North Short Plant Club Feb 15, 2026

What Should I Grow in Shade Containers?

I love using airy ferns in shade containers.  If you don't need a lot of flowers there are also Rex begonias and coleus which have very interesting foliage. Coleus look awesome in the garden, as well as in the container. And caladium give you a wide range of foliage colors.

Flowering begonias and impatiens really brighten up the spot and they look really nice with that silvery rex begonia leaf.  In deep shade, I think white flowers work extra well.  In my shady areas I love to have pastels colors... light pinks, some really light corals, light purples, but some really just bright white.

Fuchsias are wonderful — they're a good plant to use for some shade color if you don't want to do impatiens or begonias.  Fuchsia has a nice trailing habit as well interesting colored purple and coral petals.   There's one upright fuchsia, but that one tends to like a little bit more sun. The rest of the fuchsias are more of a hanging… usually you see them in a hanging basket.  They're definitely trailers.

There are some nice natives which can be lovely supporting cast in a shade container: 

  • Ginger looks really pretty at the bottom of a tall container, because it's a nice ground cover, and it's got a really big leaf, and it just is a nice carpet of green, then if you have a bright container with some interesting flowers in it, it just looks really nice.
  • And then, I also love Jacob's Ladder. Of course, Mary knows that I order it all the time. It's just a… it's a nice native, but I find it to be evergreen in my yard. 
  • And Lady Fern. Lady Fern is just a beautiful whether in a container or in the shade garden


Topics: Container Gardening , Shade Gardening

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