Perennial plants offer an amazing variety of options for the landscape – even one that spends most of the day shaded from the sun. Intricate blooms and colorful foliage are two ways shade-loving perennials brighten up their surroundings, and here we share a four of our favorites with lots of variety to choose from.
Heuchera
One of the most popular and easy-care perennials for shade is heuchera – a low-mounding plant prized for its colorful, textured foliage with a rich collection of cultivars to consider. You can find a heuchera in just about any color you can imagine – including shades of burgundy, purple, orange, yellow, and chartreuse. Rounded, ruffled leaves and tall spikes of dainty blooms add to heuchera’s charm. The next time you visit the Nursery Yard, look for ‘Caramel’ – its foliage appears in warm shades of apricot to amber with reddish-purple undersides. Or maybe the rich purple, almost-black tones of ‘Obsidian’ will catch your eye.
Hosta
The beautiful, reliable hosta is a favorite leafy perennial featured in many shaded landscapes. Like heuchera, hosta offers variety in its wide selection of leaf shapes, variegation styles, and colorful tones ranging from slate blue to spring green to glowing chartreuse. Spikes of lily-like blooms appear above the foliage in summer too. Whether your style is woodland, cottage, or contemporary, there’s a hosta waiting to fit right into your landscape. For instance, ‘Elegans’ is known for its enormous gray-blue, heart-shaped foliage with prominent ribbing along each leaf. In contrast, each of the leaves on ‘Captain Kirk’ features a wide, deep-green border framing a bright chartreuse center.
Astilbe
If you’re looking for blooms for your shade garden, astilbe is a must. In late spring and summer, feather-like plumes of tiny flowers stand upright above the mounding leaves and come in shades of pink, red, and white. Even before the blooms arrive, astilbe’s bronze-green, fern-like foliage adds grace and texture to shaded groupings and borders in all kinds of gardens. In the Nursery Yard, check out ‘Visions in Red,’ a stunning astilbe featuring dark green foliage on dark purple petioles and rich, reddish-purple blooms. And be sure to look for ‘White Deutschland’ – planting its masses of pure-white, pyramid-shaped panicles is like turning a spotlight on your shaded garden.
Fern
No woodland garden would seem complete without the characteristic shape and texture of ferns. Shades of green are the classic colors, but ferns offer other beautiful options as well. In our collection, we love the luminous Japanese painted fern. Its broad triangular fronds feature a blue-green color with a wash of silver tones that practically glow in the landscape. But if your favorite colors lean to the warmer side of the spectrum, look for the autumn fern ‘Brilliance.’ Its fiery fronds appear in shades of orange, green, and copper for a little taste of fall in your garden all summer long.
Find Lots of Color for Your Shade Garden
With the right plants, shaded landscapes can be just as colorful and bright as their sunny counterparts – and with the amazing texture that many shade-loving perennials bring, they’re sometimes even more interesting. Looking to create a show-stopping shade-loving perennial bed? Come wander through our Nursery Yard. And if you have questions or need suggestions, we’re always here to help.
