Monday 25 May 2015

Best shade plants for your garden

You can brighten up the shaded spots in your landscape with these easy-to-grow floras that come back year after year.

Bigroot Geranium

This is one of the toughest plants that can grow in the shade. Bigroot geranium can handle drought or heat. Moreover, deers and rabbits normally avoid them in search of other flavorsome morsels. This shade plant offers outstanding pink or white flowers. When beautifying your garden, plant bigroot geranium in front of toad lilies to add interest to your landscape.

Toad Lily

Toad lilies are easy-to-grow perennial flowers that are often compared to orchids. The plant can be spotted with purple or blue shades. You can let the toad lily rise up behind a bunch of fern-leafed bleeding heart or medium-sized hostas.

Ajuga

This groundcover is grown primarily for its foliage, but also has beautiful flowers. Ajuga yields dark, glossy green leaves and blue flowers. Some of the varieties of this plant offer multicolored or dark purple foliage, or white or pink flowers. Ajuga grows 6 inches tall. Varieties of purple-leafed ajuga look great with blue hostas.                                                                   

Old-Fashioned Bleeding Heart    

Dicentra spectabilis is one of the favorite plants to grow in shade during late spring and early summer. It produces white or pink heart-shaped flowers that hang from arching, elegant stems. By midsummer, the plant tends to lose its foliage and go dormant. Plant it with hosta and astilbe to ensure there is no barren spot within your garden at any given point.

Astilbe hybrids

These are feathery, plumelike flowers that come in shades of salmon, pink, lavender, and white. They look great beside garden pools. Give them rich, moist soil to grow.

Begonia (Tuberous)

For sizzling color in hanging baskets and pots, these plants make a great option. Flowers come in a variety of shades. Hanging types blossom more abundantly, but upright strains have bigger flowers. These begonias tend to grow best in rich soil and filtered shade. It is important to water them enough to keep the soil moist and mist regularly.

Coleus

The brilliantly colored leaves of the plant range from yellow to pink, ruby, red, orange, and other blends. But for patios that are lightly shaded, partial to lime green hues such as sunny yellow, or lime and brown will do the job brilliantly. Coleus will look great in bright pots.

Hosta

Hostas are easy-to-grow perennial plants. They also provide a great variety of shade. Select from miniatures that can stay only a few inches wide. Look for leaves in shades of blue, green, white, gold, and chartreuse.

Lungwort

These plants have lung-shaped, silvery spots on their foliage. The multi-colored foliage looks great throughout the season, but the plant looks particularly nice when it has clusters of white, pink, and blue flowers during spring. You can team up Lungwort with 'Jack Frost' for a beautiful silver-on-silver play.

Yellow Corydalis
This perennial plant grows in shade and is known to be the longest bloomer. Enjoy the bunch of yellow flowers till frost sets in. The plant is not only popular for its flowers but also for its attractive gray-green leaves. Accent the bright flowers of the plant against hosta foliage or dark green hellebore for an interesting look.

Lamium

Lamium produces bunches of white or pink flowers. This pleasant groundcover can bloom on and off throughout the summer, offering color to the garden for months. And even when it is not in bloom, the silver-infused foliage brightens up the shady corners.

Plant some beautiful flora to add color to your garden even in shade. If you’re unsure about which plant will look best in your garden, make sure you seek advice from a landscaping expert.