Creating a beautiful, interesting, textural shade garden is easy when you use shade-loving plants. Breck’s offers an abundance of perennials that thrive in full shade or partial shade. Our collection includes a variety of shade perennials, from vibrant bloomers and leafy selections to ground covers.
Read on for our top recommendations for shade plants, tips for choosing the best perennials for your garden and shade garden design ideas.
Top 8 Perennials for Shade
We've chosen some of our most popular shade perennials to highlight here, including some plants that flower readily and others that provide lush foliage. Planted together, they can transform ho-hum gardens into green spaces that look as though they were designed by professional landscapers.
Hostas
Probably the best-known and most-loved shade perennials of all, hostas come in an array of foliage colours, shapes and textures, from solid to variegated in hues of blue, yellow, green and even white. They make amazing displays in full shade or partial shade gardens, flanking a shadowy entryway or even in containers that can be moved around the property.
Hostas range in size from the very small Mini Mouse Hosta varieties to the huge, spreading clumps of the Kingsize Hosta with leaves that reach almost 2' wide. For a truly unique garden addition, grow White Feather Hosta to brighten your shade garden with luminous white foliage. While they’re ideal for ground cover and season-long foliage, they also flower! In summer, hosta plants produce tall scapes of lavender, yellow or white bell-shaped blooms.
Astilbe
Astilbes are a favourite flowering plant for shaded gardens, producing stately plumes of colour for green spaces and summertime cut-flower arrangements. The flower colours are vibrant during the growing season and dry beautifully to be used in indoors. A must-have in American and Dutch gardens, they are very easy to grow and require little to no maintenance once they establish themselves in the landscape. Available in a variety of bloom colours as well as foliage hues, these perennials make an excellent addition to shaded borders, foundation beds and along tree lines. Tidy mounds of incised foliage add gorgeous colour and textural interest to any shade garden.
Astilbes perform best when they receive a few hours of sunlight in the morning, then spend the afternoon enjoying the cool shade. Growing them in partial or dappled shade is the best bet for optimal performance. Keep in mind that when planted in full shade, astilbes may not bloom as plentifully. They may also tolerate full sun in the coolest climates.
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Ferns
Woodland areas with deep shade can be among the most difficult sites to enhance with perennial plants. They are often quite rugged in nature and offer little open soil space in which plants can take hold and thrive. A planting of ferns is the perfect way to add softness, rich colour and unique texture to these areas. Adaptable and easy-to-grow ferns include varieties that perform well in full or part shade, dry or moist soils, and come in a range of shades, shapes and sizes. Their lush foliage provides a beautiful complement or backdrop to flowering perennials in full shade or partial shade gardens.
Heuchera
Native to North America, herbaceous heucheras (also called coral bells) are wonderful shade plants that have a very versatile constitution, tolerating full shade or part shade. Like hostas, heucheras are most often used as foliage and ground cover plants, however they do bear tiny, delicate blooms on whisper-thin scapes in summer. Their vibrant colour palette ranges from lush green and deep purple to bright red and warm caramel gold. These beautiful shade-loving perennials do quite well in dappled border beds, as a woodland accent or in decorative pots.
Lily of the Valley
For a charming accent to springtime beds, consider a liberal planting of fragrant lily-of-the-valley. Tiny, white, bell-shaped blooms dangle delicately amid rich green foliage. They spread quickly to create a sumptuous display beneath deciduous trees, tucked under shrubbery or along shadowy borders. Though they do tolerate up to full sun sites, they grow better and are more likely to thrive in part to full shade. Lily-of-the-valley requires little to no care and is deer resistant. We love to layer these lovely little lilies ahead of taller shade perennials. They are also suitable for forcing indoors. All in all, lilies-of-the-valley are charming little plants.
Toad Lilies
We love tricyrtis, also known as the toad lily, for its statuesque stems accented with emerald-green foliage and tons of tiny, orchidlike blooms that appear in the landscape from midsummer to the middle of fall. The plants grow up to 3' tall and look great as a border accent behind hostas or heucheras. Plus, because they are late bloomers, their flowers appear just as other plants are losing their blooms to the heat. The tiny blossoms come in a range of colours, from bright purple and pink to lively white and sunny yellow, with charming spots adorning each small bloom. Though they thrive in shade, they can also grow nicely in dappled sunlight.
