We recently landscaped around our house, and I truly thought the shaded north side of our home would be the hardest place to find flowers for. However, I did my research and found lots of beautiful flowering plants to thrive in shade areas that get less than 2 hours of direct sunlight per day. In fact, we have a larger variety of flowers on our shady side than on any other side of the house! These are my picks for the best flowering shade plants. Contains affiliate links to recommended products. See my full disclaimer.
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Best Flowering Shade Plants:
Columbine
I’ll be honest here. I didn’t know what Columbines were until they just appeared in our shade garden last spring, but they’ve grown well and we’ve since added additional varieties. Columbines come in different shapes depending on the type. The wildflower varieties are a unique shape which includes rear spurs, and the double flower varieties have tons of petals for a luxurious look. Being wildflowers, they are super easy to grow from seeds!
Shop Columbine Seeds
Helleborus
Hello, helleborus! These winter bloomers come in many stunning varieties, particularly the double petaled ones. Always nice to have early flowers to brighten up your shade garden!
Shop Hellborus
Hepatica
This beautiful wildflower can be hard to find at nurseries, but it’s certainly worth the hunt! One of the first wildflowers to bloom in the spring, hepatica thrives in shady environments and can be found in white, blue, purple, and pink.
Shop Hepatica
Bleeding hearts
Bleeding hearts are classic shade flowers that come in yellow, pink, red, and white. They bloom in spring and may rebloom during the summer in cooler climates. Plant these to add a cottage feel to your garden.
Shop Bleeding Hearts
Astilbe
I’m a sucker for the soft, cotton candy-like astilbe! We have pink and peach ones in our garden, but they also come in other colors such as white and red.
Shop Astilbe
Hydrangea
Hydrangeas are one of my personal favorites though it might surprise people to see them listed as one of the best flowering shade plants. We have them all around our house, and our first ones actually started on our shade side.
Shop Hydrangeas
Bellflowers
Some varieties of bellflowers are short and can handle shade well, making them an excellent groundcover choice for shade gardens. We have started these on one end of our shade garden to see how they do. So far so good!
Shop Bellflowers
Hardy Geranium
You can plant geraniums anywhere! Ours do great in full shade, and they’re a wonderful way to add color to your shade garden.
Shop Geraniums
Spanish Bluebells
Spanish Bluebells can be planted in full sun to full shade and are available in white, pink, and blue varieties. These late spring bloomers grow to about 16 inches tall.
Shop Spanish Bluebells
Lungwort / Virginia Bluebells
I haven’t tried these yet, but Virginia bluebells are another woodland wildflower that can grow in full shade. Buds begin as pink and then open up into blue blooms.
Shop Virginia Bluebells
What are the best flowering shade plants in your experience?
Found your post on the Sweet Inspiration link party. I love all of the blue flowers! I haven’t seen Hepatica before…very pretty! I’ll have to see if I can find it :)
Aren’t they beautiful? Hepatica is such a pretty little flower. I hope you can find some next spring!
Your shade area sounds beautiful! Mine is one of my favorite areas in the garden as well. I have everything you shared but some of the bluebells. Columbines grow wild in our mountains, but I love all of the different varieties. Another favorite shade plant of mine is forget me knots. Thanks for sharing with SYC.
hugs,
Jann
Your garden sounds amazing! I might just have to add some forget me nots to ours next year!
Oh I’ve never heard of Hepaticas, so very pretty. I wonder if they sell them in South Africa? We also have tons of Hellebores in our garden but I’ve never seen a white one – beautiful. Thank you for the wonderful list. If ever you come across a Clivia, please try it in your shade garden. They’re native to South Africa and are stunning, low care shade loving plants that put on the most glorious display in late winter.
I just looked up Clivia & it’s beautiful! I’d love to find some for our garden. We planted a few white hellebores this past spring & I can’t wait to see them bloom!
