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Home » Gardening Information » Great Plants

If gardeners are such an intrepid lot, willing to move mountains of soil, lay miles of brick and stone, and shovel tons of manure, why does the mere mention of shade cause so many to quake in their boots? Gardeners from novice to knowledgeable assume that a shady border can never be as colorful and visually interesting as a sunny one. They also fear that small trees, shrubs, and perennials won't perform as well in shady situations as they do in the sun. But, contrary to popular belief, well-designed shade gardens are as lush and colorful as their brethren in full sun.

Shade gardens have a different feel and sensibility from gardens in full sun. The canopy shades, cools, and protects perennials and smaller shrubs in the understory. Light in the shade garden is dappled and less direct, so colors seem more intense. Plants are less likely to be stressed or burned by the sun. Green takes on new importance as its many hues intermingle, providing visual continuity. Leaf and flower forms and textures are more obvious against a field of green. But, most of all, shade gardens are serene and peaceful, quiet retreats for the visitor and gardener alike.

Color in a new light

Whether in a shady or sunny class="border"r, color has the power to evoke any number of emotions. Contrasting colors, such as yellow and violet, are stimulating and dramatic when used together. Harmonious colors—those adjacent to each other on the color wheel, like red and orange, blend, creating soothing, softer pictures. Colors derived from red and orange are considered hot, while those based on blue are considered cool. Bear in mind that colors look different in the shade than they do in the sun: Bright sunlight diminishes the strength of color, causing pastels to bleach out and lose their intensity and subduing the clarity of red, blue, and yellow. In a shade garden, light is diffuse and colors retain their saturation.

Green is a color too, and nowhere is this more apparent—and important—than in the shade garden. Integrate every shade of green imaginable in your shade-garden design. Bright chartreuse greens illuminate shady places. Medium greens—nature's own background colors—are neutral and ease the transition between contrasting colors. Blue-greens create the illusion of depth and can make small spaces appear larger. Dark, inky black or olive greens provide a contrasting backdrop for lighter, brighter foliage and blooms. Placing a blue-green hosta behind the bright green foliage and chartreuse yellow bloom of lady's mantle will create tension and color contrast, while planting a pink astilbe in front of the same hosta will produce a different look and feeling.

Use foliage to create an illusion of brightness. Light-colored leaves or those with cream or white margins or variegation reflect light, making the surrounding area appear brighter. The yellow- and green-striped foliage of Japanese ribbon grass paired with the electrifying foliage of the golden barberry and the silver-gray and cream foliage of a variegated hosta has enough wattage to light up an entire garden.

When you find a few color combinations that you like, repeat them throughout the garden to unify the space and create a sense of movement and flow.

Valuing leaf texture & form

Keep not only foliage color, but plant form and texture in mind when selecting plant associations. Juxtaposing different leaf textures and forms adds a critical component to the shade-garden tapestry. Many shade plants have leaves with large surface areas, an adaptation that allows for maximum photosynthesis in lower light conditions. Another benefit of larger foliage is the opportunity to create dramatic visual effects in the shade garden. Small, delicate foliage will provide a contrast when planted next to larger leaf forms. A maidenhair fern with its elegant, finely dissected fronds, for example, makes more of an impact if planted in front of a dwarf conifer than in front of another fern or plant with similar foliage.

Contrasting forms can also be used effectively in the shade garden. For example, planting a late-blooming monkshood, with very sharply incised leaves and a tall, spiky flower stalk, with a hydrangea, substantial and dense with weighty flower heads, adds dimension and visual interest as well as extending the bloom season. Plants with large, deep-green leaves, such as rhododendrons, will read as dark and bulky, while a variegated Kerria, with its pom-pom flowers, open habit, and serrated leaf will seem light, open, and airy.

Complex combinations

Shade gardens are complex combinations of very diverse planting materials ranging from tiny groundcovers that form a living carpet on the garden floor to the towering trees that form the canopy or upper story of the garden. Bulbs, perennials, and evergreen and deciduous shrubs are the workhorses of the mid-layer of the garden. When you can thoughtfully and artfully weave all these elements together, the shade garden conveys a sense of lushness and abundance, a oneness with nature.

Trees

From a design perspective, trees are the major "bones" of the garden, defining and framing spaces and serving as focal points. Columnar shapes draw the eye upward, while trees with rounded canopies appear horizontal, and weeping and prostrate forms lead the eye to the understory and ground plane.

Trees provide relief and protection from the sun and cast shade on the plants below. Canopy trees also provide enclosure, creating intimacy and a ceiling for outdoor rooms. Use deciduous trees that leaf out late in the spring to give understory and ground-plane plants a period of full light in which early spring-blooming bulbs and perennials can prosper.

