new! slideshow of my 54 top shade plants

SHADE IS A TRICKSTER, CAPTURING AND RELINQUISHING territory as years pass and woody plants grow—or are damaged or lost. Twenty-five years into gardening on one site, some former “shade gardens” here now bake, and even more spots that were sunny—well, you get the changeable, unpredictable picture.

Thankfully, for the latter areas, I have old clumps of lower-light plants to divide, including those in this new slideshow of my top 54 shade subjects. I included some woodland-garden shrubs and trees for those seeking to manufacture some shade of their own—or wanting to add more understory structure to what nature has provided.

a mostly alphabetical tour of 54 favorites for shade

: Many shade beds are under trees that were here when I arrived, including five old apples that make wonderful extra-early garden spaces. They let in enough light before leafing out to make ephemerals like Hylomecon and trilliums happy, along with minor bulbs and hellebores.

: Other shade beds are under trees and shrubs I added, such as this magnolia near the kitchen door, where from early March through November something is going on, mostly thanks to foliage plants. An alphabetical tour of some favorite shade plants begins next:

: A detail under the magnolia of several long-season perennials: evergreen Asarum europeaum, Hosta ‘June,’ Hakonechloa ‘All Gold,’ and the Japanese painted fern, Athyrium niponicum ‘Pictum.’

: I have added a lot of shrubs that tolerate semi-shaded conditions, including several bottlebrush buckeye, Aesculus parviflora, which blooms in July…

: …and has great gold fall color, besides a handsome, bold mounded form all spring and summer long. A suckering colonizer, it’s not very hospitable to underplanting, by the way, but no matter: you can’t see inside a mature plant, anyhow, when in leaf.

: In fall, the bottle brush buckeye’s pods ripen (and everyone thinks they are pears).

: Much earlier, when the woodland edge is mostly asleep, the shadbush or Amelanchier canadensis puts out its white flowers (followed by bird-friendly fruit and good fall color, on a plant with gorgeous structure).

: There are a couple of biennials that roam around here where they like, enjoying semi-shaded conditions. One is Angelica gigas, about shoulder height.

: While we are still at the start of the botanical Latin alphabet: I have a thing for the genus Aralia. This is A. cordata, maybe 8 feet high and wider, a herbaceous perennial of shrubby stature with summer flowers followed by purple fruit.

: Its cousin is the Eastern native tall shrub/small tree, Aralia spinosa or devil’s walking stick. It has formed a colony at the woodland edge from 2 or 3 plants planted 20-plus years ago. A great bird plant with copious fruits (and nothing matches its fall color).

: The path through the Aralia spinosa glade in fall.

: An Eastern herbaceous Aralia of shrubby stature: A. racemosa, which like the others is prolific in fall fruit…

: …as you can see in this detail.

: In the shade of some old trees, I’ve been growing Astilboides tabularis for more than 20 years, which used to be classified as a Rodgersia when I got it.

: Nothing is more impressive and imposing than its 2-plus-foot-wide light green leaves in spring.

: I cannot think of two more rewarding shade plants than the Japanese painted fern, Athyrium niponicum ‘Pictum,’ and the autumn fern, Dryopteris erythrosora ‘Brilliance.’ Why plant flowers that will last for a mere week or two when you can have these guys?

: The native blue cohosh, Caulophyllum thalictroides, sends up astonishing purple stems in early spring. What an underused beauty from among our native flora.

: Cephalotaxus harringtoniana ‘Prostrata’ is a spreading plum yew, a conifer that deer don’t like the way they do its namesake Taxus, or yew.

: Nearby, but blooming in summer: Cimicifuga racemosa — or as the taxonomists prefer these days, Actaea racemosa, with tall, sweetly fragrant wand-like flowers.

: A cousin: Cimicifuga or Actaea simplex ‘Brunette’ has dark purple foliage and purple-flushed white blooms, which appear later than racemosa. This one’s not an American native; racemosa is.

