The Joy Of Shade Gardening

There’s nothing quite like the serenity that accompanies shade gardening. It’s a cool respite in the dense heat of summer for gardeners and a robust wildlife habitat for birds and other creatures who use it for shelter and nesting.

My June shade garden: Hostas, azaleas, ferns, foxglove, astilbes, bleeding hearts, columbines, mint, parsley, and a rose bush behind it which gets lots of sun.

I started a shade garden under a pair of old Quince trees years ago and it’s one of my favorite places to retreat to in the dense heat of a late summer day. Now bordered by a river birch tree and a line of arborvitae, I’m looking forward to the day when the river birch and the shrubs cast long shadows so I can add a lot more shade plants.

All kinds of cool plants grow in my shade garden: an old azalea, astilbes, multiple ferns, hostas, bleeding hearts, foxglove, and groundcovers like mint and wild strawberry. Mid-June is absolutely spectacular with blooms.

All garden shade is not created equal

Even if you aren’t intentionally shade gardening, the garden beds around your home, or portions of them, might be considered shade gardens from a plant’s perspective. For instance, a garden bed on the Northwest side of your home only receives late afternoon light. Even if there are no trees casting shade on that side of your home, anything you plant there will probably need to be a “light shade” plant but also needs to be able to withstand the intense sunlight of late afternoons in summer. With trees, you may have a full shade garden.

How deep is your shade?

Before you start a shade garden you have to know how deep your shade is. Some shade plants require at least 4 hours of sunlight each day while others demand none at all. And then there are different densities of shade within your shade garden – the edges may get light shade, great for a border of coral bells or spring bloomers like daffodils and daylilies, but the areas beneath trees may only be appropriate for hostas. Hydrangeas tend to be a little fussy – they’ll grow tons of foliage in shade but benefit from at least some sun every day for magnificent flowers.

Soil in your shade garden differs from your other garden beds

The soil in a shade garden will also stay damp and cold longer into spring, which means your shade plants may be a little slow to start every year. How slow and how wet depends on the density of the tree canopy, the direction the garden faces, or if there are any obstacles to limit rainfall.

Know your shade garden before buying plants

Before buying plants for your shade garden, study the area you intend to plant. In one 20 foot garden bed, depending on the direction and surrounding structures and trees, your light may range from intense, open sunlight all day to dense shade in a corner. Many gardeners have been disappointed by this realization after watching plants fail to flower, get burned by the sun, or simply die. The definitions of shade below may help when choosing plants.

I absolutely love this peach-colored Astilbe planted at the front of my shade garden. A work in progress, I enlarge the shade garden every time I buy a plant I like, but there’s little shade left to fill.

Garden shade definitions

Most plant tags indicate if the plant is suitable for “some shade” or “shade” (or partial shade / dense shade / open shade), but garden shade is a bit more nuanced than that.

Light Shade

Light shade is defined as areas that receive 4-6 hours of direct sunlight each day, which is the best situation for most shade plants to thrive. This is an important requirement for those shade plants which flower, like Rhododendron, Dogwood, Impatiens, Bergenia, Azalea, Hydrangea, Mountain Laurel, Pieris, Viburnum, and Hellebore.

Open Shade

Open shade is defined as an area that’s exposed to the sky but gets little to no direct sunlight. This is frequently confused with light shade. For instance, you have open shade if a wall of your home throws a shadow across the garden, but sunlight is not blocked from overhead. Open shade areas are perfect for plants with foliage that will burn in intense sunlight, like hostas, ferns, and certain Japanese Maples.

Dappled Shade

Dappled shade is an area exposed to 2-3 hours of sunlight each day filtered through the trees overhead. This is one of the best conditions for woodland plants like ferns, which thrive in dappled shade. Rhododendrons and Azaleas will grow well in dappled shade but will flower considerably less than if grown in open shade.

Deep shade

Deep shade is an area that receives no direct sunlight and is dry and dark, like that under a very dense tree canopy – think of a deep forest or that area under your pine trees. Few plants will grow well in deep shade, except for groundcovers like Wild Ginger, Japanese Aralia, and Oregon Grape. Forget about planting grass there.

Think native when buying plants

When planning your shade garden, the best plant choices are those which are native to your area, as they will be the best adapted to your unique rainfall and weather extremes. That means you’ll probably have more success with native plants than you will with non-natives.

There are too many possible shade plant choices to list here, so check the links below to find the best plants for shade gardening in your region:

or check the Native Plant database at Wildflower.org to narrow it down by state, bloom time, flower, foliage, or other criteria.

Todd Heft

Todd Heft is a lifelong gardener and the publisher of Big Blog of Gardening. He lives in the Lehigh Valley, PA with his wife who cooks amazing things with the organic fruits, vegetables, and herbs he grows. When he isn't writing or reading about organic gardening, he's gardening. His book, Homegrown Tomatoes: The Step-By-Step Guide To Growing Delicious Organic Tomatoes In Your Garden is available on Amazon.