Bleeding Hearts
Dicentra, or bleeding heart, is a traditional shade garden favourite that people have loved for many decades—and for good reason. Unique heart-shaped flowers dangle lovingly from graceful arching sprays during the early weeks of spring. Modern cultivars of dicentra bear white or red flowers, as well as the classic pink blooms, and all variations give a dainty yet colourful look to shaded sites like dappled borders or shadowy beds. The cool green foliage covers tall, willowy plants that spread beautifully and naturalize readily. This habit makes bleeding heart a fantastic choice for a specimen planting in a shaded landscape. Even after the flowers fade, the oakleaf shape of the foliage offers a great backdrop to later-blooming perennials.
Hellebores
For a very early spring pop of colour and beauty, you can't go wrong with hellebores. In milder areas of the U.S., hellebores will even bloom in winter! Also called Lenten roses, these graceful evergreen plants bear single or double blooms in a wide array of colours during the very early days of spring. The plants often push up through snow to make themselves seen. We love them because no matter where they are planted, whether in shady sites or beneath deciduous trees where they receive more sunlight, the blooms appear healthy, full and bold. Plus, the rich foliage remains attractive throughout the entire year. Resistant to animal pests such as deer and rabbits, hellebores require no special care or extra maintenance.
Where is the best place to buy shade plants online?
Shop shade-loving perennials from Breck’s, a trusted name in gardening for more than 200 years. Breck’s plants are fully backed by our no-risk lifetime guarantee, so you can shop confidently.
Choosing the Right Shade-Loving Perennials
What are the most colourful perennials for shade?
Astilbes and heucheras are some of the most colourful perennials for shade gardens: astilbes with their large, vibrant plumes and heucheras (aka coral bells) with their varied foliage colours, are two great options for long-lasting colour. Companion plants for astilbes and heucheras include shade-loving plants with vibrant blooms, including toad lilies, fairy wings, hellebores and foxgloves.
What are the best perennials for deep shade?
For deep shade, grow ferns and hostas. Their lush foliage will easily fill even the shadiest corners of your garden. As companion plants for hostas and ferns, try lilies-of-the-valley and bleeding hearts for a spray of beautiful dainty white or pink flowers.
What are the best low-maintenance ground cover plants for full shade?
Many gardeners believe hostas are the best low-maintenance ground cover for full shade. Plant a mix of host varieties for a dynamic display of colours and textures that last all season long until frost. Snowdrop anemone, lungwort and bugleweed (ajuga) are also excellent ground covers with dense habits that will naturalize and spread.
Low-Light Gardening Tips and Ideas
Easy Shade Garden Design
To take the guesswork out of shade garden design, try Breck’s colourful Shade Designer Garden or the monochromatic Fragrant Moonlight Garden. Each consists of a curated collection of perennials as well as a garden layout plan to make planting simple.
How to Create a No-Dig Shade Garden
Sometimes a shaded area of the yard can come along with compacted or dry soil, or you may be looking for an easy way to start a new garden without digging. In that case, try creating a raised bed, where you can add potting soil ideal for growing thriving plants. Build your own or choose a stylish premade raised bed like these.
How to Plant Shade-Loving Perennials for Continuous Bloom
When choosing your shade-loving perennials, be sure to include a mix of plants with varying bloom times. Use the shopping filters on Breck’s website to browse plants by their flowering periods. You will learn, for example, to plant hellebores for early spring blooms; trilliums, lilies-of-the-valley and bleeding hearts for late spring blooms; foxgloves for early summer blooms; astilbes and hostas for summer blooms; and toad lilies and monkshood for late summer and fall blooms.
Learn More: Plan Your Garden by Bloom Time
Another way to keep your shade garden blooming season after season is to include both fall-planted and spring-planted shade bulbs in your planting scheme.
Learn More: The Best Fall-Planted Bulbs for Shade Gardens and Best Spring-Planted Bulbs for Shade Gardens and Containers
Budget-Friendly Perennials for Shade
For gardeners on a budget, it’s a good idea to purchase plants in bulk. This is especially true for shade gardens, since unlike sunny gardens where you may easily sow seeds, it’s nearly impossible to germinate seeds in the shade.
Shop Breck’s Super Sak® for the best value, where you will find our most popular shade plants in bulk at amazing prices.