New (shady) flower bed

We just created a new flower bed (by pulling up a bunch of those pain in the neck nandinas!) and it's pretty shaded. It's on the north side of the house, so it doesn't get any direct sunlight. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to what to plant there. I'm thinking coleus, crotons, stuff like that - I want to have *some* color, but I don't know if any flowering plants will do all that well in the shade. Maybe some ferns, some bromeliads? Anyway, I'm open to suggestions.

I'm a northerner, so I'm not sure if all of the plants I use will do as well in your Texas summers, but here's what I use in dappled shade, part shade, and shady spots.

I like to use impatiens for flowering colour in the shade. Some of the colours these days are so intense they almost glow. Caladiums might do well for you there too, for more foliage colour, and some hostas - gold or chartreuse ones are nice to light up a dark area, especially in combination with dark foliaged plants. Some ferns for sure. What about Alocasia or Colocasia if you have room - do you get any light in the area at all, and would there be enough moisture for those?

--Ginny

Hi Chantilly, shade gardening can be just as much fun as any sunny border, all you have to do is give them the conditions they like, most but not all shade plants prefere a damp soil, but you can do this by adding plenty humus or compost as both these will help retain moisture in your soil, but in your area, you will prob need to water them especially to get them established, here as a list of some plants that like shaded area, if you do start to look for yourself, go for things that are maybe woodland in origen, keep in mind that different shades and textures of green can look really interesting as well as flowers.
Shrubs, Hypericum, Rhododendrons (some types) Fatshedra, Fothergilla, some Holly, Mahonia.
Perennials (come back each year but die back in winter) Anemones,Helleborus, Vinca, Heuchera, Primula, Solomans seal, some Lily's, Digitalis, Astilbe, Cyclamen, Trillium, Violas, Ferns lots of shape, size and colour, Aquilegia, Hostas, Begenias, Trilias, there are lots more, but this shoild get you going so you can research which plants, colours you like, if you have a large enough border, plant in odd numbers, ie 3 hostas of the same type of leaf, or 5 if the plants are a smaller type so that you can get it more natural looking as in there true environment, they dont really grow in straight lines or singles, so have a look at the site you are to use, then [repare your soil well and in go your plants, at planting time, I always add some plant food as plants can be in pots a long time before you buy them and they will reward you for this. To keep some moisture into the soil, you can lay a good thick mulch once your plants are in situ and you have given them a good watering, dont lay the mulch right against the stems or you may encourage rot. good luck. WeeNel.
WeeNel.

Wow, thanks guys! I hadn't thought about the caladiums and I don't know why, I really like them a lot. And WeeNel, you're list is magnificent!

We've *been* getting a lot of moisture in that bed, because we've had (atypically) so much rain this summer. I'm not sure, yet, how moist is will stay when the rains finally dry up as they are sure to do sooner or later, but I started a mulch pile when we first moved in (we had tons of leaves to rake up and just decided to keep them); I've got them composting for mulch now so they should be good and decayed pretty soon.

The bed gets plenty of indirect light, but no direct sun at all, so I'll probably stick to the shade loving varieties and yes, some impatiens, I hadn't thought of them either. Of course I'm still at the stage where I'm excited to know the name of a plant, so.....LOL

Anyway, thanks again, I'm raring to go....

Laurie

OH! I just found out that I have some ligustrum bushes growing along my fenceline. I didn't realize it until just now because they didn't flower this year (like all the other's I've seen, grrrr :), I just recognized the leaf. Okay, I'm a little slow, he-he.

Anyway, my questions are: obviously they're growing ok where they are, even though they're in almost perpetual shade, but is there anything I should be doing so they'll flower? The bushes are over six feet tall, they're taller than my husband, but they're pretty slender (not skinny, exactly). I figure they probably need to have their bottom growth pruned, but don't know when, and I'm wondering why these didn't flower this year.

Anyway, thanks in advance for all advice! Later :)

Laurie

On the Ligustrum--could be they're in too much shade, I don't know what species we have here and if it's the same one you would have, but all the ones that I see blooming here are in pretty much full sun. Many full sun plants will grow OK in shade but won't bloom much if at all. They're also a bit invasive here, so if that's the case in TX as well maybe it's just as well they didn't bloom!