Shade-Blooming Perennials for All-Summer Color

Shade doesn’t mean a foliage-only sentence. These five perennials deliver months of flowers in low light.

Top 5 Long-Blooming Shade Plants

1. Hardy Geranium ‘Rozanne’
   Not the annual pelargonium. True geranium: perennial, part shade, violet-blue flowers all summer, 20″ tall. Foliage bronzes in fall. Zones 5–8.
2. Astilbe
   Glossy ferny foliage + feathery plumes in pink, purple, white from late spring through summer. Cut back after first flush for rebloom. Zones 4–8.
3. Spiderwort (Tradescantia) ‘Sweet Kate’
   Strap-like chartreuse foliage, three-petaled purple flowers all summer. Tolerates wide conditions. Zones 4–9.
4. Hardy Fuchsia (F. magellanica)
   Shrubby 6–10 ft, tubular red-purple flowers spring to frost. Hummingbird magnet. Dies back in zone 6 winters, returns in spring. Zones 6–9.
5. Impatiens (Bedding)
   Annual, but unbeatable for nonstop shade color. Plant after soil warms; keep moist, feed regularly. Pinch leggy stems. Mass in single-color drifts for impact. Zones 10–11 as perennial; everywhere else as annual.

Combine two or three for a shade garden that blooms from May to October.