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Flowering Plants for the Shade

In the winter a we sit and plan what our gardens are going to look like. I know some people have said they can't grow any flowers because they have too much shade. Well that's wrong!

You can grow all kinds of flowers in the shade, you just have to pick the right plant. You also have to know what kind of shade you have such as light shade, heavy shade, or dappled shade. Light shade is when you get an hour or two of sunlight, into the forest floor. Dappled shade it when the sun comes through the leaves of large deciduous trees such as a maple tree that has limbs pretty high up or a honey locust tree. Heavy shade is what you get under evergreens and also when you have big, thick, canopies of deciduous trees.

The Montreal Botanical Garden has some beautiful shade gardens so you can get lots of ideas when you visit. If you are trying to add some color, to the shade, try some annual plants. The obvious ones to grow are begonias and impatiens. They are always nice and always work. I like the fuchsias, too. Not the ones in the hanging baskets, but the taller ones. The Gartenmeister fuchsia, in particular! They look like a little shrub and get two or three feet tall by the end of the summer. They have beautiful flowers that just hang down and with really bright colors.

You can also plant shrubs, like hydrangeas, that do well in part shade. I like perennials that add a little airy touch, because you get these nice green colored under stories. They have some flowers that are popping up and  kind of dance above the foliage. Flowers such as astilbes, with beautiful pink, red, and white flowers, or filipendula with white flowers.  If you want something unusual, try trollius! It looks like a buttercup, and it's in that family. It's double flowered, orange, and it really is outstanding. So pick out the right kind of flowers for your shade, and you'll add color to that shade garden.
 
By Charlie Nardozzi