After reading my post over at Frugal Granola about utilizing the shady areas of your yard, Holly had some wonderful ideas and decided to turn them into a post!
John and I have always lived in places with an abundance of shade. For the past 4 years, we’ve lived smack-dab in the middle of the woods… literally. During these 4 years, I’ve come to learn of, and appreciate, a vast variety of plants that enjoy, and some even thrive in, partial to full shade.
Here is only a sampling list of plants that enjoy a partial shade or full shade garden.
- Hostas
- Ferns
- Bleeding Hearts (Colors: white and pink)
- Burning Hearts (Colors: red)
- Toad Lilies (Colors: white, red, & purple – possibly more. They’re called “toad” lilies because of the spots on the flowers.)
- Hellebores (Colors: numerous)
- Heucheras (Colors: numerous)
- Liriopes (short grassy plants – green, green & yellow, and green and white foliage – that bloom)
- Jack-in-the-Pulpits or Cobra Lilies (Colors: a variety and VERY cool-looking)
- Astilbes (Colors: numerous – lavender, pink, peach, red, white, off-white, and maybe more)
- Foxgloves (Colors: numerous)
- Corydalis (Colors: BEAUTIFUL shades of blue and purple.)
- Brunneras
Hardy Zones
Most of these plants are within hardy zones 4-8 or 5-9.
Amount of Sun
Full Sun = 6 or more hours of direct sunlight
Part Sun and Part Shade = 3-6 hours of sunlight (preferably the earlier hours of the day)
[Definitions on this vary.] Plants that are said to need “part sun” would need the upper end of the 3-6 hours, and “part shade” would need the lower end of the 3-6 hours.
Full Shade = less than 2 or 3 hours of sunlight, sometimes in the form of dappled sunlight
If you have direct sunlight, but not a full 6 hours of direct sunlight, experiment with some of your favorite sun-loving plants. You may find some plants are more tolerant of shade than others. I have tall (about 3 feet tall) decorative perennial grasses in an area where they clearly do not get the recommended daily dosage of sun. They’re doing fine. Granted, they’d probably be fuller (and “happier”) if they had more sun, but they’re doing fine.
What’s been your experience with shady gardens?
Holly shares helpful gardening tips, and explores the fascinations of nature (birds, bats, butterflies, bees, bugs, and all) on her blog, Your Gardening Friend
Mmmm… Shade!
Not too much of that here. But it sounds lovely!
I’m keeping a book mark here… for those little spots, that get a smidgen of shade. Maybe, it will come out nicely.
Pat
Yes, shade is rather uncommon at our house, too. But, good stuff to know nonetheless! 🙂
During hot summers like this one, I think shade-loving plants are the Albert Einsteins of the plant world!! It’s too hot to be in the sun!!
Seriously, though, I didn’t realize there were so many beautiful shade-loving plants. I only think of hostas as shade-lovers. Time to experiment!! 😀
I didn’t realize there were so many options either!
Yes, heat and sun we have lots of here in Florida but I love flowers and gardening so I do put lots of effort to maintain my gardens.
If you need some color in your backyard, here is another idea. We have lots of oak and pine trees and boxed around some of the trees with pieces of wood. We then added some good soil and planted some white vincas and red pentas.
Must admit that it looks beautiful!
That does sound beautiful Diana! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Just started searching for plants that can grow with little sun to add to a small part of our garden that is always shaded by the shade sail my husband installed. Lovely because it keeps me out of the sun, unfortunate it keeps part of my garden dim… But I will work with it, thank you for the ideas 🙂
Hosta was always my go to…..until we moved to an area in South Jersey where deer view my hosta and Rudbeckia as their favorite salad bar. Going to have to try new plants?