What large flowering shrubs do you have in your garden that thrive in full shade?

[easylifewanted]

Have a really shady border next to a fence and I want to plant some quick growing flowering shrubs. I can’t find anything when I google that mentions full shade.

So looking for ideas as I don’t want to waste my money, soil is not great clay

I have two different purple-leafed Sambucus which are do well in shade for me and the colour adds variety. One has the lacy leaves and ones normal.

But pieris needs acid soil (see if rhododendrons grow locally...i doubt it with underlying clay) and it really is 'needs' not 'would prefer'.

My pieris is in a pot (and I've just got another, also in ericaceous compost) but my shady, damp clay back border has a big rhododendron and an azalea. We treat it with ferrous sulfate , I think whereas if you had sandy soil such treatments would just leach out, clay hangs on to it better.

Shrubwise, we also have hydrangeas, a mahonia, pyracantha on the fence though that's not flowering much and is a literal pain, euonymus, a kalmia, and far too much dogwood.

Skimmia has masses of tiny highly fragrant flowers in spring. If you get the variety Reevsiana they’re followed by long lasting red berries that persist till next years flowering season

Pieris is OK in neutral. Just doesn’t want alkaline.

I planted a Lidl hydrangea macrophylla last year on a north facing wall under a tree. Pretty much shade all day, with only a few minutes of dappled sunlight. This year, it's tripled in size and flower buds are appearing. They are in store again now for £8.99

Phlox and hydrangeas.

Not a shrub, but Japanese anemones love clay and shade and bulk out into dense clumps. They're very very flowery!

I have a flower bed, clay soil, which is in full shade as it’s surrounded on one side by a fence and another next doors house. things I have in there which are all thriving:

ferns
hostas
hydrangea
fatsia japonica
holly tree (already there when we moved in)
hellebore
heuchera
anemone

not many shrubs there but plants that work!

I have a couple of azaleas and a camellia that thrive in a shady spot; they flower later than the others in the garden and are less floriferous than the others. They don't have a long flowering season either and don't give much back for the rest of the year , much as I love them. I would go with a fatsia and underlay with Japanese anemones and hellebores to cover the seasons. In the early spring daffodils do ok in my dark bed as there is less leafy shade .

I think I’m going to go fatsia and under plant. I quite like fatsia’s when they’re pruned into a “tree” shape with bare lower truck so will try that. Thanks all

Climbing hydrangeas love shade. They will stick to a fence or wall. They take a while to get going but once they are established they get going and the white flowers are lovely.

We've got a couple of Daphnes in our North facing borders - they seem to do fine.

I’d love a climbing hydrangea but have very difficult neighbours who would not appreciate a climber on the fence🙄

Sarcococcas do very well in shade. Evergreen with little flowers in winter that have a really beautiful scent.
Cotoneaster and pyracantha thrive in shade.

I also have poor clay soil, successful large flowering plants in our full shade border are: kerria (really pretty yellow flowers in spring, unlike a lot of other shady plants) pyracantha, cotoneaster, fatsia, hydrangeas, camellia and red robin