Many yards have shady spots, which is great for this hot weather. Under the big trees, or tucked behind your house, shed, or garage, or shaded by the neighbor’s, you might be left wondering what will actually grow well there. Here in North Carolina, shade isn’t a problem to solve so much as an opportunity most people overlook at first glance. Some of the most fragrant, textured, and quietly showy plants we grow do their best work without much sun. Here are eight shade-loving plants that will be happy to stay cool with you.
Fragrant Sweetbox
Fragrant Sweetbox (Sarcococca confusa) is a small evergreen groundcover that spends most of the year growing its foliage, dark green and glossy, which is great for filling in the bare ground under trees. When late winter arrives, tiny white flowers open along the stems and perfume the whole area with a sweet, honeyed scent you’ll smell before you see. It handles dry shade better than almost anything we grow, which makes it a natural pick for those root-choked spots under mature trees.
Variegated Aucuba
If your shady corner feels dark and closed-in, Variegated Aucuba (sometimes called Gold Dust Plant) is the fix. Its glossy green leaves are speckled with gold. It’s tough, forgiving of both deep shade and the occasional dry spell, and it holds its color year-round. A single Aucuba planted near a doorway or path will brighten that space without needing any bloom at all.
Mophead Hydrangea
This is the one most folks already know, and for good reason. Hydrangea macrophylla gives you those classic mophead blooms in blue, pink, or purple, with the color shifting depending on your soil’s pH (more acidic soil leans blue, more alkaline leans pink). It likes morning sun and afternoon shade, and consistent moisture is the key to keeping those big blooms from wilting on a July afternoon. A thick layer of mulch around the base goes a long way toward keeping the roots cool and the soil evenly damp.
Florida Sunshine Illicium
If you are looking to add some bright color, plant Illicium ‘Florida Sunshine.’ Its foliage is a bright, almost electric chartreuse, and it holds that color in full shade, which is rare. It’s evergreen, deer-resistant, and slow-growing enough that you won’t be out there pruning it all year. Use it as a bright accent against darker greens for contrast that will shine all year long.
Miss Scarlet Illicium
Its cousin, Scarlet Illicium, takes the opposite approach: deep green leaves and small, star-shaped maroon-red flowers that show up in spring with a light, pungent fragrance. Crush a leaf between your fingers, and you’ll catch a hint of anise, which is where the plant gets its common name, Florida anise. It’s a dependable evergreen background shrub for a woodland-style bed, the kind of plant that looks good in every season without asking much other than to stay cool in the shade.
Oakleaf Hydrangea
Our native Oakleaf Hydrangea has big, cone-shaped white blooms in early summer that age to a soft pink as they fade. The leaves, shaped like oversized oak leaves, turn deep burgundy in fall. And the peeling, cinnamon-colored bark gives the plant winter interest long after the leaves have dropped. It’s one of the most low-maintenance native shrubs we grow, well-suited to our Piedmont clay once it’s established.
Climbing Hydrangea
If you’ve got a wall, fence, or trellis that needs softening, Climbing Hydrangea grows to tackle it head on. It’s slower to establish than most vines, so be patient the first couple of years, but once it settles in, it covers the structure in glossy green leaves and flat, lacy white blooms in early summer. It clings on its own with small aerial roots, so you won’t need to tie or train it once it gets going.
Edgeworthia
Edgeworthia, or paperbush, blooms in the dead of winter, when almost nothing else in the garden is doing anything at all. Clusters of small, tubular yellow flowers open on bare branches and release a fragrance strong enough to be noticed from several feet away. The bark itself is smooth and papery, giving the shrub a sculptural look even before it blooms. Plant it somewhere you’ll walk past in January and February, and it’ll reward you for stepping outside on the cold days.
Putting It Together
Shade gardening rewards patience more than sun gardening does; most of these plants grow a bit slower and prefer soil that’s kept evenly moist rather than soggy or bone-dry. A two-to-three-inch layer of mulch, kept a few inches back from the stems, will do more for your shade bed than almost any other single step. Beyond that, match the plant to the amount of shade you actually have. Dappled shade under high tree limbs behaves differently from the deep, dry shade against a north-facing wall.