Plants and Flowers for Garden areas in Partial or Light Shade
Shade is a word, which when used by gardeners can have a multitude of variations. Shade may be the dimly lit area beneath a forest of towering evergreens, or the bright but non sunny spot on the north side of another shrub. As seasons change, an area might receive more or less sun.
Is a garden which gets a few hours of morning sun, but shade during the rest of the day considered to be shade? Partial shade? Partial sun? All of these considerations must be taken into account as you make your decisions of what to plant in your shade garden. Most garden stores and nurseries will only carry a limited stock of only the most popular shade garden plants (Hostas, Ferns, Helleborus, etc...).
If you want to find the really unique and special shade garden plants, you may need to do some research to find a
reasonably close nursery that specializes in shade plants and will be able to help you choose suitable shade plants
for your area.
Some of the scarcer shade loving plants are truly spectacular!
Common Name:
Algerian Ivy
Botanical Name: Hedera canariensis
Height: 
USDA Zones: 4-7
Requirements & Benefits:
Algerian Ivy's glossy 4-8" foliage and the vines ability to crawl, creep and climb just about anywhere makes this a great ground cover or privacy screen
Common Name:
Alpine Speedwell
Botanical Name: Veronica allionii
Height: 8"x18"
USDA Zones: 4-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Groundcover, Rock Gardens, Containers, Lawn Substitute
This evergreen Veronica forms a tight mat of soft green foliage. An abundance of small spikes of light blue flowers arise in early summer. Mow or shear flower spikes down after bloom to keep neat.
Common Name:
Alpine Speedwell
Botanical Name: Veronica alpina
Height: 8"x18"
USDA Zones: 3-8
Requirements & Benefits:
Rock Gardens, Containers
Easy to grow creeping evergreen with 1"-2", glossy green or fuzzy gray foliage. Blooms mainly in spring, flowering on and off until fall, producing airy spikes of white, rose, pink, pale or deep blue flowers.
Common Name:
Angel's Trumpets
Botanical Name: Brugmansia
Height: 6-12 ft.
USDA Zones: 9-12
Requirements & Benefits:
From early summer until fall, mature Angel's Trumpet's produce waves of large, very fragrant, downward hanging, trumpet shaped, 6"-10" long flowers. In frost free regions, they may bloom all year long.
Common Name:
Asparagus Fern
Botanical Name: Protasparagus setaceus
Height: 10 ft.
USDA Zones: 9-12
Requirements & Benefits:
The Asparagus Fern is a very popular plant for florists who commonly use the lacy fronds in arrangements. These decorative vines will grow up to 10 feet with support, or they can be kept to a more compact size by regularly removing the tips from new growth.
Common Name:
Aubrieta
Botanical Name: Aubrieta deltoidea
Height: 2-6"
USDA Zones: 4-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Common Aubrieta is a vigorous growing, mat forming ground cover and rock garden plant. It is tolerant of a wide range of conditions, and rewards you with a long lasting cover of delicate flowers in early Spring.
Common Name:
Autumn Fern
Botanical Name: Dryopteris erythrosora
Height: 15-24"
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
The fronds of the Autumn Fern begin to emerge in early spring as a copper to reddish color and mature to dark green by mid summer. In the fall months, Autumn Ferns once again change colors. They should be planted in evenly moist, compost rich soil and grown where they will receive partial to full shade.
Common Name:
Avens
Botanical Name: Geum chiloense
Height: 16-18"
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Geums form 16"-18" tall, spreading mounds of evergreen, coarsly textured, dark green leaves. From May until July they produce leafy, 24" branching stems that hold intensely colored, solitary, 1"-1¾" flowers or small clusters of smaller, brightly colored flowers.
Common Name:
Beard Tongue
Botanical Name: Penstemon Barbatus
Height: 12-24"
USDA Zones: 4-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Tubular flowers in red, pink, purple, or white will be sure to attract butterflies and hummingbirds to your garden.
Common Name:
Bears Breeches
Botanical Name: Acanthus species
Height: 3-4 ft.
USDA Zones: 5-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Bear's Breeches are huge, mound forming perennials with dramatic, deeply cut, bright green leaves that can reach one foot wide and two feet long. From late spring until mid summer, they produce impressive, 2-3 foot tall spikes of hooded, white or light pink flowers.
Common Name:
Begonia Rex
Botanical Name: Begonia rex-cultorum
Height: 4-12"
USDA Zones: 10-12
Requirements & Benefits:
The Rex or Painted-Leaf Begonias are rhizomatous, clump forming, tender perennials that are normally grown as house plants. Their leaves vary considerably in texture, size, shape, patterns and colors. The inconspicuous, small, pink or white flowers may appear at any time of the year
Common Name:
Bitter Root
Botanical Name: Lewisia cotyledon
Height: 4-6"
USDA Zones: 5-8
Requirements & Benefits:
Bitter Root plants produce clusters of 1" flowers on 10" stems in shades of white to pink or gold, occasionally with red and white stripes from spring to early summer. Easily hybridized Rock Garden plant.
Lewisias can be grown as house plants.
Common Name:
Black Eyed Susan
Botanical Name: Rudbeckia hirta
Height: 24-36
USDA Zones: 3-8
Requirements & Benefits:
The Black Eyed Susan is most commonly an annual wildflower, but some varieties are perennial or biennial. These native prairie flowers can be found growing wild in almost every state. These bright, daisy like flowers are excellent to use in cut flower arrangements. Deadheading spent flowers will prolong the blooming period considerably.
Common Name:
Black Eyed Susan Vine
Botanical Name: Thunbergia alata
Height: 6-20 ft.
USDA Zones:
Requirements & Benefits: 9-12
The Black-Eyed Susan Vine is an evergreen, twining vine, most often grown as a long blooming annual. Black-Eyed Susan Vines have dark green, arrowhead-shaped, 3" leaves. They produce a profusion of brightly colored, 1½" bell-shaped flowers from early summer, well into the fall.
Common Name:
Black Mondo Grass
Botanical Name: Ophiopogon planiscapus
Height: 6-12"
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Black Mondo Grass grows as neat, slowly spreading, 4" tufts of ¼" wide, sweetly fragrant, straplike leaves. New foliage emerges dark green in spring then changes to dark purplish-black by summer.Loose spikes of small, light pink or white, bell shaped flowers appear in mid summer.
Common Name:
Bleeding Heart
Botanical Name: Dicentra spectabilis
Height: 2-3 ft.
USDA Zones: 3-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Bleeding Heart is a mound forming plant with finely cut, fern-like foliage on graceful 2-3 foot arching stems topped with pretty, heart shaped, 1" flowers in late spring or early summer. Excellent plants for any shade garden or woodland setting
Common Name:
Blue Bugleweed
Botanical Name: Ajuga genevensis
Height: 4-6"
USDA Zones: 3-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Typical Ajuga with 8" blue flowers in the Spring. Deer Resistant ground cover
Common Name:
Blue Corydalis
Botanical Name: Corydalis flexuosa
Height: 12-18"
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Blue Corydalis is a slow growing, evergreen perennial that will eventually form a dense 18" clump of elegant, 12" tall, lace-like green foliage. Eighteen inch spikes of dangling, tubular, sky blue flowers will adorn the plant from late spring until fall in regions with cool summers
Common Name:
Cotoneaster
Botanical Name: Cotoneaster
Height: 3"-15 ft.
USDA Zones: vary
Requirements & Benefits:
Cotoneaster is an extremely diverse genus of plants which includes ground covers, dwarf sized bushes and large sprawling shrubs. The flowers are generally small and appear from spring to early summer followed by bright red or orange berries for the birds to eat in winter.
Common Name:
Blue Star Creeper
Botanical Name: Laurentia fluviatilis
Height: 2-4"
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Blue Star Creeper is a fast growing, mat forming, light green walkonit ground cover. It covers itself with small star shaped flowers from May through June. Excellent filler between paving stones and in rock gardens
Common Name:
Brass Buttons
Botanical Name: Leptinella squalida
Height: 1-2"
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
The interesting feathery, fern like foliage of the New Zealand Brass Buttons may give the impression that it is a delicate plant, but in reality, it is a tough enough ground cover that it can take light foot traffic and is even used as a lawn substitute in many areas.
