Beautiful Shade Flowers for Your Garden

There is nothing to make one appreciate a shade garden more than the blazing heat of a summer's day. Shade gardens provide a cool and soothing place to relax, and can be the ideal place to entertain friends and family outdoors during the hot days of summer. They can be an especially enjoyable space if they are full of beautiful and fragrant blooming flowers.

Finding the appropriate shade flowers for your garden can be a challenge, however. Not all flowers will bloom in shady conditions, and those that do may still need a certain amount of exposure to light during the day. Many shade loving flowers are native to forest locations, and will do well in medium to full shade conditions, while others will only bloom in light shade conditions. One of the keys to selecting appropriate flowers for your shade garden will be determining just how much shade and sunlight your garden receives during the day. Once you have determined whether you have light, medium or full shade conditions, you can start to select shade flowers for your garden.

Shade flowers tend to come in a more limited color palette than their fun sun counterparts: pink, blue, and white are the most common shade flower colors, and you should try to design your shade flower garden with these colors in mind. Some popular shade flowers include Columbines, Wood Anemones, Showy Sedums and Bleeding Hearts. You should select both early and late blooming flower varieties to ensure color all season long.

If you are looking for a low maintenance garden, a shade garden will be an excellent choice as flower and plants tend to grow much slower in the shade, giving you more time and flexibility when it comes to caring for them. You should also consider planting perennials instead of annuals in your shade garden, since perennials will last for years with only minimal maintenance (watering, periodic fertilizing and dividing every few years).

Since many shade gardens are under large trees, you will need to ensure that your flowers receive adequate nutrients and water since they will be competing with tree roots for these resources. With the proper care and attention, however, you should be able to create a beautiful garden retreat full of shade flowers to enjoy for years to come.