Need help!! partial shade to full shade

Hello everyone, I have a project that i am working on. My problem is the spots we want to plant in don't get a lot of sunlight so what I am asking is could anyone give me ideas for shade plants. Well partial shade to full shade. help me please. Thank you
Laurie

hostas, pansies,peace lilly,ferns,pygmy palms and ivy are all good choices for your garden spot also some roses like part sun shade too

This message was edited Mar 23, 2009 9:48 PM

MSmopples choices are really good, easy shade plants. In the beginner vegetables forum under 4-6 hrs of sun, I posted veggies/annuals that I've had succes with in partial sun (5 hrs.). There are plants that will survive in shade but not get a whole lot of new growth, like tall grasses and daylillies. There won't be very many flowers on the lillies, but the foliage will grow. Little princess spirea (mine gets 2 hrs. sun), japanese maple, rhododendron, azaleas can handle part shade but are a little harder to take care of. How many hours of sun does it recieve? Many shady spots change the amount of sun throughout the year. Some beds that are shaded by trees are full sun in spring and can be planted with spring flowering bulbs. The side of my garage right now is full shade but by late spring is full sun so I have late-summer flowers planted there.

Thank you very much and any more ideas would help so much. Any plants with bright colorful flowers?

I'm not that familar with perennials and most of the ones I seen for shade are more foliage type plants. Rhodo and azalea flower. Some good flowering annuals are impatiens, begonias, fuschia. Caladium, coleus, fittonia have bright colored foliage. My mom has some black-eyed susans that spread to her shade garden. They are meant for sun, but I have seen them flower in the shade-just not as much.

Daylilies are pretty forgiving. I have some planted on the east side of my house. I also have Star jasmine, purple coneflowers, creeping phlox, azaleas and a rose bush that are all doing very well. Can you tell us approximately how many hours of sun your area gets?

You can't beat impatiens for bright colorful flowers.

For perennials, I have astilbes, filipendula (meadowsweet) and Japanese painted ferns in my shady area. All are thriving, as long as I don't let them get really dry. Astilbes come in white, pink, rose, lavender and red. Different varieties of filipendula come in pink or white. Heuchera (coral bells) are also good for shady areas. In addition to the stems of delicate flowers they send up, the colorful foliage is an added benefit.

For annuals, I love impatiens, coleus and wax (fiborous) begonias.

well we have the area around the house, and they all don't get much sunlight. the spot that we are most worried about is well its hard to tell right now because the trees don't have leaves yet so i would have to guess 3-4 hours of filtered light through the tree. so you could see why we are having trouble.

depending on where you live - and the amount of sunlight or shade - dictates what will succeed.

the Hostas (the blues need more shade those with usually yellow can tolerate more sun), Astilbe, Lily of the Valley, Bleeding Heart and Hellebores to name a few. There are also Coral Bells that offer a variety of colorful leaf variations. All of these are perennials.

Shade shrubs are the Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Hydrangeas - all have beautiful spring flowerings. May come in the re-blooming variety (meaning they bloom more than once in Spring)

the Dave's Garden Market place has many of thee at very competitive prices.

Impatients are also shade lovers but are annuals.

Several plants, mentioned by others in this thread, are really NOT shade lovers and do require more sun than you get in Ohio.

I suggest doing a Google search of "Shade plants" or "Shade Perennials" to access more accurate data.

there is nothing more frustrating then planting a yard to watch your hard work fail due to insufficient planning or research on the actual needs of each plant. . . " . . been there!"

Hope this info helps.

Good Luck!

thank you all so much. I appreciate all the advice and help.

also sweet william i have had luck with in my old garden... they grew out well and lasted three years..we live in the south deep south so i guess thats the reason they lasted so long..they come in multiple colors also

I was really thinking about those. are they annuls? just wondering Its not gonna change my mind though. I am so happy this is going to look great

Sweet William are supposed to be biennials, which means they grow one year and bloom the next and then set seed and die. Out here they will typically keep coming back, behaving more like perennials. I used to live in Ohio and I don't think they ever came back for a third year there, but I don't remember for sure.

A couple of my shade favorites include bergenia (very tough) and Jacob's Ladder. Both flower, although not really flamboyantly. Fringed-leaf bleeding hearts are winners--they bloom for a very long period and prefer a shady, cool spot. Check out dicentra Luxuriant (http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/81730/) and dicentra eximia (http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/192/).

Laurie19, you might be interested in the lessons I learned in the shade garden forum last month. See http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=6330295 for a discussion of deep shade vs.speckled sunlight vs.shade with "light." These issues are some you might be interested in reading about further up the thread. jkom51 notes that shade in California is affected by the sunlight nearby due to the high UV index of the light in California. I don't know what UV indices you live with in Ohio, but the knowledge base involved is possibly a consideration for you.

Further, consider the movement of the sun over seasonal time and day time, in addition to your mention of sunlight filtered through the leaves. 3-4 hours of filtered sunlight isn't bad sun exposure and if flowering plants aren't a reasonable consideration, look into variegated foliage shrubs and plants, which will brighten up the shade.

And . . . you might also ask your question on the shade garden forum for additional ideas.

Linda, another beginning landscaper

Try a nice curving bed with a combination of shrubs, perennials and ground cover. Some of the things I have planted successfully in varying degrees of shade:

Shrubs--various types of hollies can withstand shade, winterberry (a deciduous type) is nice; azaleas, mountain laurels, hydrangeas, pieris, some varieties of euonymous have nice variegated leaves.

Perennials--bleeding hearts, hostas, lenten rose, a variety of ferns, geranium (not the red flowers sold as annuals), some varieties of sedum do fine in some shade, epimedium, columbine, pulmonaria, wild ginger, and brunnera. Balloon flowers can take part shade too.

Groundcovers--liriope, pachysandra, ajuga, periwinkle, jasmine, sweet woodruff, lamium.

All sorts of bulbs do well in areas that are shaded by deciduous trees and therefore get some spring sun. And lilies of the valley and squill seem to grow anywhere.

Depends on what you like, but I have found these plants to be easy to grow. Have grown them in DC area and in VT. Hope this helps.

-Pam