: A crazy little bulb-like creature with blue-green ferny foliage and lavender blooms in early spring: Corydalis solida. It jumps around the garden, never staying put, but I am always happy to see it whererever it wants to live year to year.

: I grow the dogwood known as Cornelian cherry, Cornus mas, at the woodland edge here for its very early flowers, wildlife-friendly fruit, and in the case of the cultivar ‘Aurea,’ gold foliage.

: My old plant of Corylopsis spicata is now more than 20 feet across, and gets 2/3-day sun. But it would do in a half-day spot as well. Almost nothing here blooms earlier (just spicebush and the Cornelian cherry).

: The gold-leaved cultivar Corylopsis spicata ‘Aurea’ will burn in too much sun…or go too green in too little light. Find the perfect semi-shady spot for this beauty.

: I can’t imagine a shady spring garden without bleeding heart, and my favorite is the gold-leaf form called Dicentra ‘Gold Heart,’ which emerges in positively psychedelic shades…

: ..before the foliage opens and turns yellow. It hold up pretty well into the beginning of our serious summer heat, sometimes longer.

: Here’s an oddball: leatherwood, or Dirca palustris, shaped like a miniature tree with extra-early yellow flower. A sweet native shrub.

: Dirca, seen in bloom (hard to capture its dainty, subtle beauty).

: Eleutherococcus (or Acanthopanax) sieboldianus ‘Variegatus’ is a tough, flashy shrub for shade.

: More D’s in the alphabet of plants: Like I said, who need flowers when you have ferns like the autumn fern, Dryopteria erythrosora ‘Brilliance’?

: I have a lot of Epimediums, and here’s what I like best: species and varieties that boast foliage that starts out marked in red…

: …and ones (like E. ‘Rubrum’) that bloom profusely with virtually no help from me but a single early spring cutback of spent foliage. Epimediums are one of few plants that really work in the tough dry shade conditions I have in a few spots.

: Winter aconite, Eranthis hyemalis, is the first bulb to bloom here — and typically the first bloom, period.

: Eranthis doesn’t even mind a dumping of snow mid-cycle…

: …and gradually sows it self around in increasing colonies.

: I rely heavily on the kindness and cooperation of a couple of perennial geraniums that never disappoint. Geranium phaeum ‘Samobor’ is hard to photograph in flower, but suffice it to say tall wiry stems erupt well above the foliage with a lot of tiny, really dark purple flowers on them in mid or late May here.

: Another view of the blooms, and the handsome leaves marked in deepest mahogany purple.

: My toughest and most-used groundcover: Geranium macrorrhizum, the bigroot geranium. Weed-thwarter, good even in dry shade here (or normal, or even sun!).

: Probably my favorite grass of all is one you saw up top: Hakonechloa ‘All Gold.’ It’s gorgeous all spring and summer and well into fall, and I leave it up to catch the first few snows until it’s pummeled and needs a winter haircut.

: My first hellebore, year in and out: Helleborus niger.

: My favorite hellebores: the orientalis hybrids, great groundcovers with persistent foliage and the bonus of copious, extra-early flowers (March and April here in Zone 5B).

: Helleborus foetidus would be a favorite except that it cannot be told where to live. It’s a wanderer, sowing in and out, so hard to count on (though it’s always somewhere!).

: The orientalis hybrids form great, reliable sweeps under my old apples, and stay put (unlike their foetidus cousins).

: My other welcome biennial wanderer besides Angelica gigas: Dame’s rocket, or Hesperis matronalis. Yes, I know, it’s an alien invader. But it’s everywhere in my area…including in my garden…and I pull out all my plants each year but more sow in.

: Bulbs for shade? One that comes to mind besides the Eranthis is Spanish bluebells, like Hyacinthoides hispanica ‘Excelsior.’

: Don’t forget that though they will flower, and grow, more loosely in semi-shade, hydrangeas will cooperate — especially H. paniculata (shown) and H. quercifolia, the oakleaf type. So will various Viburnum, in bright indirect or filtered light.

