Most gardens will have some shade. Wouldn’t it be nice to add some colors in such forgotten areas?
Let’s make it happen with these 5 colorful flowers that are just perfect for shady areas in your garden!
1. Bleeding Heart (Lamprocapnos spectabilis)
This is a perennial herbaceous plant of the Papaveraceae family. Bleeding Heart is a unique-looking and popular garden plant that produces arching sprays of pendent or chains of red, pink and white heart shaped blooms in spring.
Ideal for hanging baskets on shaded porches or for growing indoors. Plant will reach a mature size of 2 feet (60cm) wide and 2 feet (60cm) tall.
Low maintenance plant. Dead-head after blooming and keep soil consistently moist.
2. Hellebores (Helleborus)
They are one of the few plants that will produce a bloom when grown in heavy shade. Evergreen perennial plant that is often called a Christmas rose or Lenten rose, but is not related to the rose family.
Plants are frost-resistant and produce pale green or greenish-purple blooms in the late winter and early spring when nothing else is blooming in the garden.
Plants grow in a mound shape that reaches a mature size of two feet (60cm) wide and one foot (30cm) tall.
Provide Hellebores with consistent moisture, but never feed them.
3. Hosta (Hosta x. tardiana)
Hostas thrive in a secluded shady spot and will grow into a 2 x 2 feet (60cm x 60cm) mound of broad green leaves. Hostas are grown in heavy shade rarely bloom, but if the plant does receive a little sunlight it may send up a few flower spikes that will bear tiny purple bell-shaped blooms.
All varieties of Hosta are tough, perennials, versatile and adapt to most soil and light conditions. Easy care plant that only requires shade and consistently moist soil.
4. Impatiens (Hydrocera)
Colorful low-growing mounds of happy looking flowers that adore shady areas. Also known as Jewelweed because of their jewel-toned bloom colors, Impatiens are hardy, shade-loving annuals. Ideal for use as border plants under the shadow of taller plants.
Also good for container growing. Plant 10-12 inches (25-30 cm) apart in moist, well draining soil. No dead-heading required by these proficient bloomers, they are self-cleaning flowers.
5. Monkshood (Aconitum)
This plant will produce a bevy of deep blue flowers on tall spikes all summer. This perennial not only loves partial shade, but it’s also one of the few true blue flowers.
Monkshood grows best in well draining soil that stays moist, but not soggy, all the time. The plant will reach a mature size of three feet (90cm) tall and about 1 1/2 feet (45cm) wide.
The plant is easy to maintain, no dead-heading required. Monkshead will bloom until frost and plant will die back to ground level.
Happy gardening!
5 Flowers for Your Colorful Summer Garden