Common Name:
Blue Carpet
Botanical Name: Campanula carpatica
Height: 6-12"
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Blue or white bell shaped flowers through early Summer.
Common Name:
Blue Lungwort
Botanical Name: Pulmonaria angustifolia
Height: 8-12"
USDA Zones: 3-8
Requirements & Benefits:
Blue Lungwort is a clumping, deciduous perennial with an 'I'll grow anywhere' attitude. They have light green, lance shaped foliage and produce short clusters of brightly colored flowers for several weeks in early spring
Common Name:
Brazilian Plume Flower
Botanical Name: Justicia carnea
Height: 3-5 ft.
USDA Zones: 9-10
Requirements & Benefits:
The Brazilian Plume Flower is a shade loving, tropical evergreen perennial shrub with large deep green leaves.
It produces a never ending show of large spikes of brightly colored, tubular flowers from spring to fall.
Common Name:
Bugleweed
Botanical Name: Ajuga reptens
Height: 4-6"
USDA Zones: 3-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Ajuga grows well in full shade to full sun and tolerates a wide range of soil conditions as long as soil is well drained.
Common Name:
Bunchberry
Botanical Name: Cornus canadensis
Height: 4-6"
USDA Zones: 3-8
Requirements & Benefits:
Bunchberry Dogwoods are probably the ultimate ground cover plants for growing in moist, woodland areas or in your shade garden. These short, bright green plants only reach six inches tall. They produce bright red berries that are eaten by many species of wild birds.
Common Name:
Butterfly Lily
Botanical Name: Hedychium coronarium
Height: 2-4ft.
USDA Zones: 9-11
Requirements & Benefits:
Butterfly lilies are only suited for growing in warmer climates. Fragrant pink or white flowers that resemble butterflies appear on 5-8 ft. stalks in late summer and into the fall
Common Name:
Caladium
Botanical Name: Colocasia esculenta
Height: 12-18"
USDA Zones: 10-11
Requirements & Benefits:
The Caladium is a frost tender, perennial tuber which is grown for its colorful foliage rather than flowers. The leaves are usually a combination of different shades of red, pink, green, white.
Common Name:
Camellia
Botanical Name: Camellia
Height: 2-3 ft.
USDA Zones: 7-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Camellias are long lived evergreen shrubs or small trees that can grow anywhere from 6-20 feet tall with up to a 10 foot spread, depending on the species and cultivar. They have glossy, dark green, 2"-4" foliage that is attractive even when the plant is out of bloom. The flower colors range from pure white to deep, dark red and there are even some bi-colored varieties.
Common Name:
Campion
Botanical Name: Lychnis species
Height: 2-3 ft.
USDA Zones: 4-10
Requirements & Benefits:
The botanical name, Lychnis, is from the Greek word for lamp, referring to the flame colored flowers of some species and the fact that the felt-like leaves were once used for lamp wicks.
Common Name:
Cape Fuchsia
Botanical Name: Phygelius capensis
Height: 3-5 ft.
USDA Zones: 7-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Phygelius are completely unrelated to Fuchsias. They are actually relatives of Foxgloves and Penstemons
Common Name:
Carolina Jasmine
Botanical Name: Gelsemium sempervirens
Height:
USDA Zones: 7-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Semi-evergreen, yellow trumpet blooms in spring, quickly climbs to great heights where it forms masses of foliage and bloom
Common Name:
Catnip
Botanical Name: Nepeta cataria
Height: 2-3 ft.
USDA Zones: 3-7
Requirements & Benefits:
Catnip is a very easy to grow and care for plant that is somewhat less ornamental than Catmint. Catnip plants grow to 3 feet tall, with a spread of 1½-2 feet. In the summer and early fall, they produce 3"-4" spikes of tiny white flowers spotted with pale purple.
Common Name:
Catmint
Botanical Name: Nepeta faassenii
Height: 1-2 ft.
USDA Zones: 4-8
Requirements & Benefits:
Catmint is a compact, upright branching perennial that grows 1-2 feet tall with a spread of 18". From early summer into fall, Catmint plants produce long, loose spikes of pretty, ½" violet-blue flowers. Cats love it, and it repels Aphids!
Common Name:
Chilean Mitre Flowers
Botanical Name: Mitraria coccinea
Height: 6 ft.
USDA Zones: 9-11
Requirements & Benefits:
The Chilean Mitre Flower is a gorgeous creeping and climbing, plant with glossy, dark green leaves arranged in pairs along woody stems. They produce an abundance of intensely colored, scarlet-orange, tubular 1½" flowers with a soft, velvety texture.
Common Name:
Chinese Lantern Plant
Botanical Name: Physalis alkekengi
Height: 24"
USDA Zones: 5-10
Requirements & Benefits:
The Chinese Lantern Plant produces small white flowers in early summer which are followed by vivid orange-red, papery seed pods that resemble Chinese Lanterns. The fruiting stems can be cut and used in flower arrangements or dried. May tend to become invasive.
Common Name:
Christmas Kalanchoe
Botanical Name: Kalanchoe blossfeldiana
Height: 8"-12"
USDA Zones: 9-12
Requirements & Benefits:
Christmas Kalanchoes are easy to grow, winter blooming plants with waxy, green, scalloped edged leaves, and clusters of tiny, brightly colored flowers that continue for 6 weeks or longer. Most Kalanchoes that are commonly available today are dwarf hybrids that only reach 8"-12" tall.
Common Name:
Christmas Rose
Botanical Name: Helleborus niger
Height: 12-15"
USDA Zones: 4-8
Requirements & Benefits:
The Christmas Rose is one of the easier and most rewarding garden plants to grow, Their ability to bloom in the darkest months of the year when everything else is frozen solid make them a valuable asset to any garden. A Christmas Rose will produce flowers from late fall up until early spring.
Common Name:
Clustered Bellflower
Botanical Name: Campanula glomerata
Height: 12-24"
USDA Zones: 3-8
Requirements & Benefits:
Clustered Bellflowers are upright growing perennials with light green, fuzzy lance shaped foliage. They produce a cluster of one inch, vase shaped flowers atop 2 ft. stems all summer if the spent blossoms are removed promptly
Common Name:
Coastal Wood Fern
Botanical Name: Dryopteris arguta
Height: 18-24"
USDA Zones: 4-8
Requirements & Benefits:
Coastal Wood Ferns can be grown in most average garden soils as long as it is well draining. They grow best in partial or full shade, but can be grown in full sun if they are kept moist.
Common Name:
Columbine
Botanical Name: Aquilegia
Height: 12-18"
USDA Zones: 3-9
Requirements & Benefits:
The Columbine is an easy plant to grow because it adapts itself to a wide variety of conditions. They are a favorite flower for hummingbirds, and are excellent additions to rock gardens or in a native woodland planting
Common Name:
Coral Bells
Botanical Name: Heuchera sanguinea
Height: 12-18"
USDA Zones: 6-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Coral Bells are compact growing, 18" mounding, evergreen plants that offer a growing variety of outstanding foliage colors in shades of purple, rose, lime green, gold as well as many striking variegations.
Common Name:
Cranesbill
Botanical Name: Erodium reichardii
Height: 3-6"
USDA Zones: 7-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Erodiums are low growing plants that form compact, dense 12" evergreen mounds of tufted, dark green foliage with scalloped edges. From April until October they produce ½" saucer shaped, rose-pink flowers or white flowers with red veins.
Common Name:
Creeping Buttercup
Botanical Name: Ranunculus repans
Height: 9-12"
USDA Zones: 8-11
Requirements & Benefits:
In many places, especially my gardens, Creeping Buttercups are considered to be a noxious and invasive weed! However, they may have their place in a poorly drained, shady area of your garden. They have green, deeply cut, snowflake foliage and bright yellow flowers in spring.
Common Name:
Creeping Lily Turf
Botanical Name: Liriope spicata
Height: 8-10"
USDA Zones: 4-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Creeping Lily Turf is a grass like ground cover that grows as spreading clumps of fine, dark green leaves that turn to bronze-green in the winter. Lily Turf produces spikes of tiny flowers in late summer, followed by dark blue berries in late fall.
