Best Perennials for Full Shade Gardens in New England

Astilbes are fabulous plants for shady, moist conditions. Admired for their graceful, colorful flower plumes rising elegantly above mounds of fern-like foliage which remains attractive all season long, they light up your shade garden for weeks and add a dazzling splash of color in the landscape. Each plume consists of hundreds of densely packed tiny flowers, each opening in succession from late spring to late summer, providing a long season of bloom before turning progressively a rich caramel color.

Resembling Forget-Me-Nots, Brunnera macrophylla (Siberian Bugloss) are rhizomatous herbaceous perennials with large, ovate or heart-shaped basal leaves and pretty sprays of small bright blue flowers in spring. Although their clouds of bright blue flowers add cool and striking color to the landscape, Brunneras are mostly valued for their beautiful foliage which creates a lush carpet of deep green or variegated leaves.

Ridiculously easy-to-grow and long-lived, Hostas (Plantain Lilies) are shade-loving perennials that are highly prized by gardeners for their elegance and attractive foliage. Native to eastern Asia, these low-maintenance foliage plants are fabulous for shady areas and combine beautifully with other shade perennials. The world of Hostas is incredibly rich in terms of size, color, texture, leave shape. There are thousands of Hosta cultivars available reflecting their immense popularity with gardeners, and new varieties are legion. Growing from 6 inches to 3 feet tall (15 - 90 cm), the attractive foliage is topped in early - midsummer with taller funnel-shaped or flared flowers, in shades of white, lavender or purple. Some flowers are even sweetly fragrant.

Fabulous at adding architectural height and late summer blooms to a shaded border, award-winning Actaea simplex 'James Compton' (Baneberry) is a striking, compact, bronze-leaved bugbane variety. Opening from pink buds in late summer to early fall, attractive, purple stemmed fluffy spires, packed with deliciously fragrant white flowers with a pink tinge, gracefully bob and sway in the breeze. They rise elegantly above a bronze, almost black, lacy foliage which provides excellent texture and color to the landscape throughout the growing season. This Baneberry is trouble-free and easy care.

Asarum europaeum (European Wild Ginger) is a slowly spreading ground cover that is primarily grown for its glossy, leathery, heart-shaped, dark green leaves (to 3 in across - 7 cm) which remain evergreen in mild winters. Small, bell-shaped flowers bloom in late spring to early summer but are usually unnoticed since covered by the dense foliage. Among the best foliage plants for shade. Grows 6 in. tall (14 cm) and spreads 8-12 in. (20-30 cm).

Noted for its vigor and superb elegance, Athyrium filix-femina (Lady Fern) is a lovely deciduous fern forming a large rosette of upright to arching, lacy, lance-shaped, fresh-green fronds. The stems are generally green, but sometimes display a very interesting red hue. Fast growing, this fern is easy to grow and perfect for filling gaps between shrubs or under trees.

Noted for its superb elegance, Athyrium niponicum var. pictum (Japanese Painted Fern) is a very pretty deciduous fern forming a large rosette of arching, strikingly refined, lance-shaped, bipinnate fronds. The fronds are soft blue-green with a silvery overlay accented by contrasting dark burgundy midribs. Slowly spreading, this Fern is easy to grow and one of the most rewarding ferns. Low maintenance, pest and disease free. Recipient of the prestigious Award of Garden Merit of the Royal Horticultural Society

Ideal for shady areas and heavy clay, Convallaria majalis (Lily of The Valley) is a low-growing rhizomatous perennial forming a lush, spreading groundcover. Blooming for 3 weeks in mid to late spring, up to 15 sweetly scented, nodding, bell-shaped, white flowers hang along slightly arching flowering stems. Renowned for their powerful floral perfume, they rise above the handsome foliage of paired elliptic green leaves. A real charmer and an outstanding performer, Lily of The Valley is trouble-free, requires little maintenance and is deer and rabbit resistant. Long-lived, it naturalizes easily to form extensive colonies.

