Shady Characters: 10 Best Flowers and Plants For Shade Gardens

Shade gardens often bring to mind hostas, ferns, and perhaps some astilbe. However, plenty of gorgeous, unique, colorful plants seek shady nooks. Most are also cold-hardy and need little maintenance once they are planted correctly. 

10 Best Shade Plants for the Garden

1. Heuchera (Coral Bells)

My shade garden is colorful and work-free. I started with heuchera, commonly known as Coral Bells. Foliage color is their strength, ranging from the washed amber of ‘Ginger Ale’ to the glossy black-red of ‘Black Beauty.’ Add a couple of unusual ones like ‘Midnight Rose’ with hot pink-splashed black leaves or the vivid orange of ‘Peach Flambe,’ and you don’t need flowers.

They keep their color throughout the year, are slug-proof, and deer hate them. Plus, their tiny flowers, which appear in mid-spring, attract hummingbirds! They turn brown by midsummer and should be removed along with old leaves. Cut a few flower stalks and three or four leaves for a quick, high-impact bouquet when blooms are at their peak. 

Coral Bells are easy to plant and grow. I only have to add plenty of humus to the soil and mulch thickly with wood chips. Even -27F in the winter doesn’t faze them.

I also found a host of other plants that were just as tough and lit up the north and northeast borders of against my house. They also are unattractive to deer and slugs. Here are the ones in my garden and why I love them.

2. Black Bugbane (also called Black Cohosh and Black Baneberry) 

Dark-purple, almost black foliage is gorgeous and retains its color all season. Then tall, furry white flowers grow above the foliage in late summer, adding architectural style. Use dark-colored foliage plants to create “shadows” between other plants to provide dimension.

3. Hellebores

The first buds open, covered with snow, in late winter. Flowers are still on plants in July. But, they brown and tatter. Plan on cleaning up old flowers and leaves from them and heuchera after the Fourth of July.

4. Bleeding Heart

Who doesn’t love the arched sprays of tiny pink hearts that cover plants in early spring? If the weather stays cool, the flowers remain for weeks. Lacy foliage goes dormant in early summer, making room for later flowering plants like Bugbane and Thalictrum.  See how to grow a Bleeding Heart.

5. Hakonechloa & Carex grasses

These grasses pop with color, are tidy in growth, and add a different texture to the shade garden filled with big, broad leaves. Learn more about some of our favorite ornamental grasses.

6. Thalictrum (Meadow Rue)

Thalictrum provides floral interest in my shade garden after Bleeding Heart and various primroses have ended their bloom cycles. I love Black-stemmed Thalictrum ‘Black Stockings,’ which starts growing and sending up tall stalks (5-6 feet) about when Bleeding Heart is going into dormancy. Place them nearby so Thalictrum’s emerging growth covers Bleeding Heart’s dying leaves. Fluffy pink blooms last for weeks.

7. Ferns

My favorites are Dre’s Dagger and ‘Silver Falls’, a Japanese painted fern. Ostrich ferns are great, too, but be mindful that they grow tall and spread. They’re perfect for creating a fern dell, as I have in part of my shade garden.

If you’re looking for ferns with color, look up the “Lady in Red” cultivar with striking bright red stalks and delicate lacy fronds. Or, check out the autumn fern Brilliance, which is coppery pink in spring and then goes to green in summer and colors up again in autumn.

8. Solomon’s Seal 

This shade-loving perennial (Polygonatum odoratum) grows on low, gracefully arching stems with pale green leaves edged in white. In spring, white bell flowers dangle from the stem. It’s rarely bothered by insects or disease, deer-resistant, and grows well under trees. 

9. Dianthus (Pinks)

An old-fashioned favorite, perennial dianthus (commonly known as “pinks”), is ignored by deer and attracts pollinating insects, butterflies, and hummingbirds with their nectar!

There are many, many varieties of dianthus, including Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus), chedder pinks (Dianthus grataniapolitensis), Chinese pinks (Dianthus chinensis), alpine pinks (Dianthus alpinus), and, of course, the one you will see most often, garden pinks (Dianthus plumaris).

Learn more about Dianthus.

10. Astilbe 

Astilbe is a perennial with beautiful, showy flowers atop glossy, fern-like foliage. A deer-resistant plant, astilbe comes in a variety of colors and looks best when planted in groupings (versus alone). They also offer interesting textures as the seasons change.

Astilbes’ flower clusters vary in size from 6 inches to 2 feet, and their height ranges from 6 inches to 5 feet, depending on the variety. If you have a shady area, astilbes are a great way to add color and texture to a place where other flowers won’t thrive.

Learn more about growing astilbe.

A Word on Hostas

The hosta, of course, is the quintessential shade plant. For deer, however, hosta plants are like candy. If you do not have deer, hostas are wonderful plants that come in peaceful shades of green, blue, and yellow—with variegated leaves or solid leaves. 

While it’s easy to get carried away with fancy, colorful flowers, remember that a shade garden’s strength is as a calming place. Keep that comforting feeling by separating different kinds of showy plants or variegated plants with quieter companions like this quintessential shade plant. 

See deer-resistant plants.

Perennial Flowers  for Shade

Here’s a more complete list of perennial plants for shade. Perennials form the backbone of your garden, coming back year after year. 

• Astilbe
• Asters (blue wood is gorgeous, as is white wood)
• Bear’s Breeches (Acanthus mollis)
• Bee Balm (Monarda)
• Bellflowers
• Bleeding-Heart
• Brunnera (aka false forget-me-not)
• Columbines
• Forget-me-not
• Foxglove
• Hardy geranium
• Hellebore
• Hydrangea (some varieties)
• Jacob’s ladder
• Lamb’s Ear
• Lamium, White Nancy
• Ligularia
• Lily-of-the-Valley
• Liriope
• Lungwort
• Winter cyclamen
• Lamium Hermann’s Pride
• Kirengeshoma
• Monkshood
• Phlox divaricata, Phlox stolonifera
• Primroses
• Scilla siberica
• Siberian Iris
• Snowdrops
• Spotted Deadnettle
• Tiarella
• Toad lilies
• Virginia bluebells
• Violets
• Wood poppy
• Woodland sunflower
• Yellow corydalis

Annual Plants for Shade

Here’s a short list of great annual shade plants to consider. Annual flowers add color and interest and fun during the gardening season. (Some can be perennials in warmer climates.)

• Alyssum
• Baby Blue Eyes
• Begonia
• Browallia
• Calendula
• Cleome
• Coleus, Red
• Copper plant (Acalypha wilkesiana)
• Fuchsia
• Monkey-flower
• Nicotiana
• Pansy
• Snapdragon
• Wishbone Flower (Torenia)

Understanding Shade Definitions

When we speak about “shade plants,” we are generally talking about plants that grow in “partial shade” (a few hours a day) or dappled shade, not “deep shade” where even indirect light rarely penetrates. Take a look at your garden and consider how many hours of light it receives. Of course, your plants will also tell you when they don’t get enough light with weak stems or browned leaves. 

There are many different interpretations of “shade” plants. It may help to review these plant shade definitions.

Interested in vegetables and fruit that grow in the shade? See which edibles grow well in the shade.