Common Name:
Creeping Speedwell
Botanical Name: Veronica prostrata
Height: 6"x24"
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Groundcover, Rock Gardens, Borders,
Woody, mat forming plant with coarsely serrated edges. Produces loose spikes of small blue, star shaped flowers in early summer. Deadhead spent flowers for a rebloom in early fall. Drought tolerant once established.
Common Name:
Creeping Speedwell
Botanical Name: Veronica repens
Height: 1"x18"
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Groundcover, Rock Gardens
Forms a fast growing, spreading evergreen mat of small, glossy green leaves. Produces small, pale blue or white flowersall spring. Ideal for growing between flagstones.
Common Name:
Crown Imperial
Botanical Name: Fritillaria imperialis
Height: 3-4 ft.
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Crown Imperials are impressive, spring flowering bulbs that have been cultivated since the 16th century. Once the stalk begins to emerge in mid-spring, it grows very quickly to a height of 3-4 feet and adorns itself with a crown of nodding, bell shaped flowers topped with a tuft of bright, glossy green leaves.
Common Name:
Cyclamen
Botanical Name: Cyclamen persicum
Height: 2-5"
USDA Zones: 6-7
Requirements & Benefits:
The most important criteria for success with growing a Cyclamen are cool temperatures, fresh air, and ample moisture.
Common Name:
Daisy
Botanical Name: Chrysanthemum maximum
Height: 18-36"
USDA Zones: 5-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Daisies are long blooming, short lived (2-3 years) members of the Chrysanthemum family. This clumping perennial produces an abundance of 2-3" flowers from early summer through summerAttracts Butterflies: Pearly Crescentspot, Red Admiral, Queen
Common Name:
Daylily
Botanical Name: Hemerocallis
Height: 10-24"
USDA Zones: 3-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Daylilies produce an abundance of flowers which open over a long period of time.
They are useful in the perennial flower border, as a garden centerpiece, or any corner of the garden which needs to be brightened up. Daylilies can be propagated by division
Common Name:
Deer Fern
Botanical Name: Blechnum spicant
Height: 18-24"
USDA Zones: 5-8
Requirements & Benefits:
Deer Ferns resemble miniature Sword ferns but smaller with rounded fronds. They are drought tolerate but do best if kept damp
Common Name:
Delphinium
Botanical Name: Delphinium x elatum
Height: 2-6 ft.
USDA Zones: 3-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Delphiniums are stately, elegant plants that form mounds of maple-like or deeply serrated, dark green foliage. They produce tall spikes of showy flowers in late spring through to mid summer. Delphiniums range in size from less than 2 feet tall to towering 6 ft. spikes of cup shaped blossoms.
Common Name:
Dogbane
Botanical Name: Apocynum cannabinum
Height: 3 ft.
USDA Zones: 4-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Dogbane is an upright, shrub-like deciduous perennial with yollowish green foliage. It produces small flowers at the branch tips from late spring until late summer, followed by slender 8 inch seed pods
Attracts Butterflies: Spicebush Swallowtail, checkered White, Common Orange Sulphur, Gray Hairstreak, Spring Azure, Pearly Crescentspot, Mourning Cloak, American Painted Lady, Buckeye
Common Name:
Dragon Lily
Botanical Name: Dracunculus vulgaris
Height: 18-24"
USDA Zones: 5-8
Requirements & Benefits:
Dracunculus vulgaris is known by many names, Dragon Lily, Voodoo Lily, Viagra Lily and the "tell it like it is" name of Stink Lily.
Common Name:
Dusty Miller
Botanical Name: Senecio cineraria
Height: 12-24"
USDA Zones: 8-11
Requirements & Benefits:
Dusty Miller are compact, mound forming, evergreen perennial plants that are grown as annuals in cooler regions. They are great for borders or as companion plantings for brightly colored annual flowers. Excellent for growing in containers.
Common Name:
Dutchman's Pipe
Botanical Name: Hypopitys monotropa
Height: 6-9"
USDA Zones: 5-8
Requirements & Benefits:
Pinesaps are rare, foliage-less, parasitic forest dwelling wildflowers that are native to the Pacific Northwest.
Common Name:
Easter Cactus
Botanical Name: Rhipsalidopsis
Height: 6-12"
USDA Zones: 9-12
Requirements & Benefits:
Like the Christmas and Thanksgiving Cactus, Easter or Spring Cactus, as they are also known, are epiphytic plants that are native to the tropical jungles of Brazil. Easter Cactus have been vigorously hybridized
Common Name:
English Daisy
Botanical Name: Bellis perennis
Height: 3"-6"
USDA Zones: 4-10
Requirements & Benefits:
The original English Daisy is the wild Daisy often seen growing in lawns. This biennial plant has now been hybridized to include double flowering varieties in shades of white, pink, rose-red or purple. The bright 2" flowers appear in succession, on 6" stems from April through June.
Common Name:
English Ivy
Botanical Name: Hedera helix
Height:
USDA Zones: 4-7
Requirements & Benefits:
Fast growing, hardy evergreen vine for shade or partial sun, good for screening, ground cover, erosion control
Common Name:
Fairy Fan Flower
Botanical Name: Scaevola aemula
Height: 8-12"
USDA Zones: 9-11
Requirements & Benefits:
Fan Flower plants are fast growing tender evergreen perennials that only grow 8"-12" tall but will spread up to 5 feet. Fan Flowers are sprawling plants with light green, coarsely toothed foliage. The 1"-1½" flowers are produced in abundance from spring through fall.
Common Name:
Fairy Wings
Botanical Name: Epimedium
Height: 6-20"
USDA Zones: 4-8
Requirements & Benefits:
Fairy Wings (Bishops Cap) will survive in one of the most difficult situations in the garden; the dry shade beneath a tree.
Common Name:
False Aralia
Botanical Name: Schefflera elegantissima
Height: 4-6 ft.
USDA Zones: 10-12
Requirements & Benefits:
False Aralias are small, tropical evergreen trees that are native to the islands of the South Pacific. In their native environment, Schefflera elegantissima can grow up to 26 feet tall, but when grown in pots or planters they seldom reach more than 4-6 feet tall.
Common Name:
False Solomon's Seal
Botanical Name: Smilacina racemosa
Height: 2-3ft.
USDA Zones: 5-8
Requirements & Benefits:
False Solomon's Seal should be grown in well drained but moist, slightly acidic soil
Common Name:
False Spirea
Botanical Name: Astilbe chinensis
Height: 6-24"
USDA Zones: 6
Requirements & Benefits:
The fern like foliage and the showy plume flowers of False Spirea make them a favorite summer flowering perennial.
Common Name:
Fatshedera
Botanical Name: Fatshedera lizei
Height:
USDA Zones: 8-11
Requirements & Benefits:
Fatshedera is a hardy evergreen, non climbing vine that is the result of the cross between Fatsia japonica and Hedera helix. Fatshedera tends to grow upwards a few feet before falling and creeping across the ground
Common Name:
Flame vine
Botanical Name: Pyrostegia venusta
Height:
USDA Zones: 9-11
Requirements & Benefits:
Flame Vines are fast growing, branching, evergreen vines that produce massive clusters of bright orange tubular flowers in late winter and early spring. Excellent fence cover
Common Name:
Fleabane
Botanical Name: Erigeron glaucus
Height: 6"-10"
USDA Zones: 3-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Clump forming, small spoon shaped leaves; Daisy-like pink flowers
Common Name:
Foamflower
Botanical Name: Tiarella cordifolia
Height: 6-10"
USDA Zones: 3-8
Requirements & Benefits:
Foamflowers are easy to grow, perennial wildflowers that form 6"-10" tall clumps of heart shaped leaves. They quickly spread to form nice two foot patches of this shade loving groundcover. Tiarella produce whispy plumes of creamy white or pale pink, ¼" star shaped flowers.
Common Name:
Forget-me-not
Botanical Name: Myosotis palustris
Height: 3-8"
USDA Zones: 3-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Dense mat of small green leaves covered with tiny blue flowers.
