What to plant on a flower bed in the shade and how to properly equip a shade-loving flower garden

On summer days, shady corners in the garden often become a favorite resting place, where it is pleasant to sit, sheltered from the scorching sun’s rays, and admire the picturesque picture of nature. But how to refine this corner and what to plant in a flowerbed in the shade? After all, not all plants are able to calmly tolerate the shade created by tree crowns. You can turn a shaded area into an exquisite flower garden or lush border with the help of shade-tolerant plants: bulbs, perennials and shrubs.

The shading of an area is determined by the duration and intensity of sunlight. The illumination of the zone, in turn, depends on the length of daylight hours, the height of the sun and the presence of trees, the crowns of which create shade.

Arrangement of shade-loving flower beds

When choosing shade-loving plants for a flower bed, it is necessary to focus on the degree of shade of the site and its soil composition

Plants in densely shaded areas

Shaded areas include areas that are illuminated by daylight for three hours, and have only limited illumination the rest of the time.

Best varieties for densely shaded areas

With sufficiently dense shading, created by the crowns of old spreading trees or the walls of the northern sides of the building, such plants are able to maintain decorativeness: European clefthoof, heart-leaved tiarka, Kupena and elecampane magnificent

The dense crown of the spruce also creates a dense shadow. Under its canopy, stonecrop or tender arizema can comfortably settle down, the flowers of which outwardly resemble graceful glasses.

In conditions of dense shade, a special microclimate is created, which is characterized by high humidity of air and soil. Such conditions are favorable for the formation of a flower bed in the shade, which is based on astilbe, geranium, hellebore, volzhanka, and anemone.

If the geranium refuses to bloom, the situation can be corrected with the right care. Read about it:

On well-moistened soils, hosts rapidly grow, the species diversity of which is estimated at several thousand.

Host species diversity

These amazing plants attract attention primarily by the beauty of their foliage with a rich palette of colors, starting with pale green and blue shades and ending with rich yellow with white splashes.

The center of the shade-loving flower bed can be unusually beautiful graceful ferns: the stately chitus, the ostrich and the male fern.

As for shade-loving conifers, they include decorative varieties of juniper, Canadian hemlock and common spruce.

You can learn how to choose a juniper variety and properly care for it from the material:

Arrangement of flower beds in an area with a light shade

A lighter shade is created by trees with an openwork crown: bird cherry, acacia, cherry, aspen, pine … Some trees, such as birch and bird cherry, creating a diffused shadow, significantly dry the soil in the radius of the crown. This should be taken into account, since most shade-tolerant plants are moisture-loving by nature.

Dry shade is preferred by broad-leaved kupena, periwinkle, mountain goat weed, forest anemone. In areas with dry shade, it is best to plant spring primrose, berry, comfrey, cereals.

Beautiful flowering plants for shaded areas

In areas where the sun is from 3 to 5 hours a day, you can plant beautifully flowering lupins and daylilies

In semi-shaded areas, medicinal herbs feel comfortable: peppermint, pink radiola, tarragon, lemon balm. Not demanding on sunlight and: spring navel, lungwort, fragrant woodruff.

Since these areas receive more sunlight, the choice of plants to fill them is greatly expanded. To decorate a flower garden, you can use specific peonies: Maryin root, Caucasian, Wittmann.

Freesia also feels good on an area with a light shadow. You can learn how to grow this fragrant flower from the material:

Lilies of the valley, periwinkle, tenacious and violets will comfortably be placed under the crown of a pine tree

Lilies of the valley, periwinkles, tenacious and violets, which also prefer to grow on sandy loam and sandy soils, will comfortably sit under the crown of a pine tree.

Shade-tolerant trees and shrubs include pea cypress, western thuja, Korean fir, Cossack juniper, as well as treelike hydrangea, black elderberry and white turf. Among the vines for growing in the shade, the round-leaved woodworm and the actinidia colomicta are well suited.

Many of them are attractive in terms of landscape design with the unusual shape of the leaf plates or the original shape of the bush. These plants include: pachisandra, hosta, ivy, periwinkle. The “highlight” of other shade-tolerant plants are colorful berries, for example, in the cotoneaster or cotoneaster.

But in order for the plants to show their beauty to the fullest, it is necessary to take care of the appropriate conditions for their cultivation. Dense clay soil is far from the best option for arranging a flower garden.

Foliage decorativeness of shade-loving plants

Shade-tolerant plants do not differ in bright beauty. Their main advantage is colorful foliage, which retains its decorative effect throughout the season.

Beautiful flower garden on rich soil

Plants feel great on fertile, enriched with mineral and organic fertilizers, loose soil

If clay and loamy soils prevail on the site, their composition can be improved by introducing peat and sand. To enrich sandy soils, you can additionally add humus or fertile clay soil.

The material on how to care for soil in the country may also be useful:

A characteristic feature of flower beds formed from shade-tolerant plants is a contrasting combination of leaf shapes and colors.

Therefore, when choosing plants for a flower garden, you should pay attention to the shape of their leaves, because with their help you can make a flower arrangement truly unique and original.

Multi-tiered composition near the wall of the house

Shade-loving flower beds, like any plant compositions, are formed taking into account the principles of multi-tiered, when undersized plants occupy the foreground, and taller specimens and large-sized plants occupy the middle and background.

Beautiful floral carpet at the foot of a tree

If the flowerbed is given a central place in a shaded area, then the tallest plants are placed in the middle of the composition, and as you move away from it, the growth of flowers decreases.

With this method of arrangement, the plants do not close each other, and the composition looks spectacular from all sides.

You can learn more about how to equip a flower garden under a tree from the material:

You can add originality to the flower garden by alternating plants with foliage, decorated with horizontal and vertical lines. For example: a successful combination is created by garden geraniums or foxgloves planted nearby against the background of variegated rogers.

You can always fill in the empty spaces in the plant composition with the help of potted plants. It is convenient to rearrange containers with plants, changing compositions and achieving the desired effect.

We invite you to watch a video selection “everything about plants for shady places”:

Anna Evans

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