Plants That Grow in Full Shade

Shrubs

You might easily overlook shrubs when planning your shade garden (many gardeners gravitate toward annuals and perennials). But do not forget about them: Shrubs provide structure and background for that planting bed you are so eager to fill with the smaller, more showy plants that tend to jump out at you at the garden center. All of the following shrubs are evergreens grown for their foliage, not for flowers, and they can add great value to a shade garden (zone recommendations listed refer to the U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zone system):

• Hetz's Japanese holly (Ilex crenata 'Hetzii'; zones 5 to 8)
• Inkberry holly (Ilex glabra; zones 5 to 9)
• Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis, including cultivars in shrub form that make excellent hedges; zones 3 to 7)
• Yew bushes (Taxus spp.; zones 4 to 7)

Perennials

Perennials, particularly of the flowering kind, help you make up for the color variety and dramatic seasonal display that your evergreen shrubs lack:

• Common bleeding hearts (Dicentra spectabilis; zones 3 to 9)
• Fringed bleeding hearts (Dicentra eximia; zones 3 to 9)
• Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria; zones 3 to 7)
• Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum; zones 4 to 9)
• Lenten rose (Helleborus orientalis; zones 4 to 9)
• Leopard plants (Ligularia spp.; zones 4 to 8)
• Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica; zones 3 to 8)
• Barrenwort (Epimedium grandiflorum; zones 5 to 9)

Annuals

Supplement the flowers provided by your perennials with well-placed annuals. Keep in mind that many of the plants that Northerners treat as annuals are actually perennials in warmer parts of the world where they originated (in most cases, the tropics). These plants are too tender to live long in climates that have cold winters. This is a case where usage trumps botany. These plants are termed "annuals" not because of their life cycle but because that is how they are used in gardens in colder climates.

The growing zones listed here indicate where the plants can survive as perennials; used elsewhere, they are annuals.

• Impatient Lucy (Impatiens spp.; zone suitability varies by type)
• Wax begonia (Begonia x semperflorens-cultorum; zones 7 to 11)
• Coleus (Plectranthus and Solenostemon; zone 11)

Ground Covers

Ground cover plants for full shade come in especially handy when you need to cover large swaths of shaded land and do not have the time or inclination to mess around with perennial beds or to plant a fresh batch of annuals every year to serve as bedding plants.

• Spotted deadnettle (Lamium maculatum; zones 4 to 8)
• Creeping myrtle (Vinca minor; zones 4 to 9)
• Cast iron plant (Aspidistra elatior; zones 6 to 11)
• Japanese spurge (Pachysandra terminalis; zones 4 to 8)
• Some types of plantain lily (Hosta spp.; zones 3 to 8 or 9, typically)
• Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis; zones 2 to 7)
• Interrupted fern (Osmunda claytoniana; zones 3 to 8)

Vines

Options for vines are limited, particularly if you are in search of a flowering vine for a shady location that is hardy in a cold-winter climate. Boston ivy is grown for its foliage, not its flowers. Unhappily, that foliage is not as colorful in fall if it is grown in full shade. But the nice, green foliage it provides in summer adds elegance to a shady nook. Meanwhile, climbing hydrangea does flower nicely even when grown in full shade, making it the favorite vine of shade gardeners in the cold areas.

• Climbing hydrangea (Hydrangea anomala ssp. petiolaris; zones 4 to 7)
• Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata; zones 4 to 8)