Common Name:
Foxgloves
Botanical Name: Digitalis purpurea
Height: 3-6 ft.
USDA Zones:
Requirements & Benefits:
Foxglove is a biennial flower which is native to Europe but now grows wild in most temperate climates of the world. Foxgloves prefer moist, well draining, fertile soil but can survive drought and almost any growing conditions.
Common Name:
Foxtail Fern
Botanical Name: Protasparagus 'Meyeri'
Height: 2 ft.
USDA Zones: 9-11
Requirements & Benefits:
Foxtail Ferns produces arching two foot 'fronds' of dense light green needles, creating the illusion of a pack of upright fox tails. Foxtail Ferns are very similar to Sprenger's Asparagus except the growth habit is much denser.
Common Name:
Fringed Yellow Loosestrife
Botanical Name: Lysimachia ciliata
Height: 1-2 ft.
USDA Zones: 5
Requirements & Benefits:
Fringed Loosestrife
is an outstanding, fast growing North American wildflower that grows in upright mounds of deep purplish green foliage. Each stem becomes studded with small golden flowers in mid summer. Excellent contrast near lighter foliage plants
Common Name:
Fuchsia
Botanical Name: Fuchsia
Height: 1-4 ft.
USDA Zones: 7-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Fuchsia care is often determined by where you live and your climate. Fuchsias can be seed grown or struck from softwood cuttings. Not all varieties are hardy
Common Name:
Fuchsia Tree
Botanical Name: Fuchsia arborescens
Height: 8-15 ft.
USDA Zones: 9-11
Requirements & Benefits:
Tree Fuchsias are small trees that produce large clusters of tube bright, shaped flowers at almost any time of the year, followed by small purple fruits
Common Name:
Garden Pinks
Botanical Name: Dianthus
Height: 6-12"
USDA Zones:
Requirements & Benefits:
Most Garden Pinks are tender perennial or biennial clump forming plants that prefer alkaline soil and dislike heat. They produce richly fragrant flowers in the spring or summer, sometimes extending right up until the first frost.
Common Name:
Gentian Speedwell
Botanical Name: Veronica gentianoides
Height: 18"x18"
USDA Zones: 4-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Rock Gardens, Borders, Containers
Easy to grow, compact mat forming evergreen with deep green, glossy foliage. Produces loose, 10" spikes of powder blue to white flowers in late spring to mid-summer. Tolerates periods of wet soil.
Common Name:
Heartleaf Saxifrage
Botanical Name: Bergenia cordifolia
Height: 10-15"
USDA Zones: 3-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Bergenia's clusters of purple-pink flowers are produced atop twelve inch burgundy stems in the early spring. Glossy 8 inch heart shaped leaves
Common Name:
Gloxinia
Botanical Name: Sinningia hybridus
Height: 8-12"
USDA Zones: 10-12
Requirements & Benefits:
Gloxinias come in a wide range of colors, with variations in both foliage and flower forms. They are tuberous plants which are usually grown as houseplants, but may also be grown in containers in a shaded part of the garden.
Common Name:
Goat's Rue
Botanical Name: Galega officinalis
Height: 3-5 ft.
USDA Zones: 5-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Light green, lance shaped foliage with spikes of pink pea-like flowers in mid-Summer
Common Name:
Golden Bells
Botanical Name: Forsythia
Height: 1-10 ft.
USDA Zones: 4-9
Requirements & Benefits:
One of the earliest signs that spring has arrived, is when the Forsythia bursts into a profusion of yellow blossoms spreading from the ground to the tip of each graceful, cascading branch. Forsythias will grow in almost any soil or growing condition
Common Name:
Golden Chain Tree
Botanical Name: Laburnum watereri
Height: 12-15 ft.
USDA Zones: 5-7
Requirements & Benefits:
Golden Chain Trees are fairly ordinary looking plants when they are not in bloom... but... when the 12"-24" pendulous clusters of bright yellow, pea-like flowers open, the Golden Chain Tree transforms into a real traffic stopper.
Common Name:
Golden Loosestrife
Botanical Name: Lysimachia punctata
Height: 3-4 ft.
USDA Zones: 5-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Golden Loosestrife is an excellent plant for bog gardens or next to ponds and streams. This 3-4 foot tall perennial has light green, 3" leaves with serrated edges. In the summer, they produce abundant spikes of star shaped, golden yellow flowers, tinged in red at the base.
Common Name:
Goldenrod
Botanical Name: Solidago virgaurea
Height: 12-36"
USDA Zones: 3-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Goldenrod is an aggressively spreading, upright clumping, deciduous perennial plant with light green foliage. It produces sprays of bright yellow flowers from mid summer until mid fall
Attracts Butterflies: Common Orange Sulphur, Gray Hairstreak, American Painted Lady, Red Admiral, Viceroy
Common Name:
Golden Shrimp Plant
Botanical Name: Pachystachys lutea
Height: 18-24"
USDA Zones: 10-12
Requirements & Benefits:
Golden Shrimp Plants are shrubby plants that are each tipped with brightly colored, 4" golden yellow bracts that are adorned with small, creamy white flowers. In zones 10-12 they are popular as landscape plants. In cooler zones they are more often grown as house plants.
Common Name:
Golden Trumpet Vine
Botanical Name: Allamanda cathartica
Height:
USDA Zones: 9-11
Requirements & Benefits:
The Golden Trumpet Vine is a prolific blooming, frost tender perennial. It can be potted up and grown as a house plant. All parts of Allamanda cathartica are extremely toxic
Common Name:
Green Carpet
Botanical Name: Herniaria glabra
Height: 2"-3"
USDA Zones: 3-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Tiny, bright green, trailing foliage, turning reddish in the Fall; flowers are insignificant
Common Name:
Ground Morning Glory
Botanical Name: Convolvulus mauritanicus
Height: 1 ft.
USDA Zones: 7-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Ground Morning Glories are drought resistant, evergreen perennials that are useful as ground covers, rock gardens and border plantings. They have fuzzy grayish green leaves and pretty, funnel shaped lavender blue flowers in the Summer
Common Name:
Ground Ivy
Botanical Name: Glechoma hederacea
Height: 2-3"
USDA Zones: Hardy
Requirements & Benefits:
Ground Ivy is an aggressively growing, evergreen ground cover. It will survive almost anywhere that there is sufficient moisture. The five inch spikes of tiny orchid-like flowers appear continuously from March through July
Common Name:
Hardy Gloxinia
Botanical Name: Incarvillea delavayi
Height: 2-15"
USDA Zones: 6-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Hardy Gloxinia plants produce compact 12" clumps of deep green, deeply divided, fern-like leaves. From mid-spring until mid-summer, leafless, 12"-24" tall stems rise above the foliage to showcase clusters of 2"-3", yellow throated, magenta to pink or white, trumpet shaped blooms.
Common Name:
Hart's Tongue Fern
Botanical Name: Asplenium scolopendrium
Height: 24-30"
USDA Zones: 6-8
Requirements & Benefits:
Unlike most other ferns, tropical looking Hart's Tongue Fern has strap-like undivided fronds. These glossy green ferns are native to most areas of the world with alkaline soil. Keep the soil evenly moist. Hart's Tongue Ferns are well suited for growing as a container plant.
Common Name:
Heartleaf Saxifrage
Botanical Name: Bergenia cordifolia
Height: 10-15"
USDA Zones: 3-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Bergenia's clusters of purple-pink flowers are produced atop twelve inch burgundy stems in the early spring. Glossy 8 inch heart shaped leaves
Common Name:
Heavenly Bamboo
Botanical Name: Nandina domestica
Height: 3-5 ft.
USDA Zones: 6-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Nandina can be grown in partial shade, but the foliage colors will be much more intense if it is grown in full sun. Produces berries for birds.
Common Name:
Heliotrope
Botanical Name: Heliotropium arborescens
Height: 1-6 ft.
USDA Zones: 10-11
Requirements & Benefits:
Heliotropes are also known by the old-fashioned name of Cherry Pie. They are frost tender, evergreen shrubs that are most often grown as annual bedding plants. Their main attraction is the aroma from their clusters of tiny flowers with the sweet fragrance of vanilla or cherry pie.