: My most treasured ephemeral: Hylomecon japonicum, a little gold poppy relative. You saw it in the first photo in a sweep under the old apple.

: With their colorful leaves, Heuchera are one of the most useful of shade perennials, even in pots (that’s ‘Citronelle,’ pictured).

: What’s your favorite hosta (since we cannot talk shade without them)? Me? ‘June,’ …

: … and ‘Sagae.’

: The emerging foliage of golden ones isn’t bad, either, especially after a long winter.

: I grow twinleaf, or Jeffersonia diphylla, for the leaves (not the tiny, fleeting white flowers), and have it along a path up through one garden, where I can appreciate them once the bloom ends and they fill out.

: Among really tough shade shrubs, I have a tender spot for old-fashioned Kerria japonica ‘Picta.’ You can see Astilboides and Hosta ‘Sagae’ here with it in April, along with some celandine poppy (Stylophorum diplhyllum) in the foreground.

: I cannot fail to mention the little non-vining perennial pea, Lathyrus vernus. A foot or so high and wide, with charming flowers in early spring. Sweet.

: We covered various extra-early blooming woodland shrubs earlier in the alphabet, but don’t forget to make room for Lindera benzoin, the native spicebush. It has fantastic gold fall foliage, too…

: …as you can see here. It turns gold late, and lasts into November many years.

: A little native that has sown all around here at will: Virginia bluebells, or Mertensia virginica.

: Stop planting junipers in shady spots! The so-called Siberian cypress, Microbiota decussata, will do in part shade — a coniferous groundcover.

: I grow many kinds of Narcissus in the turf under deciduous trees, where they get enough weeks of light to bloom if they are not starved for moisture and nutrients and room. Old clumps will eventually be outcompeted by the trees (in my case apples) and need to be dug and divided.

: Narcissus ‘Hawera’ is a little daffodil that seems to like it just fine in semi-shady spots under shrubbery.

: Short (as in duration) but sweet. Species peonies like Paeonia mlokosewitschii (called Molly the Witch since nobody can pronounce the Latin) are incredible additions to the early shade garden.

: What would a semi-shady garden in early spring be without Primula? I grow several, including P. japonica…

: …P. sieboldii…

: …my favorite, P. kisoana…

: …the very early P. veris…

: …and also very early P. vulgaris.

: What flowers in the North in red in earliest spring (March here)? Not much, but Pulmonaria rubra does, fading to pink as the flowers age. No variegation to the foliage, but my favorite lungwort anyhow.

: The close relative of my Astilboides tabularis (and planted next to it) is Rodgersia podophylla, another bold choice for the shady garden.

: A detail.

: A native wildflower, the celandine poppy or Stylophorum diphyllum, adds gold to the spring garden.

: I realize as we get to ‘S’ in the alphabet that I haven’t mentioned any trees. I have so many here, living beside a state park, that I almost forget. But one I added: Stewartia pseudocamellia, which blooms in June and July, has great fall foliage and handsome bark, AND likes semi-shade even up North.

: This prostrate golden yew, Taxus baccata ‘Repandens Aurea,’ is green in winter, but gold all growing season here. It can take half-day shade (and will live in deeper, but not be as colorful, I expect).

: One of the toughest groundcovers I know: Trachystemon orientalis, a bit of a thug. Very early blue blooms are followed by…

: …large, weed-suppressing green foliage till frost.

: Every garden needs some trilliums, and mine came with some wakerobins, or T. erectum, which I have divided and moved around to consort with Hylomecon and other early things.

: Detail of the Trillium erectum in bloom (divide it just after flowering). Which reminds me how much more dividing I have ahead of me!

: Speaking of dividing…I bet I could get 20 plants from my two old clumps of Uvularia grandiflora, or merrybells, a spectacular early flowering American native. Here’s what it looks like before bloom…