Plants for Shade

ispookie666

Looking for inspiration or suggestions
The area gets sunlight for only a few hours and rest of the time is under shade at the peak of summer.
We would like to have some shade loving plants which are good to keep/grow in containers.  Would prefer to not have climbers.  
Ta

twopenny

If it's containerz you can control the moisture and soil.
Ferns can be magnificent, so many varieties and variations in colour. They are easy care too.
You can have Box balls or different shapes.
Primroses for spring mixed with bulbs of iris or daffodils.
Some roses will tollerate shade. You'll need to research that.
I've got a variegated privet growing in a pot about 5ft +.
Hostas of all sorts, Arium lilly I've got growing in the shade. Spent years in a pot under trees.
Ditto the usual hydrangea, lots of colours.

ispookie666

Thank you for the suggestions.  
Hydrangea does open up a lot of choices - always considered them as needing full sun.  

twopenny

Not necessarily. In fact their fine in partial shade. Mine have grown in pots where there is only a brief spell of sun and now in my shady corner. Also some big ones inthe shade of the place behind me and my neighbours mammoth ones. 
Watering is what you need to keep an eye on. I wouldn't use the new fancy varieties which seem to be mostly paniculata in garden centers.

elbyF

Type your comment

How big are your containers...? 😁 you can grow a lot in pots:

Bedding plants like busy lizzies and pelargoniums will like a bit of shade at the height of summer to stop them drying out

If you want a bit more height, try tulips or gladioli they work well

Sarcococca confusa, (also known as chocolate plant) doesn't mind a bit of shade

Buddleia will do well pretty much anywhere, and are great for butterflies and other pollinators. They also come in a range of different pinks and purples

If you're up for a bit of research, anything classed as 'woodland' will probably do well - foxgloves, poppies maybe, (provided there's enough sunlight to start the seeds off) lily of the valley, bluebells and muscari although they're more spring flowering.

I second the recommendation for hostas although, word of warning, shady places are ideal for slugs so watch out if you're putting a load of new delicious plants in that they don't get devoured instantly.  Other than that, buy things you like and see how they fare.  Gardening is a bit of trial and error sometimes 😊

thriftwizard

Might be worth your while looking at some of the Japanese plants, too; we have a very shady border where I'm just about to plant Wasabi and Japanese Ginger, both productive shade-lovers. (I'm very fond of plants that contribute to my diet!) 

twopenny

Just remembered the cyclamen.

There are autumn/spring flowering ones and winter flowering ones and they love the shade. It would be a small or dish shaped pot and most of the year foliage if not flowers.

They do disappear briefly but you could put them with something else.

Also for winter, Christmas Roses and the later Hellibores will tollerate shade.

I've grown winter flowering Jasmin and the original Jasmine in pots. They will take shade.

ka7e

I have a variegated Skimmia in a large pot - evergreen with flowers and berries for year-round interest. Camellias do OK in pots and are evergreen. My front garden has only late afternoon sun in summer and I have mahonia, hardy fuchsia, daphne, ferns, roses, euonymus and heathers. I want sweet box and foxgloves to plant this year.

ispookie666

Lots of suggestions 
A bit of research time 
Thank you all

twopenny

The thing with pots is that you can have some large ones with large evergreens for background and smaller ones with flowwering colour that you can change with the season, move briefly into the sun to keep them going.
And i forgot about the lilac tree and a magnolia in pots. Some winter scented ones too that I want at nose level.
I have them on wheeled bases and they get moved for a change of light and rain or just for a change of scene.
Then there are the shaped Bay, Box and Yew if you have the cash. The supermarkets were doing them cheaper but you take the risk and repot them in something good.

[Deleted User]

I take my hat to you all with so many pots, i keep my number to a minimum because i lack the discipline to trail around all over the garden with the hose, meaning that the shrubs in them don't do as well as they could.

I have some in full sun and some in partial shade and the pots arranged in groups of two's and three's, in them i have Hibiscus, dwarf Buddleia, Pines, Pittosporum, Hebe's and dwarf Syringa.

Like twopenny i have all the giant pots on wheels, the others are on gravel and they don't get moved at all !