Common Name:
Hollyhock Mallow
Botanical Name: Malva alcea
Height: 2-4 ft.
USDA Zones: 4-8
Requirements & Benefits:
Hollyhock Mallow plants are multi-stemmed, upright perennials that grow 2-4 feet tall, forming 2 foot clumps. From mid summer until fall, they produce spikes of 2" rose-pink or white flowers that resemble Hollyhocks. Mallow are reliable, easy to care for plants.
Common Name:
Hungarian Speedwell
Botanical Name: Veronica austriaca
Height: 12"x18"
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Groundcover, Rock Gardens, Borders, Containers
Mound forming evergreen with 1"-2", oval, deep green leaves. Six inch spikes of intensely colored, deep blue flowers appear in summer and last for 3-4 weeks.
Common Name:
Irish Moss
Botanical Name: Sagina subulata
Height: <1"
USDA Zones: 5-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Irish Moss is an excellent terrarium plant. Mosses grow primarily in lightly shaded areas. Thousands of tiny Moss plants will bunch together to make a single patch of moss.
Common Name:
Iron Cross Begonia
Botanical Name: Begonia masoniana
Height: 8-15"
USDA Zones: 10-11
Requirements & Benefits:
Iron Cross Begonias have some of the most unique foliage in the plant world. Each heavily textured, bristly, light green leaf bears a reddish-brown marking resembling the Iron Cross used on shields and flags during the Crusades of medieval times.
Common Name:
Ivy Geranium
Botanical Name: Pelargonium peltatum
Height:
USDA Zones:
9-11
9-11Requirements & Benefits:
The Ivy Leaved Geranium is a frost tender, climbing and trailing, semi succulent perennial that produces clusters of orchid-like flowers at the vine tips all summer. Good in hanging baskets. They can be propagated by softwood cuttings or grown from seed
Common Name:
Jack in the Pulpit
Botanical Name: Arisaema species
Height: 12-30"
USDA Zones: vary
Requirements & Benefits:
Jack in the Pulpits are distinctive, woodland wildflowers that are native to North America and parts of Asia. In spring to early summer, tiny, insignificant flowers form on the spadix (Jack), hidden down inside the hooded spathe (The Pulpit), which emerges from the middle of the foliage.
Common Name:
Jackman Clematis
Botanical Name: Clematis jackmanii
Height:
USDA Zones: 6-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Abundant, small lavender-pink flowers 6 hours of full sun per day to grow best although some light shading during the hottest part of the day, pruned annually in late winter or very early spring. Clematis like their heads in the sun and their roots in the shade
Common Name:
Jacob's Ladder
Botanical Name: Polemonium
Height: 6-36"
USDA Zones: 2-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Clump forming perennials that grow in swirling rosettes of bright green or variegated, fern-like foliage. Produces loose clusters of tubular or bell shaped flowers. Plants go completely dormant in the winter but quickly re-emerge in early spring.
Common Name:
Japanese Aralia
Botanical Name: Fatsia japonica
Height: 6-8 ft.
USDA Zones: 8-11
Requirements & Benefits:
Japanese Aralias are one of the easiest of all shade garden or house plants to grow and care for. They have large dark green, palmate leaves and form tropical looking, evergreen shrubs that can grow up to 6-8 feet tall and 6 feet wide.
Common Name:
Japanese Painted Fern
Botanical Name: Athyrium niponicum 'Pictum'
Height: 12-15"
USDA Zones: 4-8
Requirements & Benefits:
The slow spreading Japanese Painted Fern is probably the most decorative of all ferns. The fronds are tri-colored blends of silver, pink and green, standing above burgundy stems. Japanese Painted Ferns should be grown in full shade to partial shade, where soil is moist but well-drained.
Common Name:
Japanese Sedge Grass
Botanical Name: Carex morrowii 'Variegata'
Height: 1 ft.
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Japanese Sedge Grass is a semi-evergreen vigorous grower that will grow in full shade and even tolerates full sun in cool climates. This sedge is great for growing in container.
Common Name:
Japanese Spurge
Botanical Name: Pachysandra terminalis
Height: 6-10"
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Pachysandra is a very easy to care for, durable, low growing, mat forming, slow spreading ground cover plant that grow on thick, unbranched stems to about 6" tall in partial shade and 10" in deep shade.
Common Name:
Japanese Wind Flower
Botanical Name: Anemone hupehensis
Height: 12"
USDA Zones: 6-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Spreading ground cover with single 2-3", white to pink flowers
Common Name:
Fire Lily
Botanical Name: Clivia miniata
Height: 12-18"
USDA Zones: 10-11
Requirements & Benefits:
Clivias will bloom better and more consistently when they are pot bound. The seeds MUST be removed from the pods and planted while they are still fresh.
Common Name:
Kenilworth Ivy
Botanical Name: Cymbalaria muralis
Height:
USDA Zones: 3-8
Requirements & Benefits:
Kenilworth Ivy is a trailing, creeping vine with small, light green Geranium-like foliage and tiny blue, orchid-like flowers from early summer until first frost. A nice ground cover
Common Name:
Knotweed
Botanical Name: Persicaria bistorta
Height: 2-3 ft.
USDA Zones: 4-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Knotweed or Bistort plants are low maintenance, quick growing, semi-evergreen perennials with bright green, lance shaped leaves. Knotweed plants produce -bottlebrush-like spikes of tiny, pink, bell-shaped flowers on leafless stems that rise above the foliage from late spring into early fall.
Common Name:
Korean Feather Reed Grass
Botanical Name: Calamagrostis brachytricha
Height: 2-3 ft.
USDA Zones: 4-9
Requirements & Benefits:
This Feather Reed is a slow spreading, clump forming, narrow foliaged grass that produces plumes of pink flowers in late summer
Common Name:
Leopard Plant
Botanical Name: Ligularia
Height: 2-3 ft.
USDA Zones: 4-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Ligularias are unusual, old world perennials with big leaves with long leaf stalks and unique daisy-like flowers. They are excellent specimen plants for growing in tubs, boggy areas or along the banks of stream or pond. The ideal location for growing most Ligularias is in a bog garden with fertile, humus-rich soil in partial shade.
Common Name:
Leopard's Bane
Botanical Name: Doronicum pardaliances
Height: 3 ft.
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Large heart shaped green foliage with bright yellow Daisy-like flowers from Spring to mid-Summer
Common Name:
Licorice Fern
Botanical Name: Polypodium glycyrrhiza
Height: 12-18"
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Licorice Ferns are attractive, epiphytic plants that are primarily found growing with mosses on rotting logs or in Bigleaf Maple trees. They are fairly difficult to grow without a rotting log to plant them in. Licorice Ferns grow best partial to full shade, but will tolerate very short periods of bright sun. Generally they require moist soil, but they will tolerate brief periods of drought.
Common Name:
Lily of the Valley
Botanical Name: Convallaria majalis
Height: 5-6"
USDA Zones: Hardy
Requirements & Benefits:
Lily of the Valley bulbs will bloom in just 3-4 weeks if potted up at 65°.
Outdoors, the Lily of the Valley's sweetly scented flowers bloom in early spring. They likes partial to full shade and is perfect for your shade garden.
Common Name:
Lily Turf
Botanical Name: Liriope muscari
Height: 18"
USDA Zones: 6-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Lily Turf are relatively slow spreading plants that eventually form large, 24"-30" wide clumps of loose, 18" tall, ½" wide leaves. Lily Turf plants form 6"-8", spikelike clusters of ¼", white or purple flowers in late summer.
Common Name:
Lipstick Plant
Botanical Name: Aeschynanthus radicans
Height:
USDA Zones: 11-12
Requirements & Benefits:
Lipstick Plants have thick, glossy, dark green leaves growing in pairs along their long, woody stems. Each vine is tipped with clusters of 2" tubular, scarlet red flowers emerging from maroon calyxes in mid-summer.
