Plant List for Shade
One of the toughest local environments to build a garden is deep shade. But when grass stops growing, there are still many options for flowers, edibles, and hedges.
Here’s a small list to inspire you.
Hedge berries:
- clove currant or black currant (require about 3-4 hours of light)
“Ornamental” bushes and taller plants:
- Canadian yew
- holly
- some hydrangeas
- hosta
Vines
- hog peanut
- wild yam (require about 3-4 hours of light)
Forest floor edibles
- bunchberry
- wintergreen
- Alpine strawberries
- wild ginger
- ramps
- Queen Anne’s lace
- Indian cucumber root
- wild garlic
- Soloman’s seal
- miner’s lettuce
- anise root
- may apples (Warming: this one should be eaten only after consulting with an expert that can show the appropriate time to harvest. Unripened fruit from the may apple is poisonous, as are all the other parts of this plant.
Mushrooms There’s too many to list. Some of our favorites include:
- oysters (great at removing toxins and breaking down oil)
- miatake (aka chicken-of-the-woods, indescribably good taste)
Edible ferns (young fronds, plant in really wet areas)
- ostrich fern
- christmas fern
- lady fern
Forest floor flowers
- lily of the valley
- rue anemone
- bleeding heart
- cardinal flower
- trillium
- white wood aster
- violets
- rosybells
- zig-zag goldenrod
- creeping phlox
- dwarf-crested iris
- foamflower
For help finding these plants, or to schedule a complete deep shade design, please feel free to contact us.