What are the Best Low-Light Plants?
There are many choices for plants that thrive in areas with low light. If you are gardening indoors, pothos plants and dracaenas will thrive with very little light. I bring in my foliage begonias in the winter each year and they do very well in my north window. Even jade plants and other succulents can usually tolerate partial shade. You can cheat a little bit by bringing these plants outdoors in the summer. They should be gradually introduced to the sun and kept out of the afternoon heat when you do this, because the intensity of both is so much greater outside. Then, in the winter, you can cut back on their light and water and they will still do well. They will go through a period of shock, but once they adjust; they will be just fine.
Outdoors, there are some great perennials for shade. I grow lungworts (pulmonarias), hostas, bleeding hearts (dicentras), bugbanes (cimicifugas). columbines (aquilegias), Virginia bluebells (mertensias) and coral bells (heucheras) in the shade. That’s just the ones I can think of right now! There are also many ground covers that do very well in the shade. Dead nettles (lamiums), cranesbills (geraniums), sweet woodruffs (galiums), barrenworts (epimediums) and gingers (asarums) are just a few of the options for covering the ground in shady areas. Barrenworts work particularly well in the dry shade of large trees.
Spring-flowering bulbs often work well in shade if the shade comes from trees. They often bloom before the trees leaf out (at least in northern climates), thus getting all the light they need before they wither away for the season.
As far as annuals go, begonias are one of the best performers in heavy shade. Impatians do very well too. There are many great choices for colorful foliage, including vincas and tradescantias. Bulbs like caladiums and elephant ears do very well in the shade too.
Shrubs and trees are a bit trickier. Most of them do best with at least four hours of sun. Macrophylla and arborescens hydrangeas tolerate quite heavy shade. Members of the Viburnum family, like compact cranberrybushes, do well too. Burning bushes (euonymus) will do quite well in the shade, but their fall color won’t be as impressive. This is the case with most plants. Summersweets (Clethras) offer glossy, green foliage and deliciously-scented flowers. They do quite well in full shade. Chokeberries (aronia) do well in dense shade, but may look at bit sparse. They offer spring flowers, edible fruits and fall color. Some new introductions that I really like for shade are ‘Sem’ Ash Leaf Spirea (Sorbaria) and ‘Cool Splash’ Bush Honeysuckle (Diervilla). There plants have lovely foliage colors that are not hampered by the shade.
Trees probably offer the fewest options for shade. Blue Beech (Carpinus) trees do quite well. Nannyberry Viburnums also tolerate quite a bit of shade. Grafter paniculata hydrangea trees tolerate afternoon shade, and are often tucked into nooks and crannies close to people’s houses. There are a couple of euonymus species that will probably perform well in the shade too. We have grafter burning bush trees and ‘Prairie Radiance’ euonymus trees at our farm and they don’t seem to need a lot of light. Many trees that grow as understory trees in the forest can tolerate dappled sunlight. In our area, these are often aspens and birches.
What really determines what will do well in a low-light situation is exactly how low the light is! Six or more hours of direct sunlight is considered to be full sun. Four hours of sun or more is generally thought of as partial shade. Any area that receives less light than this is a shady area. Pay attention to your yard or chosen location during the growing season. On one of your days off, document the light conditions you observe every couple of hours. Remember that light levels in a given area will change with the seasons. This may provide you with more options, as plants will require the most light during their peak season of interest.
Plants can’t grow without light, and sunlight is the one thing that gardeners can’t provide. Gardeners can improve and fertilize the soil, and they can water the garden, but they can’t manufacture sunlight. Luckily, there are low light plants that grow well in shady areas, as long as their other needs are met. The trick to growing low light plants is to choose plants that will thrive in the available environment and that will also look good. Weeds will grow almost anywhere, even in deep shade, but who wants a garden filled with weeds? Consider the height and spread of the plant and its leaf color when choosing low light plants. Here are some of the best: Carpet Bugle (Ajuga) is among the hardiest low light plants, with dense foliage that grows about six inches (15 cm) high. It is a very tough plant that can grow well even in deep shade. It flowers in late spring. The leaves of the species are green, but there are cultivars with bronze, purple, and even variegated foliage. Lady’s Mantle