One of the most elegant of perennials, Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis) is a graceful herbaceous perennial boasting gracefully arching stems studded with lockets of pink flowers, whose hearts are no doubt bleeding, adorned with protruding white petals. They hang above the attractive foliage of soft green, divided leaves. Blooming for 4-6 weeks in late spring to early summer, it tends to decline or even disappear in mid-summer. However, if it is kept well-watered during the spring, dormancy may be delayed until late summer or early fall. Great for shaded borders or woodland gardens.

Galium odoratum (Sweet Woodruff) is a mat-forming perennial that creates a very attractive ground cover in moist, shady areas. It features small-petaled, scented white flowers in late spring and summer, elegantly rising above a lush carpet of fragrant, lance-shaped, soft emerald-green leaves in whorls. The aromatic intensity of the foliage increases when dried, thus dried leaves are popularly used in sachets or potpourris. Deer and rabbit resistant!

Very fragrant, adaptable and beautiful, Geranium macrorrhizum 'Czakor' (Cranesbill) makes lovely, semi-evergreen groundcover in the garden. This hardy geranium creates a thick mat of fragrant, rounded, light green leaves, topped with abundant clusters of magenta flowers in late spring to early summer. The lush foliage takes on attractive purple tints in the fall, extending the season of interest of this plant. Grows up to 12-18 in. tall (30-45 cm) and 12-24 in. wide (30-60 cm).

One of the most superb ornamental grasses, Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola' (Hakone Grass) is a very beautiful golden variegated grass. Its foliage forms attractive mounds of gracefully arching, shiny leaves that ripple in the slightest breeze. The leaves are almost entirely variegated with gold longitudinal stripes that take chartreuse colors in the shade and turn brighter in the sun. Bringing alive any garden area, its foliage provides outstanding fall color when it changes to exquisite copper-orange shades before dying to the ground in winter.

Spectacular as a ground cover in the shade garden, Lamium maculatum (Spotted Dead Nettle) is a perennial plant whose appearance is unlike other perennial ground covers. With a long bloom period and colorful foliage, most varieties are eye-catching plants throughout the year. Their heart-shaped, trailing leaves may be beautifully white or silver variegated. Their small, hooded magenta, pink or white flowers open in attractive whorls which offer a lengthy floral display from mid spring to early summer. Undemanding and virtually pest-free and disease-free, Spotted Dead Nettle is deer and rabbit resistant.

Mostly grown for its attractive foliage, Liriope muscari (Blue Lily Turf) is an evergreen tuberous perennial forming a dense clump of narrow, arching, dark green leaves. Blooming for weeks in late summer and fall, erect spikes of thickly clustered, small violet-purple flowers, 6-8 in. tall (15-20 cm), appear on 5-12 in. stems (12-30 cm). They resemble grape hyacinth (Muscari), hence the Latin name. The blooms give way to round, shiny, black berries which often persist into winter. Hardy and compact, Lily Turf is a popular, alluring plant, particularly handsome when grown in large swaths or undulating rivers. Liriope muscari can be used as a lawn grass substitute too.

Resembling long, feathery Ostrich plumes, Matteuccia struthiopteris (Ostrich Fern) is an elegant, upright to arching, deciduous fern with showy, finely dissected, fresh green sterile fronds. Emerging at the base of the plant in spring, they gracefully unfurl until they depreciate over summer and lose their leaflets later in the fall, as the plant goes dormant for the winter. They surround shorter, brownish fertile fronds which will persist into winter. Low maintenance, pest and disease free, Ostrich Fern is a great asset for the bog garden!

Handsome and fragrant, Polygonatum odoratum 'Variegatum' (Fragrant Solomon's Seal) is a rhizomatous, shade-loving perennial with slightly arching stems covered with sweetly scented, vase-shaped, creamy-white flowers tipped with green in late spring to early summer. Gracefully hanging from the leaf axils, they are followed in fall by attractive blue-black berries. Highly ornamental, the elegant foliage of bright green, elliptic leaves is splashed and streaked with creamy white and turns attractive shades of yellow in fall. Native to shaded slopes and woodland areas in temperate regions of Europe and Asia, Variegated Solomon’s Seal is a classic beauty for the shady woodland garden or the part-shade to full-shade border