We all know that flowers love sunshine, but did you realize
that there are perennials that love the shade?
You can create a beautiful garden in the shade that can act as
a cooling retreat on those hot summer days. By using
perennials, your flowers will come up year after year for a
lifetime of enjoyment.
Shade gardens offer much more than gardens that sit in the
blazing sun all day. You can actually sit in them and enjoy
them. Pull up a nice lounge chair or have a beautiful granite
bench installed. Sit and read on a hot day, or just sip a drink
and enjoy the birds and butterflies.
Like any other garden the best shade gardens will have taller
plants in the back against the house or woods, medium growing
plants in the middle and the shorter or ground cover plants on
the inner edge. Since most perennials bloom for a short time,
you ll want to plant them so that you always have color in the
garden. Stage the planting so that each area has a blooming
plant at all times of the season.
Heres a list of some perennials that thrive in the shade:
Astibe - This plant comes in 3 sizes which grow to 20", 30" and
40" in a variety of colors. You can make a whole garden just
with this 1 flower! It looks best planted in groups and has
clumps of fluffy flower spikes.
Foxglove - This is a great plant for the back row of the garden
as it can grow to 5 feet tall. It comes in a variety of colors
and has large spikes filled with bell shaped flowers. This
beautiful flower is highly toxic if ingested so be careful with
it around animals and small children.
Lily Of The valley - This wonderfully fragrant plant has dainty
white bell shaped flowers. It is great for a ground cover or
the front of the garden as it grows to only about 6" tall.
Lousiana Iris - This beautiful velvety purple black flower
produces 4" blooms that last well into June. Plant in groups
for best effect. Grows about 2 feet tall.
Virginia Blue Bells - This medium sized plant has lavender bell
shaped clusters. It grows to about 2 feet in height and is very
hardy and easy to grow despite its fragile appearance.
