Long thought of as the most challenging gardening condition, dry shade doesn’t have to be a bummer. These plants transform that problem spot in the garden into a lush paradise
Combining colorful flowers with year-round deep purple foliage, 'Purple Diamond' holds its purple color better than others, and stays compact. It will eventually reach 3 to 4 feet tall and 4 feet wide, making it perfect as an accent shrub in borders and containers, a foundation plant, low hedge, or in mass plantings. Available through our Sunset Western Garden Collection.
This fern is grows in natural habitat from California to Alaska and Montana, Idaho, and South Dakota. Clumps of lustrous dark green fronds grow 2 to 4 feet tall and wide. Each leaflet is dagger shaped, with toothed edges and a base that looks rather like a sword hilt. Established plants get by with reduced moisture.
Evergreen dark green with greenish yellow flowers that appear at stem ends in mid-spring to early summer. Differs from other Euphorbia because this variety spreads by rhizomes, making it a useful groundcover. It grows only one foot high and is more shade-tolerant than other Euphorbia, but it is also likely to spread. Try it bordering a bark path in a naturalistic style garden.
This succulent shrub boasts thick, juicy stems and glossy green leaves. It looks a bit like jade plant and is sometimes sold under the name “miniature jade plant,” but it’s faster growing and more loosely branched, with tapering, more limber branches and smaller leaves. In frost-free or nearly frostless areas, can be used as a fast-growing informal screen or unclipped hedge. Small specimens are good, easy-care potted plants.
This low grower spreads with creeping underground stems. The thin, wiry leafstalks hold leathery, heart-shaped leaves. The foliage is bronzy-pink in spring, green in summer, and bronze in fall. The plants bear lose spikes of small, waxy flowers in pink, red, creamy yellow, or white. Use as groundcover under trees or among rhododendrons, azaleas, and camellias. It’s also good in large rock gardens or containers.
Thick rhizomes help this geranium withstand dry conditions. It’ll be happy in full sun to part shade, reaching 1 foot tall and 2 feet wide. Expect magenta flowers above deeply lobed green leaves. Leaves have a strong, musky fragrance and attractive autumn coloring ranging from dull yellow to orange and scarlet. Good groundcover for small areas, though it can overwhelm smaller plants. Grows well in fairly dry shade.
Loropetalums have a naturally elegant, layered habit that works beautifully in any landscape or container garden. By selecting a dwarf variety like 'Emerald Snow,' you can give your shears a rest, and never worry about pruning again. This variety eventually reaches 3 to 4 feet tall and wide, and has masses of white blooms in spring and summer. Available through our Sunset Western Garden Collection.
Covered in blooms that range from pale green and creamy white to ruby, garnet, and deep amethyst, hellebores are at their prettiest from winter into spring, when their delicate flowers open like cups or bells amid leathery green leaves. Hellebores range from 1 to 3 feet tall and wide, and can tolerate drought once established (after two years). Mulch plants with aged compost in spring and fall (keep it away from the plant's crown), and you won’t need any supplemental fertilizer. These shade-loving perennials add sparkle any time of year, whether in pots or in garden beds.
Grown for handsome, waxy dark green leaves and tiny, powerfully fragrant white blossoms hidden in the foliage. Fragrant sweet box maintain slow, orderly growth and polished appearance in deepest shade. Slowly reaches 4 to 6 feet high and 3 to 7 feet wide. If grown against a wall, it will form a natural espalier, with branches fanning out to create patterns. Amend soil before planting and keep watered until established.
Native near the coast from Northern California to British Columbia, this productive plant usually reaches 4 to 10 feet tall, and occasionally grows to 20 feet tall. Large pink, red, or white flowers burst open atop leathery dark green leaves.