bloooooooom Eight o's. Don't count, bookmark. Plan a bed

Native plants for shade

Shade plants native to the United States: woodland flowers, ferns and shrubs for a native shade garden.

Most of eastern North America was forest, so there is no shortage of native shade plants: the woodland wildflowers that flower in spring before the trees leaf out, the ferns, the sedges, and the shrubs of the forest edge.

Many of the spring ones are ephemeral: they flower, set seed and vanish by midsummer, so pair them with ferns and later perennials that fill the gap they leave. Every plant here is native to the United States, or a named variety of a native.

171 plants: 69 perennials, 26 ferns, 2 bulbs, 13 grasses and 61 shrubs.

The dozen to start with

  • Oakleaf hydrangea

    Oakleaf hydrangea

    6½ ft · mid June to early August

    A native shrub for every season: cone-shaped white flowers that age to pink, huge oak-shaped leaves that turn wine red and purple in autumn, and peeling, cinnamon-coloured bark in winter.

  • Christmas fern

    Christmas fern

    20 in · grown for its leaves

    The most useful native fern: leathery, dark green fronds that stay green through winter, in a tidy clump that never spreads.

  • Ostrich fern

    Ostrich fern

    4 ft · grown for its leaves

    Tall, feathery fronds form an elegant green vase that gives height at the back of a shady bed.

  • Mountain laurel

    Mountain laurel

    8 ft · late May to late June

    A native evergreen with crimped, sugar-icing buds that open into cup-shaped flowers of white, pink or red in late spring, in clusters that cover the plant.

  • Coral bells 'Palace Purple'

    Coral bells 'Palace Purple'

    12 in · grown for its leaves

    Large, maple-shaped leaves of deep bronze-purple, beetroot red beneath, with thin sprays of tiny cream flowers.

  • Mexican orange blossom

    Mexican orange blossom

    6 ft · early May to late May

    A rounded, evergreen shrub with glossy, three-part leaves that smell of citrus when crushed, and clusters of white, orange-scented flowers in spring and often again in autumn.

  • Marsh marigold

    Marsh marigold

    16 in · mid April to early May

    Glossy, buttercup-yellow flowers over rounded, shining leaves in early spring, at the edge of water or in boggy soil.

  • Large-flowered bellwort

    Large-flowered bellwort

    20 in · late April to mid May

    Nodding, lemon-yellow bells with twisted petals hang from arching stems in spring, as the leaves are still unfolding.

  • Seersucker sedge

    Seersucker sedge

    12 in · grown for its leaves

    Broad, lime-green, evergreen leaves, puckered like seersucker cloth, in a neat rosette.

  • Male fern

    Male fern

    3 ft · grown for its leaves

    A robust, upright shuttlecock of dark green fronds.

  • Virginia bluebells

    Virginia bluebells

    20 in · mid April to early May

    Pink buds open to nodding clusters of sky-blue bells above soft, blue-green leaves in early spring.

  • Rosebay rhododendron

    Rosebay rhododendron

    15 ft · late June to mid July

    The great laurel of the Appalachians: long, leathery, drooping leaves and trusses of white to pale pink flowers in early summer, after other rhododendrons.

A bed planned only from these plants

The planner was given only the plants on this page that suit zone 6 and part shade, and designed this 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) bed from them when the page was made.

A 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) bed at eye level in early May: Green-and-gold, Jacob's ladder 'Stairway to Heaven', Smooth hydrangea 'Invincibelle Spirit II', Dixie wood fern, White snakeroot, Gray's sedge, Northern sea oats 'River Mist', White trillium, Yellow trout lily, Fawn lily 'White Beauty'.
A 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) naturalistic planting in zone 6, part shade, seen from the path in early May.
4. Dixie wood fern44. Dixie wood fern44. Dixie wood fern43. Smooth hydrangea 'Invincibelle Spirit II'32. Jacob's ladder 'Stairway to Heaven'22. Jacob's ladder 'Stairway to Heaven'22. Jacob's ladder 'Stairway to Heaven'22. Jacob's ladder 'Stairway to Heaven'22. Jacob's ladder 'Stairway to Heaven'21. Green-and-gold11. Green-and-gold11. Green-and-gold12. Jacob's ladder 'Stairway to Heaven'22. Jacob's ladder 'Stairway to Heaven'22. Jacob's ladder 'Stairway to Heaven'21. Green-and-gold11. Green-and-gold11. Green-and-gold11. Green-and-gold11. Green-and-gold15. White snakeroot55. White snakeroot55. White snakeroot57. Northern sea oats 'River Mist'77. Northern sea oats 'River Mist'77. Northern sea oats 'River Mist'78. White trillium88. White trillium88. White trillium88. White trillium88. White trillium88. White trillium88. White trillium88. White trillium88. White trillium88. White trillium86. Gray's sedge66. Gray's sedge66. Gray's sedge61. Green-and-gold11. Green-and-gold11. Green-and-gold11. Green-and-gold11. Green-and-gold11. Green-and-gold11. Green-and-gold11. Green-and-gold11. Green-and-gold11. Green-and-gold11. Green-and-gold11. Green-and-gold11. Green-and-gold11. Green-and-gold11. Green-and-gold11. Green-and-gold110. Fawn lily 'White Beauty'10. Fawn lily 'White Beauty'10. Fawn lily 'White Beauty'10. Fawn lily 'White Beauty'10. Fawn lily 'White Beauty'9. Yellow trout lily9. Yellow trout lily9. Yellow trout lily9. Yellow trout lily9. Yellow trout lily
From above, to scale. Each circle is one plant, as wide as the room it needs.

The plants

  1. 1 Green-and-gold × 24, yellow
  2. 2 Jacob's ladder 'Stairway to Heaven' × 8, blue
  3. 3 Smooth hydrangea 'Invincibelle Spirit II' × 1, pink
  4. 4 Dixie wood fern × 3, dark green leaves
  5. 5 White snakeroot × 3, white
  6. 6 Gray's sedge × 3, green
  7. 7 Northern sea oats 'River Mist' × 3, green
  8. 8 White trillium × 10, white
  9. 9 Yellow trout lily × 5, yellow
  10. 10 Fawn lily 'White Beauty' × 5, white

Planned as a naturalistic planting: low grasses and groundcovers, the matrix, make up 41% of the planted ground. Green-and-gold repeats along the bed to tie it together. Low plants run along 98% of the front edge: Jacob's ladder 'Stairway to Heaven' and green-and-gold.

The planner's own design check: 9 Excellent, 7 Good, 1 Satisfactory. It flags one thing to watch: White snakeroot is highly poisonous to people and horses. White snakeroot spreads aggressively.

Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.

All 171 plants

Show all 171, by where they go in a bed

Front of a bed 57

Middle of a bed 53

Back of a bed 61

Related guides