Colourful shrub for a shady corner of the yard?

[BrandoraPaithwaite]

I have a medium sized flagged yard that is south facing but has a side that's especially shady in the winter.

My kitchen window looks out onto the shady side and I'd love a couple of biggish colourful shrubs to look at over autumn and winter. Would really appreciate suggestions. I've already put in some ivy to cover the wall with green.

If you have acid soil then azaleas and or rhodies would be lovely and they flower early. You could always put them in pots if your soil is too alkili. Of course they don't flower all year! Some honeysuckles are not too bad in shade. Ivy is great for the birds too.

Maple - good for autumn. Winter flowering jasmine - an untidy lax shrub which can be trained up a wall and will be covered with yellow flowers from autumn through to about April. But since you've already covered the wall with ivy, maybe tie it up over a pyramid just in front.

Thank you- great new ideas for me

Mahonia do well in shade and flower all autumn/winter.

Pyracantha also does well in a shady spot.

Some dogwoods have good leaf colour at this time of year and then colourful stems. They're particularly useful if the area is liable to sogginess.

If you go with mahonia, I'd recommend getting one in bloom so you can check what it smells like. I didn't do this, and while it looks nice I seem to have got the only one I've ever come across which doesn't have a lovely scent.

Christmas Roses. They grow quite large and have beautiful flowers for 6 months over winter in abundance. Cut all the leaves off in December. Its good for the plant and the flowers will go crazy. Daphe mezereum. Beautiful big scented flowers in deep winter in pink and white. Sarcococca, lovely evergreen shrub with the most divine smelling little whie flowers all winter and lovely evergreen glossy leaves. Buy a big ant as they are slow growers.

Hellebores (christmas roses) need damp conditions , I tried without success to grow some , they are lovely but they weren't happy in my dry shade.

Some hydrangeas grow well in shade - hydrangea annabelle is nice - white flowers, bit different to the classic pink/blue

They do need a lot of water though Jemima This year's heat finished one of mine.

Physocarpus opulifolius does well in my shady garden. It's only really colourful in the early spring, when the new leaves are a lovely yellow colour (the Dart's Gold variety). It's a bit dull come mid-summer.

If you're looking for something interesting in the winter months then Camelia Sasanqua flowers over the winter, as opposed to the more normal camelias that flower early spring