These perennials for shade feature beautiful flowers and foliage to brighten up your garden.
Some of these plants prefer regular moisture, while others are drought tolerant once establish.
This easy-to-grow flowering shade perennial offers unique flowers that are often compared to orchids.
Credit: Tria Giovan
Many are spotted with shades of purple or blue.
‘Tojen’ (shown here) is a favorite variety that offers especially large lavender flowers.
Select varieties offer dark purple or variegated foliage or pink or white flowers.
Credit: David Speer
It makes a tough groundcover, staying low and spreading outward with creeping stems.
Hosta
Among the showiest and easiest-to-grow shade perennials,hostascome in ahuge variety of sizes and shapes.
Choose from miniatures that stay only a few inches tall or giants that sprawl 6 feet across or more.
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Some hosta flowers are very fragrant, too.
By midsummer, bleeding heart usually goes dormant and loses its foliage.
Plant it with astilbe or hosta, so you don’t have a bare spot in your shade gardens.
Credit: Marty Baldwin
Enjoy the clusters of yellow flowers from late spring to frost.
It earned its moniker from the silvery, lung-shape spots that dot the foliage of theseflowering shade plants.
Deadnettle
Starting in mid spring,deadnettleproduces clusters of pink, purple, or white flowers.
Credit: John Reed Forsman
This shade plant blooms all summer, creating months of color.
Even when it’s not blooming, thesilver-infused foliageof these flowering shade perennials brightens shady corners.
Test Garden Tip:Keep deadnettle looking its best by keeping it moist.
Credit: Peter Krumhardt
If it dries out too much, the leaves will develop brown edges.
Some varieties are evergreen in mild-winter areas; others offer good fall color.
Hellebore
Also called Christmas rose,helleboreisone of the earliest bloomersof flowering shade plants.
Credit: Stephen Cridland
This beauty offers fronds liberally dappled with silver, burgundy, and green.
Plus, it’s a low-growing, slow-spreading plant for shady areas.
Deer and rabbits usually leave it alone.
Credit: David McDonald
This slow grower eventually forms impressive groundcover.
In fall, the leaves of these colorful shade plants often pick up beautiful reddish tones.
‘Aureola’ bears bright yellow leaves with dark green edges; ‘All Gold’ has even morebrilliant golden foliage.
Credit: Rich Pomerantz
Plus, it’s practically a plant-and-forget-it garden resident, even when it’s growing in dry shade.
Fern-Leaf Bleeding Heart
Unlike the old-fashioned bleeding heart, fern-leafbleeding heartkeeps its fine-textured foliage all season long.
Virginia Bluebells
Virginia bluebellsbring woodland beauty to your spring garden.
Credit: Andy Lyons
The blue, bell-shaped flowers bloom for about three weeks at the same time as many spring bulbs.
They are particularly lovely when paired withbright yellow daffodils.
Zones:38
Columbine
Columbinesbloom in almost every color, beginning near the end of bulb season.
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They add a dash of color right when your garden needs it.
Although they are short-lived perennials, they reseed heavily in the garden.
However, the resulting plants may not resemble the parent.
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Growing Conditions:Full to part shade in evenly moist to wet, well-drained, humus-rich soil.
After the blooms fade, the foliage of this woodland native serves as an attractive backdrop for other plants.
Golden star spreads rapidly but is easily controlled if it outgrows its allotted space.
Credit:Lynn Karlin
Often located along stream banks, this versatile plant is a creeping perennial that spreads slowly.
has unique arching stems of bold foliage.
In spring, small white flowers dangle from the stems for about 3 weeks.
Credit: Justin Hancock
Some varieties feature white or yellow variegation on the leaves.
This plant makes a good backdrop for more showy shade perennials.
Growing Conditions:Full to part shade but best in dappled light in organically rich, consistently moist soil
Zones:49
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