Need ideas for dappled shade area.

I have a nice garden on the east side of my house. Really would like to have some different plants in there. Is there anything that looks like a rose that might blossom in the dappled shade?? Anything with a little color in it? I always do impatints in pots and some non stop begonias of course. It does have a little time in the afternoon where it has some nice spots of sun. Later in the day. Any input would be appreciated and thanks. Oh I do have so many hosta, toad lilies, black cohash, primroses, and some fern. Thanks... Ronna

Ligularia is bold & colorful, including forms with interesting foliage.
Hydrangeas of course. I like hydrangea serrata forms, a little more refined to my taste.
If you want shrubs, azaleas come in all shapes & sizes, should do fine w/ dappled shade.
Lots of other options, too!

Cameilia looks like a rose
Persimmons -asian can take some shade - beautiful color
I have no problems with edgeworthia on eastside ( not rose shaped -- more crysathmum - like )
Corner placed Rose of Sharon blooms facing northeast - I hate that thing and nothing stops it!

Heuchera, oakleaf hydrangeas, polemonium, epimedium and fragaria vesca reugen (woodland strawberries). I transplanted these all from my previous garden and they all worked.

Mertensia (this is a pic from my old, sunnier garden but it works fabulously in less light).

Bergenia (better in less light). It struggles in my sun garden but look at the flowers now in shade!

Geraniums of all kings, and wintergreen (acidify your soil for wintergreen)

You really have many, many choices!

It is the looking like a rose that tightens the options. But, as I age I find that lots of blooms look like roses from 8 feet - like that persimmon in bloom! 😝

Weerobin does have the most exquisite plants. I always enjoy Wee's postings.

Yeah thanks everyone. I do have ligularias, lots of hydrangeas, oakleaf being my favorite of all, bergenias. I do not have to much luck with that at all. Maybe I will have to move it again. Lol. Have epimediums, they are okay a nice tight ground cover and flowers in the spring. I am not just looking for a rose shape flower just anything different. It is so hard to have lots of shade really cuts the list way down. I do have the geraniums to I really like them the flowers are so pretty.

My yard is mostly shade, so I've got tons of shade-tolerant plants.
And if you're looking for 'different', that's right up my alley.
What type of plants are you looking for? Perennial, shrub, ground cover?
How big? Specimen plant or one which grows in expanding clumps?
And beautiful foliage really stands out in the shade,
so if you're open to plants whose main attribute is beautiful foliage,
that opens up even more possibilities.

Some beautiful foliage would be awesome. Really I like almost everything. Not to wild about the groundcover tho. May try some again, but it just takes right over and kinda hard to control? Is there a kind that is not so invasive? My soil on the side of our house is so nice the roots just take right off. I have several shrubs but do love the hydrangeas and may get another one. I got a twist and shout last year and just love it. My oakleaf hydrangea has all but been chewed to the ground bybthe rabbits this winter. Cry, cry! It was so big and beautiful.

Burlap your hydrangeas. That's what I do. I have a Charles de Mille rose (once bloomimg) that I burlapped because the chewing led to no bloom. This year that rose stands tall and proud.

OK, here are a few dappled shade suggestions off the beaten path.
1. 'Woodland peony'. Paeonia japonica. Perfect for dappled shade.
2. Caryopteris divaricata Snow Fairy. Variegated foliage. Fall-blooming.
3. Chloranthus japonica. Blooms as foliage emerges in early spring.
4. An example of a pretty, restrained dappled shade groundcover, asarum takaoi.
5. Enkianthus campanulatus. A pretty shrub perfect for understory situation.

6. Spigelia marilandica. Summer-blooming perennial.
7. Hakonechloa macra Aureola. A beautiful mounding grass for part-sun.
8. Another groundcover ranunculus ficaria Brazen Hussy. Dark foliage w/ bright yellow flowers.
9. Aconitum is another fall-blooming staple. Does fine in part shade in my yard. Fall blooming.
10. Syneilesis aconitifolia aka shredded umbrella plant. Beautiful foliage plant for shade.
Hope some of these might be unusual ideas for your dappled shade!

Oh, weerobin thanks I love those plants especially the wooland peony and the enkianthus campanulotus? Right? Exstremely beautiful all of them. Will look them up for sure. Thanks so much.

DonnaMack thanks so much for all your photos you posted I love them all. I will burlap my hydrangea next year. It has been so cold and so much snow. Way different than other winters for years now!! Poor bunnies are hungray and eating everything in sight.

I am very happy to help. And I just read one thing that gives me hope. The tons of snow do have one positive effect. In Minnesota, where it is zone 4b, they can grow plants that die in the cold here because of the reliable snow cover. And boy, did we get reliable snow cover this year. It may mean that we have lots of touchy plants that will make it through.

I love weerobin's suggestions of Caryopteris Snow Fairy and the Syneilesis aconitifolia - both wonderful drought tolerant plants and the C. is great for fall pollinators as it blooms here in MD in September most years.

I also love Aruncus - all of the photos I have show come from our MD garden that has dappled shade for the most part - high canopy oaks and maples.

The gold variegated Liriope is nice and is not aggressive like the solid colored. I also love the Japanese painted ferns and there are so many different variations in cool tones. If you like ferns with warmer coloring the Dryopteris erythrosora Brilliance is nice. I also love Vinca minor Illumination for a slow growing ground cover. Unlike the common Vinca it has not escaped into the woods and I have had to baby it to get a nice colony about 10 x10 and that has taken years. I also love Ariseama triphyllum the common Jack in the Pulpit. It can take quite a bit of sun and drought.

