Plants that really earn their keep in the shade

Daphne ‘Eternal Fragrance’

This is one of those fantastic shrubs that grows pretty much anywhere from full sun to shade, although it doesn’t like really dense shade. Although it’s often described as semi-evergreen, our one has never lost all of its leaves in one go, so is pretty much evergreen and seems to be in flower most months of the year.

 

Not only does it look great it has the most gorgeous fragrance, so plant it near where you walk, by a door or path and not tucked away in a back corner where you won’t get the benefits of its beautiful scent.

It also stays fairly compact, getting to around 1m high and wide and once established, needs little  or no maintenance. Beware though, it is toxic if eaten!

Nandina domestica

There are a good variety of Nandina now available, but the domestica gives a nice bit of height and gets up to a couple of metres when it’s in a spot it likes. As with the Daphne, the Nandina is happy in everything from full sun to shade.

It’s another evergreen, with flowers throughout the summer and berries all winter, so really does give all year-round value.

There’s not much maintenance either – just give it a trim in Spring to keep it tidy if it needs it.

Sarcococca ‘Winter Gem’

A beautiful, fragrant evergreen with glossy, dark green leaves. It blooms with small white flowers to give a spark of interest in the dark winter months.

It’s great for small gardens as it only gets to around 75cm high and wide and doesn’t take much looking after either. Once it’s established just leave it alone and it’ll be fine, as it’s fairly pest and disease free.

Geranium ‘Wargrave Pink’

Geraniums are another great plant for those that don’t like doing much in terms of maintenance. This one produces an abundance of small pink flowers throughout the summer and doesn’t lose all its leaves in the winter.

It spreads easily and looks great at the front of a border, to soften off a path’s edge and will get to around 60cm high. If it spreads too much just give it a bit of a haircut to keep in shape and to size, as it’s very forgiving.

Luzula nivea

This is a lovely evergreen grass that doesn’t get too big, produces a lovely array of small white flowers and is really easy to look after.

It gets to between 50-60cm in height and width, with the flowers being produced in early summer. It likes it reasonably damp and is generally disease and pest free. The only real work involved is a bit of a ‘combing’ in February/March to get rid of the tatty, brown leaves, before and after photos of which are shown below.