5 Perfect Plants for Full-Shade Color (Z: 3 - 7)

5 Perfect Plants for Full-Shade Color (Z: 3 - 7)

While it's dark and mysterious setting is arguably alluring. Many of us are likely to turn a blind eye to our full-shade spaces on the way to sunny borders. No more!

Gardening in full-shade is an adventure, and an excuse to grow great perennials you might never have attempted before. You might be surprised at the variety of really exciting plants that thrive in low-light settings. Give into the zen of full-shade gardening, and you’ll be rewarded with a spot that feels sheltered, cozy, and calm.

Here are just a few of the remarkable plants you can grow. Need more advice? Please use the comment section below.

Variegated Jacob’s Ladder

This intriguing plant forms a tidy mound of brightly variegated green and white foliage. Lovely blue flowers make a striking combination with the foliage. Excellent for use as contrast or accent in perennial borders. Zone: 4 – 8

Burning Hearts Bleeding Heart

Burning Hearts Bleeding Heart

Add life to those hostas (such great shade plants!) with the long-blooming stems of heart-shaped, deep-red flowers that spike-up above magnificent blue-green, fern-like foliage. Zone: 4 – 9

Hot Lips Turtlehead

Hot Lips Turtlehead

Tough, hardy, happy North American native that's a tumble of cheerful spikes of pink snapdragon. Like flowers over densely spreading 2-ft tall plants. Thrives in shady, moist conditions. Zone: 3 – 8

Wine Common Periwinkle

Wine Common Periwinkle

Don’t let the word “common” throw you. This is a lush, trailing ground cover with unique deep-purple-to-magenta colored blossoms. All above lustrous green foliage that thrives in the deepest of shade. Zone: 4 – 9

Variegated Siberian Bugloss

Variegated Siberian Bugloss

A delicate beauty that’s also a problem solver. Variegated leaves provide a dramatic background for azure-blue forget-me-not flowers, while acting as a weed-smothering mat. Zone: 3 – 9

Tips for Gardening in Full Shade

  •  Remember to water. It's tough for plants to get the moisture they need. Whether it's competition from other plants or a canopy of trees that create an umbrella-like effect. Make sure your irrigation system is hooked up.
  •  Maintain fertility. Feeder roots of nearby trees and shrubs can compete with smaller plants, using up nutrients. Apply an organic, balanced fertilizer according to package instructions in spring or fall.
  • Always mulch. Unless you have nature's mulch from fallen leaves, you'll need to add 3 to 6 inches of an organic mulch. Do this twice a year to add nutrients, conserve moisture, and prevent weeds.
  • Go with nature. Rather than try to impose a design, allow plants to do their thing. Rambling, scrambling, reaching, and twining to find their best light.

What do we mean by “full shade?”

There are basically four classes of shade: light, partial, full, and deep.

We define full shade where plants there may take in less than one hour of direct sun a day. Plants may glean filtered or dappled light throughout parts of the day as the sun tracks across the sky.

Full shade does not refer to dark places – all plants need at least some light.

This does limit plant choices. On the flip side, plants there grow faster and taller as they reach for the light.

Love the Look? Bring it Home.

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2017-03-23 11:05:00
Linda
Thanks for shade information. Now where can we find them?
reply Reply
Marilyn Haukaas
My Hot Lips Turtlehead is doing wonderful in my full shade garden. I'm in zone three & live in country so it gets cold here. We had late frost, Hot Lips wasn't hurt!!
reply Reply
Beverly Poag
I'm just now designing a shade front garden. I've planted the perimeter with hydrangea. I've incorporated hostas, ferns and caladiums/elephant ears. Now on to some color. Thanks for the information. Thinks I'll add a few native azaleas...good idea? What other ideas do you propose? Thanks!
reply Reply
Maryjo Querry
What can I plant on a slope that has 3 mature pine trees. The soil washes down the slope and over the stucco wall and nothing I plant lives. We're in Laguna Hills, CA.
reply Reply
Carolyne Oliver
I am struggling to find plants that provide color in a beds that are fully shaded by oak trees. Filtered light comes through the trees but there is no direct sun at any time. One bed is next to the house, the other next to a fence and both face west. Shrubs do okay, but I cannot find anything of color that grows under these conditions in zone 9. All color plants seems to require full or partial sun which does not exist for these beds. Please HELP!!
reply Reply
Chas Heitzenroder
Thank you for the info
reply Reply
Chas Heitzenroder
Thank you all.
reply Reply

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