8 Easy to Grow Flowers for the Shade Garden

You want to have a flourishing and beautiful garden, but you have shady areas that nothing seems to grow in. I hear you; I struggled with that same problem until I found these shade garden flowers. They are the perfect addition to a shady spot in the garden. 

Transform those shady spots in your garden from a sparse area into a flower oasis. You can do that with flowers made to grow in the shade.  

In our garden, we have a lot of trees. We have one area that gets full sun. In the full sun spot, I grow our vegetables and fruit. But the rest of the garden is shady or dense shade. 

At first I gave up on growing flowers since everything I planted dwindled and died. They just didn’t get enough light to grow. 

 I thought I could never have pretty flowers in my garden because of all the shade. 

That was until I found great flowering plants that thrive in the shade. And the shady areas in your garden can be pretty too, with the flowers and plants below. 

These shade garden flowers are easy to grow. So they are perfect for both beginning and experienced gardeners. 

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8 Easy to Grow Flowers for the Shade Garden

Spider Wort

I don’t think Spider Wort is a good name for this beautiful plant, but I understand why someone would call it that. Its correct name is Tradescantia. 

It’s great for beginners because it is easy to grow and can tolerate wet soil too. But it prefers moist soil best. 

Plus, you can go wrong with the beautiful leaves and flowers. It’s a pretty addition to any shade garden. We added it to our garden just last year. 

Hosta

While technically more of a plant than a flower, they produce flowers. And you can’t go wrong with a hosta in your shade garden. 

There are many varieties with different-sized leaves and foliage colors. Like this one called curly fries, just got to love that name. 

Or this variety with beautiful white on the edges of the leaves, so pretty. That is sure to brighten up a shady area in the garden.

They are fairly easy to grow and if they outgrow the space you have for them, you can divide the hosta plant too. 

We started with two plants in containers about 20 years ago and now we have 6 huge plants around our garden, plus the two in the pots. And I’ve given away at least 2 dozen hostas to other people, too. 

Fuchsia

Now when you think of a fuchsia, you might envision them in hanging planters. And while the trailing variety does well in hanging planters, you can also add the upright varieties to your garden.

If you have an area that gets good morning sun and afternoon shade it would be perfect for a fuchsia. This hearty red fuchsia would be a wonderful addition to a shade garden.

They are a bit harder to grow than a hosta plant or the spider wort, but they’re beautiful flowers are worth the effort. 

Pansies

I think pansies are an overlooked flower to add to your shade garden. You can get many colors of pansies to add a splash of color to your shade garden. 

They grow fairly easily, too. And will spread if you don’t remove the seed pods as they form. Or if you want them to reseed themselves each year, leave the seeds pod on.

I remove the seed pods and save them for the next year. 

Lily of the Valley

These sweet white and rose-colored flowers are perfect for the shade garden.

They are bulbs you plant and they have a lovely green leaf with beautiful white flowers that smell so good. 

The best part is they multiply over the years so you get more and more flowers. 

And they are deer resistant too. 

Bleeding Heart or Dwarf Bleeding Hearts

These plants are native to my area and I love them. They have a heart-shaped flower with a little drop coming from the bottom of the flower. 

The dwarf bleeding heart or fern leaf bleeding heart are the plants I like the best. They have a delicate fern looking foliage that stays green from spring when they come up to fall. 

Then the flowers come up on stalks from the plant. They are beautiful and a superb addition to your shade garden. 

Impatiens

Is another shade flower that comes in a variety of colors like pansies. Some have brightly colored blooms and other are almost white with a splash of color in the middle. 

If you are looking to add a variety of colors to your shade garden, these will work great. 

They are easy to grow in moist soil that gets shade. They are an annual plant so you’ll need to replant each year. But they are worth the effort in the amount of beautiful flowers you get. 

Hydrangea

Hydrangeas are bush type plants with beautiful green leaves and enormous flowers on them. Perfect for drying or for bouquets. 

They are blue, purple, or pink depending on your soil. I have starts from the same plant in three different places in our garden. One is deep blue, this is the original plant. The second transplant is a lighter blue. And the 3^rd transplant ranges blooms from pink to purple to light blue. 

There are many varieties, some with huge blooms. Some with cone-shaped blooms and more. 

We’ve found them to be really quite hearty and easy to grow in our zone 8 climate. Once established they will produce lots of flowers year after year. 

And because they are shade-loving plants, they are the perfect addition to a shady corner of the garden. Just make sure they have room to grow. 

That’s the 8, easy to grow flowers for your shade garden. I hope you’ve found one you want to add to your own garden to brighten up a shady spot.

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