A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Landscape trials and triumphs Gardening in the Shade *What to Plant?*

Hostas are beautiful, not much for flowers though. Solomon's seal, lungwort, lily of the valley, coleus, columbines, ferns (japanese painted fern and autumn fern are two of my faves), viola, violets, and Canadian wild ginger. I'm not sure which of these do good in your zone but I'm sure that a lot of them will be suitable.

Thank you sooo much Sarah! I'm doing some research on those right now.

From what I've read, lily of the Valley are for zones 3-8; quite a nice range. (I never knew that) I'll need to pick one of these up for sure!

Watch out, LOV can be invasive! But, if you like plants that you can divide later, this is a good plant for you!
Japanese Painted fern and lungwort zone 4-9
Autumn fern zone 5-9
Coleus, Annual
Columbine zone 3-9
WIld ginger, canadensis, zone 2-9
Solomon's seal zone 3-9
Hope that helps!

Shanbear in one of the posts that I started in "plants and flower" forum, I asked about the "lily of the valley" plant.

Try and find it, it was very informative for me since I had just bought lily of the valley bulbs to plant myself.

Sarah, I was just reading that it is very invasive. Very pretty though. Being able to divide it up down the road does interest me; as I have a few other spots I can put it.

Thanks for the flower names & zoning; very, very helpful!

Rosepetal, I'll find that thread- thanks for the heads up.

actually , while LOV are pretty ,the flowers are downright diminuative. tiny,tiny bells that dont make a lot of impact.
i have a large wild patch of em under a fir tree and i didnt know what they were till they bloomed.
hostas get bigger and fill in very nicely,and some of the varegated varietys are real nice to look at.
if i might suggest,start with some bleeding hearts in the back,and add some hostas around them. that way ,after the bleeding hearts bloom out and start to wither down,the hostas will take over and help hide them as they go into
remission. did you know daffodils will grow in the shade?
another possibility to plant among your hostas, with the hostas hiding th daffs greenery as it dies out.
columbines are very nice,but in my experience,they dont seem to fill a lot of space,maybe i just need to plant em closer and thicker togather. ive also planted calla lilies in the shade but have yet to see a bloom from them there.
maybe this year they will bloom ,we'll see.
of course you can also tuck some crocuses in for an early bloom.

Porter, thank you sooo much for that. It's always great to know what has worked/ hasn't worked for people in the past. Hosta's are a must on my list. As for the bleeding heart, I never thought of them. I'll have to do more research. Thank you again!

If your space needs a vertical element consider a taller shepards hook with a basket of shade lovers like impatients. Stick to white and any pale color you like. This adds brightness and white makes anything green pop. When a space will have only one verticle element place it just off center and to the right. Hanging baskets will need more frequent watering than plants in the ground.


Pulmonaria is perennial and gives shaded gardens texture and a bit of light with its dark green leaves splotched with silver or white spots.

No one has mentioned Heuchera. I love the color they provide without waiting for a flower.


Brunnera 'Looking Glass', with hostas and Heuchera Amber Wave





I also like Ligularia

Herbalyn, honestly, I never even thought about the vertical element to it... that is something to think about for sure. The space is on the smaller side so I would have to only have 1 I think. Thank you!

Cinta,

Are these yours? Because they are all beautiful! I love how you have incorporated different shades of green!

Thanks for sharing and thanks for the idea!

Yes, I should have mentioned heuchera. My absolute favorite is caramel followed very closely by amber waves. I knew I'd forgotten something!

shanbear
i cant wait to see how your shade aresa turn out! any pics??
ps
i stoled some ideas that were givin to ya :} lol
i love the heuchera! will have to find me some!