New to Gardening - Flowers for shaded area

tempnam

As the title says, I have no gardening experience. The back garden is used for the kids to run around, bounce on the trampoline and play on the swings!

I have just made a raised flower bed and want to put some plants/flowers in that will bring some colour to the garden. The garden only gets sunlight in the mornings and it is shaded for most of the day.

Any recommendations for plants/flowers to put in?

Thanks in advance!

These are ideal conditions for a huge range of plants, so you won't be stuck for options. Gromwell, Lithospermum purpurocaerulea is nice blue low grower. Red/Pink Campions are very reliable. There are Geraniums in a range of colours too, none of these are difficult to grow.

looksee

Do you want perennials - plants that you put in and leave all year round, they will come back next year and continue flowering, they tend to be a bit more expensive.

Or do you want annuals, plants that you buy around now, reasonably inexpensively for 6 or 8 or more plants. They will give a good display of colour then die off at the end of the summer.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both. Perennials are somewhat easier for shade, but what you describe isn't serious shade, its partial shade.

Or you could do a bit of a mixture, a few larger perennial plants towards the middle of the bed then some annuals - fibrous rooted begonias are very good - around the edge. Violas would be good in that situation too. Monkey flower/Mimulus and snapdragons are also good (snapdragons often last till the following year, or self seed). Perennials could include Bleeding Hearts/Dicentra Spectabilis, campanulas/bellflowers, astilbes, foxgloves, perennial geraniums (as against pelargonums which are the brightly coloured annuals normally called geraniums), there are loads of possibilities, its just a matter of deciding what you like. You could also put in some bulbs in the autumn to fill the gaps till its time to put in more annuals.

tempnam

[Deleted User] wrote: »

These are ideal conditions for a huge range of plants, so you won't be stuck for options. Gromwell, Lithospermum purpurocaerulea is nice blue low grower. Red/Pink Campions are very reliable. There are Geraniums in a range of colours too, none of these are difficult to grow.

when you say not difficult to grow, what does that entail? Or, what makes a plant difficult to grow? aside from watering, what is involved?

Sorry, I'm an extreme novice at this!

tempnam

looksee wrote: »

You could also put in some bulbs in the autumn to fill the gaps till its time to put in more annuals.

so you can have different types of flowers growing in the same spot, at different times of the year?

Thanks for all ther other info. I've some googling to do!

magicbastarder

i put down some white wood asters i was given, under our curly hazel, and they seem happy enough so far.

zanador

I'm a huge fan of hostas in a shaded area - their foliage really shows up and you can get various types.

I have ferns, hostas, Japanese acers as a few examples of what's growing in the north end. You can also look at the types of things that grow in the woods, foxgloves, bluebells etc..

looksee

tempnam wrote: »

so you can have different types of flowers growing in the same spot, at different times of the year?

Thanks for all ther other info. I've some googling to do!

Yes. put in bulbs - plant them reasonably deeply, check the packet for guidelines but make sure they are at the depth suggested. In the spring they will be dying down and you can put in annuals very close to them, by the time the annuals are ready to go the bulbs will be pretty much gone. Leave the bulbs from year to year.

Dun't buy the first lot of annuals in the shops, wait till about now/ mid May.

The exceptions are pansies (the small ones are better) and primroses (again, the small-flowered ones are better). Strictly speaking these are perennials, but they are often treated as annuals.

New Home

Helleborus is a great plant that tolerates light shade very well and it's hardy, too. Might not be great for a few months during the height of the summer and early autumn, but the flowers in winter last for ages (the flowers on mine are still out and still gorgeous) and change colour as the time goes on.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/popular/hellebore/growing-guide

New Home

I just thought of something else. If you were thinking of something bigger, shrub-size, let's say, you could go for a Crinodendron hookerianum (Chilean Lantern tree) - it can be pruned back if it gets too big, but there's one in my North-East-facing front garden that's been there for the guts of 15 years, it was pruned back once, and it's still under 2 mts tall. It CAN grow as tall as a tree, but from what I've seen it's very slow. Mine has red flowers, but it comes in white and in pink, too. The leaves are dark green and tough, almost like those of an olive tree but darker. The flowers are like bells, the size of a large cherry tomato, the plant is covered in them. I think it's a lovely plant.



https://frustratedgardener.com/2016/06/09/daily-flower-candy-crinodendron-hookerianum/