12 Famous Shade Loving Plants For Your Garden

There are several plants that grow in shade and add color to an otherwise dull landscape. So before cutting down mature trees and shrubs to allow more sunlight to shine onto the landscape, consider growing some of these shade loving plants that are just as pretty as their sun loving cousins.

You may also like to see popular vegetables and herbs that grow in shade.

Well known Shade Loving Plants.

1. Quick Navigation

   Toggle

   Anemones (Anemone)

Perennial flowers that grow upright or in a lateral spread. Single or double blooms in a variety of colors show up in late spring or early summer. Hardy in USDA zones 5-9.

2. Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis)

Unusual blooms that look like hanging chains of hearts that have a tiny droplet of blood coming from the bottom of the bloom. This shade loving plant produces pink or white heart-shaped blooms in spring. Hardy in USDA zones 3-9.

3. Coral Bells (Heuchera)

Shade tolerant perennial plant that produces bell-shaped red or pink spring blooming flowers. The green leaves of the shade loving plant turn brilliant shades of purple and bronze for a fall foliage display. Hardy in USDA zones 4-9.

4. Impatiens (Impatiens)

Cheerful full shade plants that will produce mounds of flowers from early spring until mid-summer. Hardy in most growing zones.

5. Hydrangea (H. macrophylla)

This is one of the best plants for shade. Long-living shrub that produce large flowers head of blue, purple, white or pink. Blooms in spring and makes great cut of dried flowers. Hardy in USDA growing zones 5-9.

6. Begonia (Begoniaceae)

Easy care shade loving plants that produces lavish blooms in white, red, pink, yellow or orange and last all summer. Annual plant that is Hardy in USDA zones 4-8.

7. Caladium (Araceae)

Also called Elephant Ear because of its large leaves, caladium is a plant that likes shade. Huge colorful leaves grow quickly and come in a variety of colors. Hardy in USDA growing zones 8-10.

8. Coleus (Plectranthus scutellarioides)

Another shade loving plant that does not produce a bloom, but the colorful, textured leaves more than make up for lack of blooms. Hardy in most USDA growing zones.

9. Hellebores (Helleborus)

Hellebores are one of the few shade loving plants that will produce a colorful bloom when grown in heavy shade. Evergreen perennial plant is also known as Lenten Rose, but the shade loving plant is not related to the rose family. Hellebores are frost-resistant and produce pale green or greenish-purple blooms in the late winter and early spring. Hardy in most USDA growing zones.

10. Ginger (Zingiber officinale)

Here is an edible herb plant that is attractive, has several culinary uses and grows well in heavy shade. Ginger root is harvested and used to make tea, season foods and in the making of some home remedies. Hardy in most USDA growing zones.

11. Lady Fern (Athyrium filix-femina)

Non-flowering plant that grows well in heavy shade where the soil remains moist. Lady ferns produce delicate-looking, deciduous fronds on plants that can grow up to three feet across. Hadry in USDA growing zones 3-7.

12. Japanese Spurge (Pachysandra terminalis)

Shade loving, blooming ground cover. Japanese spurge is an evergreen perennial that produces tiny white flowers in spring and will cover shady ground to produce a green carpet effect year around, white carpet effect when the plant is in bloom. Hardy is most USDA growing zones.