Common Name:
Lithodora
Botanical Name: Lithodora prostrata
Height: 4-6"
USDA Zones: 6-8
Requirements & Benefits:
A fuzzy foliaged, creeping form of Lithodora. It is useful as a ground cover and for border plantings. It produces masses of deep blue (sometimes bi-color), star shaped flowers in early Spring
Common Name:
Lithodora 'Grace Ward'
Botanical Name: Lithodora diffusa
Height: 6-12"
USDA Zones: 6-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Lithodora is a fuzzy foliaged, evergreen mini-shrub that is useful as a ground cover and for border plantings. It produces masses of deep blue (sometimes bi-color), funnel shaped flowers in early Spring
Common Name:
Little Bluestem Grass
Botanical Name: Schizachyrium scoparium
Height: 2-4 ft.
USDA Zones: 3-8
Requirements & Benefits:
Little Bluestem Grass forms dense clumps of fine textured foliage. The flower stem will grow to 30" tall before displaying its burgundy flower spray. Little Bluestem is a larval host for many species of butterflies and provides nesting material and seed for birds.
Common Name:
Lotus Vine
Botanical Name: Lotus maculatus
Height:
USDA Zones:
9-11
9-11Requirements & Benefits:
The Lotus Vine is a semi hardy hanging or ground crawling vine that is most often grown as an annual plant. The foliage consists of fine, 1-2", silvery blue needle like leaves. Produces lots of bright, 'parrot beak' shaped flowers in late spring and early summer. Excellent for hanging baskets or to cascade down a rockery
Common Name:
Maidenhair Fern
Botanical Name: Adiantum raddianum
Height: 12"
USDA Zones: 10-12
Requirements & Benefits:
Delta Maidenhair Ferns are elegant, fast growing, evergreen foliage plants with delicate, lacy fronds that are held on wiry, 6"-12" black stems. Maidenhair fronds are composed of bright green, triangular leaflets and can grow up to 12" wide and 18" long.
Common Name:
Maidenhair Spleenwort
Botanical Name: Asplenium trichomanes
Height: 4-7"
USDA Zones: 3-9
Requirements & Benefits:
The Maidenhair Spleenwort is a rhizomous, low growing, creeping fern that forms dense tufted rosettes of deep green fronds on black, wire-like stems. In nature, Maidenhair Spleenworts grow in shady rock cervices and rocky, calcium rich (limestone) soil. They require constant moisture and good drainage.
Common Name:
Masterwort
Botanical Name: Astrantia maxima
Height: 18-30"
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Common Name:
Meadow Cranesbill
Botanical Name: Geranium pratense
Height: 36"
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Shiny green foliage turns bronze in the Fall, 1" saucer shaped flowers in mid_Summer
Common Name:
Meadow Rue
Botanical Name: Thalictrum aquilegifolium
Height: 2-3 ft.
USDA Zones: 5-8
Requirements & Benefits:
Meadow Rue plants are mound forming perennials that will grow to about three feet tall and spread to about 18". They are known for their lacy, bluish green foliage that closely resembles that of the Columbine plant.
A great addition to any Butterfly garden
Common Name:
Meadow Sage
Botanical Name: Salvia nemorosa
Height: 3 ft.
USDA Zones: 5-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Narrow erect plant with irregular leaves, spikes of small purple to white blooms in the Summer. Prefers slightly alkaline soil
Common Name:
Milky Bellflower
Botanical Name: Campanula lactiflora
Height: 2-5 ft.
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Large clumping plant with tall spikes of bell shaped purple/blue flowers in Summer
Common Name:
Miniature Daisy
Botanical Name: Bellium mimutum
Height: 2"
USDA Zones: 6-9
Requirements & Benefits:
The Miniature Daisy plant is a vigorous growing, mat forming perennial with dense, bright green, 1" spoon shaped foliage. They only grow 2" tall, but spread to about 18". From late spring through summer, they cover themselves with tiny, ½" Daisy flowers on wirey stems.
Common Name:
Mint
Botanical Name: Mentha
Height: 6-24"
USDA Zones: 3-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Mint plants are fragrant, easy to grow, sometimes invasive, drought tolerant perennials that range from low growing ground covers to two foot uprights. Flowers should be snipped away to strengthen the stems.
Attracts Butterflies: Swallowtails, Cabbage White, Gray Hairstreak, Painted Ladies, Red Admiral, Monarch, Large Wood Nymph
Common Name:
Mme. Galen's Trumpet Creeper
Botanical Name: Campsis x tagliabuana
Height:
USDA Zones: 6-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Mme. Galen's Trumpet Creeper is a cross between Campsis radicans and Campsis grandiflora with large dark green serrated leaves and bright reddish orange flowers. t thrives in poor soil and in partial shade
Common Name:
Mondo Grass
Botanical Name: Ophiopogon japonicus
Height: 6-10"
USDA Zones: 6-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Mondo grass slowly forms tight, 24" matted clumps of 8"-12" long, 1/8" wide, bright green, grass-like foliage.
Spikes of small, lavender or light purple flowers appear in the late summer
Common Name:
Monkey Flower
Botanical Name: Mimulus hybridus
Height: 1 ft.
USDA Zones:
Requirements & Benefits:
The Monkey Flower is a colorful, easy to grow addition to the shaded areas of your garden. This plant grows well in containers and can be grown as a house plant
Common Name:
Monkshood
Botanical Name: Aconitum napellus
Height: 3 ft.
USDA Zones: 3-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Monkshood closely resembles Delphiniums in both foliage and flower. It has deeply divided green foliage and tall spikes of dark blue, purple or white flowers
Common Name:
Moor Grass
Botanical Name: Molinia caerulea
Height: 12-18"
USDA Zones: 5-8
Requirements & Benefits:
Moor grass is slow to get established, bit its compact foliage makes it a perfect ground cover plant for wet, acidic soil. Suitable for growing in a planter.
Common Name:
Moss
Botanical Name: Many Species
Height: <1"
USDA Zones: 1-8
Requirements & Benefits:
Mosses grow primarily in lightly shaded areas. Thousands of tiny Moss plants will bunch together to make a single patch of moss.
Common Name:
Moss Campion
Botanical Name: Silene schafta
Height: 6-12"
USDA Zones: 6-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Semi-evergreen clump of hairy, tongue shaped leaves, solitary purplish/red flowers appear on wirey stems in late Summer and Fall
Common Name:
Mountain Rose
Botanical Name: Lewisia tweedyi
Height: 4-8"
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Rosettes of fleshy 3-6" evergreen leaves; satiny peach-pink flowers from Spring to Summer; requires perfect drainage
Common Name:
Mountain Speedwell
Botanical Name: Veronica montana
Height: 3"x12"
USDA Zones: 3-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Groundcover, Rock Gardens, Borders, Containers
Spreading, mound forming groundcover with small, variegated, cream and green leaves with scalloped edges. Produces small clusters and tiny lilac flowers in late spring into early summer.
Common Name:
New Zealand Burr
Botanical Name: Acaena buchananii
Height: 1"-4"
USDA Zones: 7-10
Requirements & Benefits:
New Zealand Burr plants quickly spread to create a dense mat of evergreen, coppery purple foliage.
Common Name:
Norfolk Island Pines
Botanical Name: Araucaria heterophylla
Height: 6+ ft.
USDA Zones: 10-11
Requirements & Benefits:
The beauty and symmetry as well as the soft flowing texture of the foliage will make you want to decorate your Norfolk Pine and use it as a living Christmas tree!
Common Name:
Oak Fern
Botanical Name: Gymnocarpium dryopteris
Height: 5-12"
USDA Zones: 3-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Oak Ferns spread by non-aggressive, underground rhizomes forming a nice delicate looking ground cover in your woodland setting. Oak ferns should be grown in evenly moist, compost rich soil and planted where it will grow in partial to full shade.
Common Name:
Orange New Zealand Sedge
Botanical Name: Carex testacea
Height: 1-2 ft.
USDA Zones: 7-9
Requirements & Benefits:
The fine orangeish-brown foliage of the Orange New Zealand Sedge is unpopular with some gardeners who think it makes the plant look dead. Deer resistant
Common Name:
Oregon Grape
Botanical Name: Mahonia aquifolium
Height: 3-6 ft.
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Oregon Grape is a deer resistant, low maintenance, durable, evergreen shrub with glossy green, holly like foliage. It produces spikey clusters of Butterfly attracting, bright yellow flowers in the spring, followed by bluish-black berries to feed the birds.
