Made for shade
A variety of flowering plants don’t require sunny spots
Q: I have lots of shade and would like to have flowering shrubs or other flowering plants. Could you give me some suggestions that include small to medium shrubs. I have some azaleas, but of course, the flowers don’t last long. I have lots of castiron plants, but still trying to get them spruced up from the freeze.
A: A surprising number of plants tolerate shade, from inches-tall peacock gingers with patterned foliage and iridescent blooms to towering evergreen leucothoes with creamy white, fragrant spring blooms. The perennial peacock gingers can be used as a summer ground cover, the leucothoe is great as a single 6- to 12-foot-tall specimen shrub with arching branches or planted in multiples to provide interest along a bland fence line.
Before you layer plants from the diverse group of shade plants to spruce up garden nooks, note how sunlight falls across your landscape. You’ll find available light varies among garden areas: The angle and intensity of the sun changes with the season; morning sun is more gentle than afternoon sun; and light may filter through tree branches.
Study the soil conditions. Tree roots compete for nutrients and water in a shade garden. To help other plants thrive, enrich the soil with compost and leaf mold, apply organic fertilizers periodically, and make sure plants get adequate water.
Other flowering shrubs, perennials and annuals for seasonal color in the shade garden:
While azaleas such as yours have long provided spring color, in more recent years, newer repeatflowering cultivars have extended bloom time.
‘Soft Caress’ mahonia has finely cut foliage and
yellow blooms; it’s 3 feet tall.
• ‘Cuban Gold’ duranta is a loosely mounding 2- to 3-foot shrub grown for its chartreuse foliage. While this plant can take sun, I use it as a lower-growing hedge in bright shade. As other, taller durantas, this shorter version has frozen back the past two winters but returned from the roots. Following a freezefreeze winter, the shrubs easily reach 4 feet. Prune as needed.
• Indigo, a spreading, 3-foot deciduous shrub, has arching branches with racemes of lavender-pink flowers spring through fall.
• Repeat-flowering hydrangeas (such as ‘Endless Summer’) will add pink and blue blooms in morning sun and afternoon shade or filtered sun. Look for moped and lace cap cultivars. The native oak leaf hydrangea is a beautiful large, deciduous shrub.
• Cycads are cone-bearing, prehistoric plants that offer form and texture in the shade garden. • Chinese beautyberry (
Callicarpa dichotoma )is less common and more refined-looking than its woodsy cousin, the musthave American beautyberry. The Chinese beautyberry matures to 4 or 5 feet and has slender, sweeping branches with exquisite light-purple berries.
Plum yew (
• Cephalotaxus harringtonia ‘Prostrata’), a personal favorite, is a pest-free evergreen with dark-green, needlelike foliage. Low and broad, this fine-textured shrub slowly matures to 2 or 3 feet tall and spreads 3-5 feet. It tolerates bright shade, dappled shade or morning sun with afternoon shade. It’s drought tolerant once established. There are more upright cultivars as well.
• Blue butterfly bush ( Clerodendrum ugandense) is a semi-woody, 5- to 6-foot perennial with elegant panicles of 1-inch violet-blue and pale-blue flowers shaped like butterflies. It’s ideal in morning sun.
• Plumbago creates a 4-foot mound of powderblue blooms late spring to frost. The long stems can be trained upward like a vine.
• Leopard plant ( Farfugium spp.) is a long-lived rhizomatous perennial with round, yellow-spotted foliage. It adapts easily in fertile, moist soil and bright or partial shade.
• Giant ligularia or tractor-seat plant ( Farfugium
spp.) has extra-large, glossy, rounded foliage and cheery yellow dialysis blooms on extra-tall stalks in the fall.
• ‘Nada’ (crested iris) has fans of evergreen foliage that are 1 to 2 feet tall with slightly weeping tips. The orchidlike, frilled white blooms have the slightest hint of lavender, as well as yellow in the crest.
