Additional Considerations
If you embrace the shade and try to evoke a native forest, visit various forest settings and observe how dense or open they feel, what textures are evident, and how sunlight moves through them.
Think about how much and what type of space you wish to create or preserve. A heavily shaded garden can sometimes feel claustrophobic, especially if there are a lot of dense plants at or above eye level. So — except where you want screening — use mostly lower plants, or consider planting trees and shrubs which grow more open, or can be easily pruned to thin out their branching. Rather than filling your spaces with rhododendron, camellia, Japanese holly, aucuba, etc., you might choose open-branching plants such as Japanese maple, winter hazel, or flowering currant. Note that many of these naturally tend to grow more open under shade.
Edit your design as the plants grow. Remember we said “try a plant in that spot for a season or two”? In any garden setting, a plant you thought would thrive in a particular spot might be struggling. Perhaps it’s brighter or darker than you originally thought. Or a plant is growing more vigorously than expected.
Don’t be afraid to dig and move something (the younger the better, and best done in late winter) or remove it if it doesn’t work. The overall design and health of your garden should take precedence over a single plant.
There are many flowering plants for shade, perhaps not as showy as sun lovers, but beautiful nonetheless. Look for variety and subtlety of foliage color, size and shape, branching habit, bark texture, and other details these plants offer. Or perhaps add colorful containers, furnishings, lighting, or paving materials to brighten things up.
More information on plant choices for shade:
Flowers for Shade Gardens
Flowers for Partial Shade
Plants for Dry Shade
Dan Gilchrist
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