Common Name:
Pacific Maidenhair Fern
Botanical Name: Adiantum pedatum
Height: 18-24"
USDA Zones: 3-8
Requirements & Benefits:
The Pacific Maidenhair Fern can add a bit of graceful elegance to any partial to fully shaded area of your garden. The fronds emerge in early spring on black, wire-like stems that reach 18-24 inches. Your Pacific Maidenhair should be planted in a rich, humus soil and provided with constant, even moisture.
Common Name:
Palm Sedge
Botanical Name: Carex muskingumensis
Height: 2-3 ft.
USDA Zones: 4-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Palm Sedge has an interesting whorling habit to its growth. The tips of the light green foliage branch to resemble tiny Palm trees. Deer resistant
Common Name:
Pampas Grass
Botanical Name: Cortaderia selloana
Height: 8-15 ft.
USDA Zones: 7-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Pampas Grass is an impressive, fast growing plant due to its size and durability as well as its large plumes of showy white to pink flowers (Cortaderia selloana 'Rosea')
Common Name:
Panakenake
Botanical Name: Pratia angulata
Height: 2-6
USDA Zones: 7-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Panakenake is known by many names including Creeping Pratia. It is a fast growing, spreading, fine foliaged ground cover from New Zealand. It will be covered with small flowers from early spring until fall.
Common Name:
Pansy
Botanical Name: Viola
Height: 3-8"
USDA Zones:
6-9
6-9Requirements & Benefits:
Pansies may be cool season annuals, biennials, or hardy perennials. They may bloom in early spring or fall depending on the species. Planting time is critical
Common Name:
Peace Lily
Botanical Name: Spathiphyllum floribundum
Height: 18-36"
USDA Zones: 10-11
Requirements & Benefits:
Peace lilies are tender perennial plants, usually grown as house plants. They will grow and flourish in almost any well drained soil. They prefer bright filtered light, but will survive in low interior light.
Common Name:
Peony
Botanical Name: Paeonia lactiflora
Height: 1-3 ft.
USDA Zones: 3-8
Requirements & Benefits:
Peony clumps may survive for up to as long as 50 years, so it is advisable to prepare the site very thoroughly before planting. Once they have become established in the garden, they are reasonably free from maintenance and problems. Peonies can be propagated by division
Common Name:
Periwinkle
Botanical Name: Vinca
Height: 6"
USDA Zones: 4-9
7-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Periwinkles are fast growing, evergreen ground cover plants with opposing pairs of glossy dark green or variegated, oblong to lance shaped, 1½"-3" leaves. They produce an abundance of single, 1"-2" funnel shaped flowers with five flared and flattened petals.
Common Name:
Persian Buttercup
Botanical Name: Ranunculus asiaticus
Height: 8-18"
USDA Zones:
8-10
8-10Requirements & Benefits:
Persian Buttercups provide a continuing display of beautiful 3"-5" Camellia-like flowers atop branched, 8"-18" stems, from late spring through mid summer.
They are well suited plants for growing in planters
Common Name:
Phlox
Botanical Name: Phlox subulata
Height: 4-6"
USDA Zones: 3-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Mat growing fine foliage with masses of 1 inch, fragrant, star shaped flowers (white, blue, pink or red) in Spring
Common Name:
Pincushion Flower
Botanical Name: Scabiosa columnaria
Height: 1-2 ft.
USDA Zones: 4-8
Requirements & Benefits:
The Pincushion Flower is a long blooming, clump forming perennial. From early summer until the first frost of fall, Pincushion Flowers produce an abundance of rounded, 1½" flowerheads on top of wirey, 12"-24" stems.
Common Name:
Scouler's Corydalis
Botanical Name: Corydalis scouleri
Height: 3 ft.
USDA Zones: 7-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Corydalis scouleri is a perennial wildflower that is native to western Washington, Oregon and parts of southwestern British Columbia. Scouler's Corydalis will gradually form a 3 foot clump of 3 foot stems of light green, lace-like foliage. Spikes of hot pink, tubular flowers appear in late spring and continue into summer.
Common Name:
Pitcher Plants
Botanical Name: Sarracenia
Height: 4"-3'
USDA Zones: 6-8
Requirements & Benefits:
These prehistoric looking plants are characterized by leaves that curve into tubular funnels which catch and digest insects.
Common Name:
Plantain lily
Botanical Name: Hosta
Height: 9-24"
USDA Zones: 3-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Decorative, large clumps of lush foliage and spikes of lily shaped flowers later in summer. A hummingbird favorite flower
Common Name:
Plecostachys
Botanical Name: Plecostachys serpyllifolia
Height: 1-2 ft.
USDA Zones: 9-11
Requirements & Benefits:
Plecostachys is a sturdy and drought tolerant, low growing shrub from South Africa. It has dense, very fine textured, light green or light grey foliage and produces Yarrow like flowers from mid summer to early fall
Common Name:
Plumbago
Botanical Name: Plumbago
Height: 6-8 ft.
USDA Zones: 8-11
Requirements & Benefits:
Plumbago is a semi-tender perennial, evergreen shrub that produces Clusters of phlox-like light blue flowers on new growth throughout the year. Can be trained to cover trellises or fences and may be grown in containers. Prune in late winter
Common Name:
Pocketbook Plant Pouch Flower
Botanical Name: Calceolaria
Height: 6-15"
USDA Zones: 9-11
Requirements & Benefits:
There are about 300 species of Calceolaria, but the vast majority of those commonly cultivated are hybrids of the Chilean species Calceolaria crenatiflora. They are commonly known as Pocketbook Plants, Pouch Flowers or Slipper Flowers.
Common Name:
Poinsettia
Botanical Name: Euphorbia pulcherrima
Height: 1-8 ft.
USDA Zones: 10-12
Requirements & Benefits:
Poinsettias are perennials, so it's possible to keep them growing from year to year. In order to get them to produce their flower bracts again next December, they must be kept at 50 degrees and kept in total darkness for 14 hours per day beginning in mid September.
Common Name:
Powis Castle Artemisia
Botanical Name: Artemisia 'Powis Castle'
Height: 2-3 ft.
USDA Zones: 6-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Powis Castle Artemisias are shrubby, mound forming perennials are grown for their finely dissected, aromatic, silvery-blue foliage. Powis Castle plants are evergreen (eversilver?) in warm winter regions. They form soft mounds that grow 2-3 feet tall and wide.
Common Name:
Primrose
Botanical Name: Primula
Height: 6-12"
USDA Zones: vary
Requirements & Benefits:
Hundreds of species and varieties suitable for a wide range of garden uses. Dwarf varieties are best for rock gardens
Common Name:
Purple Toadflax
Botanical Name: Linaria purpurea
Height: 3 ft.
USDA Zones: 6-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Grey/green foliage with spikes of small violet colored, Snapdragon-like flowers in the Summer
Common Name:
Quaking Grass
Botanical Name: Briza media
Height: 1-2 ft.
USDA Zones: 5-8
Requirements & Benefits:
Quaking Grasses are relatively disease and pest free. It produces tiny purple, orchid-like flowers
Common Name:
Rainbow Leucothoe
Botanical Name: Leucothoe fontanesiana
Height: 3-5 ft.
USDA Zones: 5-8
Requirements & Benefits:
Rainbow Leucothoe is an easy to care for, slow growing, 3-5 ft. multi-stemmed evergreen shrub, with glossy, variegated 3-4" leaves. Good as an accent plant or for boggy areas.
Common Name:
Red Dragon Fleeceflower
Botanical Name: Persicaria microcephala
Height: 2-3 ft.
USDA Zones: 4-9
Requirements & Benefits:
The Red Dragon Fleeceflower is a fast growing, low maintenance, spreading perennial that grows 2-3 feet tall, with a 3 foot spread. They are known for their bright red stems and stunning, 3"-4", lance shaped, deep burgundy leaves. The sprays of tiny, white flowers and the foliage are both useful in cut flower arrangements.
