Shine in the shade
These plants don't mind a garden short on sun
In the garden, full sun is a golden opportunity. The growing possibilities are endless: fat sunflowers, ripe, juicy tomatoes, mushrooming perennials, and the nonstop colors from a thousand varieties of annuals.
Take away that direct sunlight and a very different garden thrives. The shade gardener's palette differs from the sun gardener's, but don't think of it as limited. While sun-loving plants stretch toward the sky and offer only weaker versions of themselves in restricted light, plenty of annuals, perennials, and small shrubs will shine in the shade.
But what to plant? And where? That depends on exactly how much shade you have.
"Not all shade is equal," said Scott LaFleur, the botanic garden director for Garden in the Woods in Framingham. He cautions gardeners that areas shaded by buildings or woods have great variations in light. By LaFleur's definition, "dappled shade" includes patches of sunlight hitting plants through the leaves of a tree. "Part sun" is direct sunlight four to six hours each day. "Part shade" is two to four hours of direct sun each day; and "full shade" is less than two hours of direct sunlight each day.
Shade-tolerant plants run that gamut, from those that do well with three to four hours of sun to those that thrive with only ambient light. Astilbe and barrenwort, for instance, do well with part shade, while Japanese forest grass and hosta can flourish in full shade.
Spring is the primary bloom time for many shade-loving perennials. Lots of the prettiest blossoms appear in spring before the trees leaf out, according to Katherine Tracey of Avant Gardens in North Dartmouth. Her favorites include barrenwort (Epimedium) and woodland peonies. Other spring-blooming shade lovers include bleeding heart (Dicentra spectabilis), hellebore (Helleborus orientalis), sweet woodruff (Gallium odoratum), and trillium. Plant them now for a lovely show next spring.
For LaFleur, the appeal of a shade garden is the plants themselves - not just the flowers.
"In the springtime, the woodland garden is aflush with flowers, but it's all about the textures of green as you move through the seasons," LaFleur said.
Among some of the native perennials LaFleur recommends for shade are maidenhair ferns (Adiantum), large flower bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora), lady fern (Athyrium felix-femina), and umbrella plant (Diphylleia cymosa).
Numerous native small trees, shrubs, and perennials are perfectly suited for shady gardens, especially those on wooded property, LaFleur adds. Redbud (Cercis canadensis), silverbell (Halesia), ashe magnolia (Magnolia ashei), American smoketree (Cotinus obovatus), flame azalea (Rhododendron calendulaceum) and other rhododendrons, and oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) are a few of the plants that thrive in the mid-layer of a woodland garden, or the range from 10 to 20 feet above the ground.
Ellen Lahti has nearly two acres of shade and wooded gardens in Needham, which allow her to make a beautiful tapestry.
"Flowers are ephemeral," Lahti said. "They last a couple days or a week and they're over. My goal is to build a garden for four-season interest."
To do so, Lahti uses a mix of foliage size, texture, and color. Golden yellows and rich burgundies brighten shady spots.
"Much of what grows in the shade is green, but there's a thousand shades of green that provide contrast to one another," Lahti said. "Using that effectively and throwing in different color foliage really makes the shade really bright and colorful."
A favorite standby in the shade garden is hosta. Hostas with white or cream variegation or entire leaves in lime-green hues are especially good for brightening a shady spot. The perennial also offers a range of textures and sizes from miniatures of 3 inches across to massive specimens at more than 6 feet wide.
While some scoff at hosta as common, experienced gardeners appreciate the vastness of the genus - and its low maintenance. With hundreds of varieties to choose from, there's one for any shady spot.
Other perennials Tracey recommends for shade include Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa), Solomon's seal (Polygonatum), late-summer flowering hardy begonia (Begonia grandis), and Korean waxbells (Kirengeshoma).
One thing to keep in mind, Tracey cautions, is that certain trees such as Norway maple and beech have what she terms "greedy roots." These shallow roots compete aggressively with anything planted in the tree's shade.
"There are not a lot of options," Tracey says, "but the best options are shade-tolerant plants that have tough root systems, such as Solomon's seal (Polygonatum) and bigroot cranesbill (Geranium macrorrhizum)."
Hostas can also compete with these "greedy roots" if they become established while the tree is still small, Tracey added.
While shade gardens may not give us an abundance of flower power, they do have their benefits. First, shade gardens are relatively low maintenance. And second, Tracey adds, "it's a much cooler place on a hot, sunny day." 