Depending on the size and density of their foliage, different trees will cast different types and densities of shade. Intermittent sunlight can pierce the canopy of trees with small leaves and open, layered habits, reaching the understory plants below. Japanese maple, mountain ash, katsura, Japanese snowbell, oak, Himalayan birch, small-flowered magnolia, Persian parrotia, and Asian dogwoods are choice trees for the shade garden, with their shapely forms and an exciting array of seasonal bark, berry, flower, and foliage displays. Among indigenous North American trees well suited for the shade garden are redbud, with colorful bloom and clear yellow fall color; serviceberry, with white flowers and red-orange fall foliage; and Washington hawthorn, which has a tidy, layered habit and bunches of clear orange berries in the fall. Trees that cast dense shade, deplete the soil of nutrients and water, and become too large are poor choices for the garden. Among these are Indian bean trees, chestnuts, big-leaf maples, and full-sized evergreen magnolias.

Conifers are the anchors of the winter garden, their elegant evergreen shapes contrasting with the stark outlines of the bare but beautiful forms of deciduous trees and shrubs, so be sure to include them in your shady border. Conifers cast dense, year-round shade and should be sited accordingly on the periphery of the garden or on the north side of the site. Smaller, upright coniferous forms such as incense cedar and Nootka cypress take up less space and cast less shade, creating better growth conditions for plants in the understory and ground plane. Although many of these needled evergreens are too large for residential gardens, the many smaller or dwarf forms can work well.

Shrubs

Shrubs, large and small, deciduous and evergreen, create a backdrop for the more ephemeral perennials and serve as a foil for groundcovers. Use them like walls to divide spaces, provide privacy, and screen unattractive views. When choosing shrubs, think about their year-round attributes: Do they bloom, have good fall color, produce berries, have exfoliating bark, or appealing fragrance? If a shrub meets two or more of these criteria, consider including it in the garden.

The best known of the shade-tolerant shrubs are rhododendrons and azaleas, workhorses that contribute both colorful blooms and interesting foliage. Camellias, both the winter- and spring-blooming species, offer colorful flowers and shiny foliage where winters are mild. Sweet box blooms in January, its insignificant, tiny blossoms releasing an incredibly sweet fragrance; it also has evergreen, glossy foliage and black berries, making it a quintessential year-round plant. Many hollies have evergreen foliage, small blooms, and produce prodigious amounts of fruit. Witchhazels, fulfilling the role of either large shrub or small multi-stemmed tree, magically cover their stems with fragrant blooms in winter and also put on a colorful show in the fall. Winter hazels, witchhazel relatives, light up the shade garden in early spring with fragrant, buttery yellow flowers that are perfect companions for early bulbs or perennials with blue blooms. Drooping leucothoe's spreading, graceful habit contrasts with some of the more spiky, upright shrub forms. The species is a blaze of red in the autumn while another form has lively green and cream foliage.

No shade border could be complete without a hydrangea. These archetypal plants are trendy now, and there's a form to fit any size or style garden—from two-foot dwarf to ten-foot giant, from mophead to lacecap. Sweet pepperbush, a woodland native, is wind- and salt-tolerant, making it a perfect choice for coastal as well as inland gardens. It produces sweetly scented white or pink spires in the late summer that attract more than 100 different insects. Try combining sweet pepperbush, which blooms in August, with pink or white Japanese anemones and a white hydrangea to add a touch of elegance to the late summer garden.

Perennials

Just as they are in the sunny class="border"r, herbaceous perennials are the ephemeral stars of the shade garden, many with unusual and eye-catching foliage. Ornamental rhubarb and rodgersia, with their large leaves and wands of bloom, add drama and an architectural element to the garden. No plant is more emblematic of shade gardening than the hosta. Modern hybridizing has produced hundreds of varieties with fabulous pleated foliage in a rainbow of colors from gray to chartreuse with every possible variegation of green, gold, cream, and white. False spiraea or astilbe, with its incised foliage and soft plumes, creates contrast and tension when paired with hosta. Meadow rue, columbine, and bleeding-heart have soft, ferny textures and therefore should be placed near the verge of the woodland or Border where they can be appreciated up close. Christmas roses—hellebores—begin blooming in February, brightening the winter landscape with pendant bells of white, pink, and purple. No shade garden would be complete without ferns. Native ferns are found in a range of habitats from moist woodlands to dry and shady sites.

The spring wildflower display in North American woodland gardens is glorious. Japanese primroses and Virginia bluebells are entrancing; the heart-shaped blooms of the bleeding-heart enchanting. Elegant shooting stars, dog-tooth violets, and trilliums nose through the duff on the forest floor. Peering under the shiny, heart-shaped foliage of wild ginger for blooms is, for some, a rite of spring.

Year-round interest

Careful planning and plant selection in the design phase to insure year-round color and interest is as important in the shady garden as it is in the sunny class="border"r. Spring is the season of rejuvenation and rebirth as the early bulbs and spring-blooming perennials poke through the dark earth and burst into bloom, followed by the unfurling of fresh new foliage on the shrubs and trees. Summer signifies abundance, with a plethora of perennials and shrubs in full bloom anchored by lush foliage forms. The shorter days and longer nights of autumn usher in the kaleidoscope colors of fall as the foliage turns and berries ripen. Winter bares the soul of the garden, exposing its bones for all to see. With the advent of the new year, the witchhazels and hellebores sneak into bloom and the shade garden comes alive with the promise of what is to come.

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