I love this post! Most of our yard is shady, and we’re always looking for ways to add color. Hydrangeas and bleeding hearts are some of our favorites.For height, we like liatris (or maybe liatrus?) If you like the wildflower look, dianthus and annual candytuft work really well! I hadn’t thought of bellflowers but they look lovely. I’ll have to read up on them!
I had never heard of liratris, but I just now looked it up. What a cool looking flower! We planted some dianthus on the sunny side of our house, and I love them! I didn’t know they tolerated shade, and I kinda want to add them to our shade garden now!
Good post! I have several of these and my flowerbed is mostly shady!
Thanks, Suzy! I had no idea before that there were so many beautiful shade flowers. Can’t wait to add even more to our garden!
some beautiful flowers! We are installing a pond this weekend and I need some shade loving plants to go with! thanks for this list!
Thanks, Millie! I hope your pondside shade garden turns out beautiful!
What a neat post! Everything is so pretty!! :)
Thanks for joining Cooking and Crafting with J & J!
Wow, what beautiful photography. Your garden must look gorgeous.I have a brown thumb, but I can admire your garden instead. You have given me lots of sweet inspiration with these lovely flowers.
Thank you, Mary! I’m new to gardening this year, but so far so good! Of course I have my husband’s help (he was born with a green thumb), so I can’t take too much credit :)
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Thank you for this post! So helpful. We appreciate you linking up your posts with us this week at Snickerdoodle Sunday! Pinned to share :)
Thanks for sharing your great tips for flowering shade plants at Snickerdoodle Sunday. Pinning. I need all the tips I can get!
So pretty – I actually do really well with astilbe as well, love the beautiful plumes it creates. I have not had much success with a bleeding heart, but my hydrangea does really well on the shady side of my house too.
All of these are beautiful flowers! Of course my favorite is hydrangea as well!
Thanks for linking up with Welcome Home Wednesdays! Live every Wednesday at 7AM CT.
liz @ j for joiner
I love all of these suggestions! A few questions…. What growing zone are you in? Are these annuals?? Thank you!
Hi Mary, I’m in zone 6 and these are all perennials. Hope this helps!
Thank you for all the helpful tips. Although the summer is coming to an end I am so pleased to know what beautiful flowers to buy for my shady garden.
Landscaping our yard is an ongoing process and we’re always looking for beautiful flowering plants to add. This is a nice list and will be one of my Featured posts at the new Merry Monday party starting Sunday night at 9 pm est. Thanks so much for sharing!
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These flowers are looking so beautiful. Fully blossomed. I have Astilbe & Bellflowers in my garden. I am saving this list and will try some of them.
Wow, the flowers look amazing especially Astilbe.
This is a great list of shade flowers. I have a spot near my front door that doesn’t get a lot of sun and this list will be handy when I go flower shopping.
Are all thes flowers for shade plantable in Clearwater florida with a sandy soil
This is a great list of shade flowers list. I am saving this list and will try some of them very soon. I’m new to gardening this year, but so far so good. . I love all of the blue flowers! I haven’t seen Hepatica before it, very pretty. flowers increase the beauty of the garden and also house.
I have a spot near my front door that doesn’t get a lot of suns and this list will be handy when I go flower shopping. I am saving this list and will try some of them very soon. I’m new to gardening this year, but so far so good. This is a nice list and will be one of my Featured posts at the new Merry Monday party starting Sunday night at 7 pm est.
Hello! This is a nice list and will be one of my Featured posts at the new Merry Monday party starting Sunday night at 9 pm est. I am saving this list and will try some of them very soon. I’m new to gardening this year, but so far so good. I go flower shopping. I am saving this list and will try some of them very soon. I’m new to gardening this year, but so far so good.
What about Crocus? I love them! The Iris is another beautiful shade loving plant. I have them on a border to a bed with small trees and shrubs under tall woodsy trees and they do well.
Thanks for sharing this.
Hey! Thank You for writing such an informative blog- content.
What a beautiful shades no doubt. Colors are the smiles of the nature.
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