• Walking iris spreads and forms a glossy ground cover with white spring flowers with blue centers.
• Hinckley columbine, a native perennial, creates a soft 2- to 3-foot mound of lacy, bluish-gray foliage heavily topped with pureyellow, long-spurred cupped blooms in April.
• Firespike, a tropicallooking shrubby perennial, attracts hummingbirds with spikes of waxy, deepred flowers late August into fall.
• Toad lilies ( Tricyrtis
spp.) are perennials with pointed leaves in a ladderlike arrangement on arching, 2- to 3-foot stems and orchidlike flowers, which appear late summer into fall.
• Red, pink, lavender and white pentas bloom in sun to bright shade from spring until frost. They’re annuals or perennials, depending on winter.
• Rose pinecone plant, aka Brazilian fireworks and purple shrimp ( Porphyrocoma pohliana) , makes clumps of ornamental dark-green, silverveined leaves topped with pine-conelike bloom structures with deep-red bracts and purple flowers.
• Acanthus ‘Summer Beauty’ (bear’s breeches) is a statuesque perennial with large, glossy, deepgreen, lobed leaves and 4-foot-tall inflorescence with white flowers and mauve bracts.
• Angel wing/cane begonias offer handsome foliage and showy panicles of red, pink or white blooms.
• Katie ruellia, a lowgrowing, clumping perennial, produces purple or white flowers for months in shade or sun. Some don’t like this plant because it freely reseeds. But, I find seedlings are fairly easy to eliminate. • Persian shield ( Strobilanthes dyerianus) draws attention with its 8-inch leaves, silver-purple with a metallic sheen on the uppersides and rose-purple on the undersides. The occasional blue blooms add just a bit of interest. This tender perennial matures to 4-5 feet; pinch leggy shoots to encourage bushiness. Grow in moist but well-draining soil and bright to partial shade for best color.
• Pigeon berry ( Rivina
humilis) produces delightful tiny red berries that often appear alongside the small pink and white flowers on this woodsy charmer. Each afternoon, I watch the doves feast on this native, root-hardy perennial. It makes an attractive border or ground cover as it’s 10-12 inches tall, it spreads a foot or two to form an attractive ground cover in gardens with varying amounts of shade. Pigeon berry looks best with moisture in summer. Trim as needed to encourage bushy growth.
• There are several handsome naturalizing ferns to consider for additional texture. Wood fern, Ecuadorean sword fern and holly fern are among the options.
• Torenia, or wishbone flower, is a warm-season annual with small but deep cups rimmed in pink, rose or dark blue. Look inside and you’ll see the stamens form a wishbone. Types include foot-tall upright cultivars as well as spreaders for ground cover and hanging baskets.
• Impatiens continue to be no-fail, spring-to-frost bloomers in many colors.
Q: An incident in my garden is a puzzle to me. Among my many patio plants, I had a threestemmed coleus that was in a medium-size pot, with 12-inch stems. The plant was doing well until one day I noticed that one of the stems was missing. I thought the stem might have broken off and was tossed in the trash. I asked my family and no one confessed to the deed. Two days later, another stem was missing, and I was left with only one stem. Well, the next day, the last stem was gone. I looked everywhere to see if I could find pieces of the plant that would give me a clue as to what was happening at night.
Have you ever heard of this issue with coleus plants before? I had another coleus on a table above where my plant was sitting, and it wasn’t bothered. Roslyn Even, Houston
A: My first thought is a pesky squirrel, working late in the day or early morning. I’ve known them to snap off coleus, among other plants, and since it’s so hot and dry, one may be after water in the plant.
Opossums’ appetites include snails, roaches, ticks, rats — and plants. I’ve read of the marsupial eating coleus. Have you ruled out rabbits?
You might try applying a repellent such as pepper spray. And/or adding spiky metal stakes in the pot. You might also try providing water elsewhere in your garden.
If there’s a gardener who’s solved such a coleus problem, please let us know.