One plant that we grow in MD I would caution against as a plant to grow in MI which is Aegopodium (Bishop's Weed- Snow on the Mountain) - in the cold climate it turns into a monster. In MD it is a wimpy creeping ground cover. I made the mistake to bring it to our cabin the MI's UP and it is taking over.

I am having cabin fever so this is a great way to think spring for me. You are probably thinking spring in Plainwell too, my family lives in Cooper Township and have spent many winters in Kazoo County growing up. I guess Lake MI almost froze over will cut back on your snow now.

If you are looking for a fast growing shrub that is MI cold hardy - Kolkwitzia - this is the plain white variety - it tops out at 15' and has this lovely weeping habit. Low care - pruning every few years to increase blooming. Next is the fern Athyrium Lady in Red - a nice cultivar of our Lady Fern. Lamium galeobdolon Herman's Pride is a non-invasive lamium that has variegated leaves and yellow flowers. There is a vining Lamium g. which can escape into the woodlands, Herman's Pride forms a clump and I have had the same small clump for years - it hasn't spread very far but it is in deeper shade.

Polemonium Stairway to Heaven is a nice small variegated plant that blooms early and provides nectar for early butterflies like the Spring Azure. It gets lovely purple notes in the leaves in both spring and fall. Finally if you can find them, Trilliums are lovely - especially Trillium erectum which I find lingers into the summer unlike the grandiflorum or cuneatum. I have been scouting them for our MG plant sale and they are available on eBay and I have also found them at Lowe's in the fall. It is a stately plant and if it gets enough moisture dappled shade is fine for them.

I have a few other favorites that I might be able to post later today.

Ottahand7 I hear you! I just installed trilliums last fall and grow polemonium from seed in both blue and white.

I love athyrium nipponicum 'Ursula's Red', and installed Athyrium 'Branford Beauty' and 'Branford Rambler' last May.

Thanks for sharing those lovely photos DonnaM. This is a photo of the Trillium grandiflora(um)? in Michigan's UP that grow all over on the forest floor. They are so beautiful and cover acres.

How gorgeous!

It is with great restraint that I leave untouched the trillium and mertensia that I see along the running trails here. I just remind myself that if every admirer grabbed one, there would not be any, so I pull out my wallet and buy from suppliers who do not get them from the wild.

With Trilliums if you dig them when they are not dormant it is a death sentence for the plant. Thank goodness for all the tissue culture that can be done now to reproduce plants! Here are a couple of shots of mine a few years ago. They yellow one disappeared - I guess it was due to our voles. I have found seedlings from the cuneatum or sessile around the yard, it is amazing how far afield the seeds were. Chipmunks maybe?

Do you have squirrels? They will dig things they don't even eat. When I dug up my front parkway I found a variety of narcissus bulbs there, and I suspect it was the little devils!

Many squirrels here - in fact I post many photos on the squirrel thread in Wildlife. I do have them dig up things but I think they smell our human scent on them and think they are birdseeds that they have buried long ago. They associate my scent with birdseed since I fill our feeders. I just have to go around after planting and make sure they aren't dug up laying on their sides on top of the ground. A nuisance but not decimation like those voles.

Try this.

We didn't have squirrels where I lived previously (plenty of voles and rabbits though) and I found something that gets rid of squirrels. Every time you plant something, indeed every time you turn the earth, they want to know what's there. I discovered that of you put freshly ground black pepper on top of newly turned earth, they leave it alone. Not ground pepper, and not cayenne. Get a cheap pepper grinder from a thrift store, put whole peppercorns in it, and grind it a few times over the newly turned earth. I sometimes go back a couple of days later and do it again.

Works like a charm. Cheap, organic, and invisible!

Yes we have squirrels here. But really have not had to much problem with them digging up anything. Far as I can see. I have some trilliums to. I love them have some white and some red ones. Got them on a trade from another daves gardeners swap. Several years ago. They really spread pretty fast.1 looking forwar d to seeing them in the someday spring. Thanks everyone for the posts love looking.

I love reading all your posts and seeing your beautiful flowers! I'm wondering if anyone here has shade plants they are willing to share for postage? I just got married, and my dh's house has a shady east side that was nothing but weeds. I spent last summer tearing weeds out. This spring I laid newspaper on the area, and am hoping to forestall the weeds returning. I have an area about 5" by 15" along the house, and then another corner area. I don't think either area gets any direct sun, although nothing but the house shades it.
I planted ferns last year, but they looked pretty shaky by the end of the summer, and also some hosta. It is right by a hose, so I can water the area.
I bought some astilbe--do you think it would tolerate no direct sun?

Hello Lauri thanks for the posts. Wow sounds like you have been busy planning a garden. If you just planted the fern last summer. Transplant or new. They usually do look shaky by the end of the season. But they should be really nice this year. I myself do not have any luck with astilbes for some reason. Could never find out why. I may be able to send you some plants for postage. Have you ever looked into the ligurarias they are my absolute favs for shade they do have to have a moderate amount of water, they also blossom at the end of the summer. Toad lillies are great for the garden too. They blossom with some sweet little flowers in the autumn. Nothing in my yard is coming up as of yet. But if you want to send me your address I can let you know what I may be able to send you. Thanks, Ronna.