Shade loving

[HerbalTeaAndCake]

What beautiful shade loving plants, flowers can I put in my garden now?

ferns
hellebores
heuchera
solomon's seal

in part shade, daffodils would probably do ok. you can buy the ones that are flowering now in the supermarkets and just put them in the ground. mine keep coming back year after year. Similarly snow drops

also Geranium Brookside
and Vinca if you want ground-cover but it can grow too fast

Astillbi, geraniums, pulmonaria. snowdrops, epimediums

Mahonia grows in shade though gets big.

Hydrangeas and ferns have been the only things I've had success with in my full-shade clay soil border.

www.plantsforshade.co.uk/

My shady garden has hellebores and evergreen ferns that are looking great now. I also put an acer in that is lokk8ng happy and has bright red stems for winter. I put a hydrangea Annabelle that keeps it s flower heads over winter and frightens things up in winter. Shed loads of bulbs.

astilbe keep their stems over winter for structure. Climbing hydrangeas do well in shade as does ivy. More bulbs.

daphne gives winter perfume.

Fatsia japonica, Brunnera, Bergenia, Ajuga, Erythroniums, some Euphorbias, Hedera, Japanese acer, Sarcoccoca, Lamium, a few Roses - e.g. Madame Alfred Carriere (climber)

Ooo thanks all 💚

Lots of lovely suggestions elready. Hellebores, ferns, lily of the valley, solomon seal, heuchera, epemedium, daphne, hyrangea all some of my favourites.

Hostas would do well. Lots of varieties. But …. slugs.

I have a load of foxgloves and euphorbia in a shady long slim bed, and they do great. In another bed which is very dark shade, I have different types of ferns and spring bulbs, I’ve tried so many things but this is what survives and thrives. Along with a random hebe which I cannot find the variety name for, unfortunately.

I don’t think these have been mentioned:

Omphalodes - evergreen and bright blue spring flowers
Variegated Laurel (and normal green ones) evergreen and gets big
Garrya - evergreen and gets big
polemonium

Bluebells

They'll help "frighten" things up too 😆

oops 'frighten'...

Bluebells don't have spready though, I'm constantly digging them up after they flower so they don't take over.

Spiderweb fatsia is good as you get that bit of variegation so it's not as clumpy.

I've a mahonia in a pot that I rather like as it's very sculptural against a white wall and the flowers are lovely in the winter.

I have a lot of shady areas being surrounded by Welsh hills. I found hydrangeas, pieris, honesty, hellebores, Pulmonaria, tiarella, skimmia Kew green, camellias, leucothoe and ajuga all do very well.

Spring bulbs are ok in shade?

Great ideas thanks!

Fuchsia seems to do very well in full shade. Not sure what time of year you should plant it though sorry as ours has been here longer than we have 🙂

Vinca minor a lot less invasive than major.

Pulmonaria

I have an Acer in a huge pot but its not very happy. I thought it was dead but has some small buds on so maybe not. Just dug a new bed, clay soil and in shade. Should I put the Acer in there?

If it's in shade it should be OK. Japanese Acers always struggle in direct sunlight. I've got one in a large pot - in the shade - and it does very well, so I doubt the container was the problem with yours.

they need to be out of the wind too. I’ve got 2 in the ground, both in shade and sheltered and they are v happy in clay soil.

I find younger ones in pots harder, they hate being over potted apparently.