Common Name:
Redvein Enkianthus
Botanical Name: Enkianthus campanulatus
Height: 10 ft
USDA Zones: 6-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Redvein Enkianthus are deciduous shrubs known for their small, densely clustered, lightly scented bell shaped flowers that appear in late spring
and the layered effect of their small, stiff, bluish-green leaves. In the fall, the foliage turns to shades of yellow, orange or red.
Common Name:
Rodgersia
Botanical Name: Rodgersia aesculifolia
Height: 18-30"
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
The Fingerleaf Rodgersia is a large, imposing, moisture loving plant that will stand out, no matter where you plant it in your garden. Rodgersias produce their long lasting, fluffy plumes of tiny, star shaped, light pink or white flowers beginning in late spring and continuing until mid summer.
Common Name:
Rose Mallow
Botanical Name: Hibiscus moscheutos
Height: 4-8 ft.
USDA Zones: 5-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Hardy Hibiscus are upright growing, multi stemmed perennial plants with light green, 6-8 inch leaves that have a fuzzy underside. Dramatic 5"-12" flowers appear in late summer. Rose Mallow does not like to be moved once it has become established
Common Name:
Rosemary
Botanical Name: Rosmarinus officinalis
Height: 2-6 ft.
USDA Zones: 8-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Rosemary is a tender evergreen shrub which does best with at least four hours of direct sunlight each day. In warm climates, rosemary should be planted outdoors in well-drained soil and full sun, spacing plants 2 to 3 feet apart. In cold climates, grow your rosemary plant in a pot so it may be brought indoors during winter, where it should be placed in a sunny window or under flourescent grow lights.
Common Name:
Rough-leaf Hydrangea
Botanical Name: Hydrangea aspera
Height: 10-12 ft.
USDA Zones: 7-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Hydrangea aspera will grow 10 to 12 feet tall with an 8-10 foot spread. This deciduous shrub has very large leaves that are greyish-green with a fuzzy texture on the top, and light green below. In the summer and early fall, they produce large, 10"-12", flattened flowerheads.
Common Name:
Rue Anemone
Botanical Name: Anemonella thalictroides
Height: 6-12"
USDA Zones: 4-9
Requirements & Benefits:
The slow growing Rue Anemone is a slow growing, tuberous, woodland wildflower. It produces dainty pink blooms with the first wave of wildflowers in the spring.
Common Name:
Sandwort
Botanical Name: Arenaria montana
Height: 6"
USDA Zones: 4-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Sandwort forms a mossy looking, mounding mat of deep green foliage. It produces a mass of small 1" flowers in late spring. Good for rock gardens or as a ground cover
Common Name:
Saxifrage
Botanical Name: Saxifraga bronchialis
Height: 8"
USDA Zones: 4-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Saxifrage is an evergreen perennial that forms cushions of moss-like fine foliage and produces pretty, cream colored flowers spotted with red or pink all Spring
Common Name:
Self Heal
Botanical Name: Prunella laciniata
Height: 3-6"
USDA Zones: 4-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Self Heal is a low growing, creeping perennial which is useful in rock gardens or as a ground cover. The plant will produce an abundance of 8-12 inch spikes of white, pink or purple blossoms from May through July.
Common Name:
Shamrock
Botanical Name: Oxalis
Height: 6-10"
USDA Zones: vary
Requirements & Benefits:
Several species like the Silver Shamrock are very well behaved and make great additions to the garden. Shamrocks are easy to grow in pots and planters. Many can be grown as house plants
Common Name:
Siberian Bugloss
Botanical Name: Brunnera macrophylla
Height: 15-24"
USDA Zones: 3-7
Requirements & Benefits:
10" tall and 20" wide mounds of light green, heart shaped leaves, with clusters of tiny violet-blue 'forget-me-not' flowers on wirey stems in late spring
Common Name:
Silver Shamrock
Botanical Name: Oxalis adenophylla
Height: 3-4"
USDA Zones: 4-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Also known as Pink Carpet Oxalis, the Silver Shamrock is a very hardy, bulb type plant with beautifully pleated, silvery-blue foliage and pink flowers with violet-pink tips and cranberry centers from late spring into summer.
Common Name:
Solomon's Seal
Botanical Name: Polygonatum multiflorum
Height: 2-3 ft.
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
The Solomon's Seal is a shade loving, deciduous perennial that produces large, slow spreading clumps of arching, three feet stems lined with pairs of bright green leaves. In late spring, clusters of 2-5 elongated bell shaped, greenish-white flowers will hang beneath each pair of leaves.
Common Name:
Spiderwort
Botanical Name: Tradescantia x andersoniana
Height: 18-24"
USDA Zones: 4-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Spiderworts are clump forming perennials that from early through mid-summer continuously produce butterfly attracting, 1"-1½", three petaled, triangular, flowers on stems that rise slightly above the narrow, strap-like foliage.
Common Name:
Spike Speedwell
Botanical Name: Veronica spicata
Height: 24"x36"
USDA Zones: 6-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Containers, Cut Flowers
Compact, spreading, clump forming plant with deep green or silvery, felt-like foliage. Produces 12" airy spikes of tiny flowers all summer. Remove spent flower spikes regularly to extend blooming season.
Common Name:
Spotted Deadnettles and Lamiums
Botanical Name: Lamium species
Height: 4"-24"
USDA Zones: 6-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Spotted Deadnettle is a spreading, semi-evergreen member of the mint family. They are known for their beautiful silver and green variegation patterns in the textured foliage and spires of dainty, hooded flowers in early summer
Common Name:
Spotted Lungwort
Botanical Name: Pulmonaria officinalis
Height: 8-12"
USDA Zones: 6-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Spotted Lungwort is a clumping, evergreen perennial that is known for its pretty, marbled foliage and brilliantly colored spikes of nodding flowers that appear in early spring and last for several weeks
Common Name:
Sprenger's Asparagus
Botanical Name: Protasparagus 'Sprengeri'
Height: 3-4 ft.
USDA Zones: 9-12
Requirements & Benefits:
Sprenger's Asparagus has wirey green stems that are sparsely covered with clusters of 3-4, ¾" cladodes along the stem. Declared a noxious weed in Florida, Hawaii and New Zealand.
Common Name:
St. John's Wort
Botanical Name: Hypericum calycinum
Height: 18-60"
USDA Zones: 3-9
Requirements & Benefits:
St. John's Wort is a vigorous grower that is useful for erosion control but it can be invasive. This drought tolerant plant thrives on neglect.
Herbal and Medicinal uses of St. John's Wort plants
Common Name:
Star of Bethlehem
Botanical Name: Ornithogalum arabicum
Height: 12-18"
USDA Zones: 7-10
Requirements & Benefits:
The Star of Bethlehem is a bulb type plant that produces upright clusters of fragrant 1-2" flowers in early summer. Can be grown in containers or as a House Plant
Common Name:
Strawberry Begonia
Botanical Name: Saxifraga stolonifera
Height: 3-6"
USDA Zones: 6-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Common Name:
Strawberry Tree
Botanical Name: Arbutus unedo
Height: 6-12 ft.
USDA Zones: 7-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Strawberry trees are upright evergreen shrubs with thick, leathery, dark green foliage. They produce hanging clusters of inverted urn-shaped flowers which develop into 1", bright red spherical fruits that take a full year to ripen. The fruit is edible but not flavorful
Common Name:
Swedish Ivy
Botanical Name: Plectranthus australis
Height: 1-2 ft.
USDA Zones: 9-11
Requirements & Benefits:
Common Name:
Tall Speedwell
Botanical Name: Veronica longifolia
Height: 36"x18"
USDA Zones: 6-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Containers, Cut Flowers
Deciduous, clump forming plant with soft, deep green foliage with serrated edges. Produces long lasting, dense, 6" spikes of tiny flowers from late spring until mid summer. Cut plant back to 12" after blooming for a repeat show in the fall.
Common Name:
Tassle Fern
Botanical Name: Polystichum polyblepharum
Height: 18-24"
USDA Zones: 5-8
Requirements & Benefits:
Tassle Ferns are very showy and easy to grow. Their dark green fronds grow in a very symetrical, rosette form. The stiff stems are covered with soft, copper-brown hairs. Tassle Ferns should be planted in compost rich, evenly moist soil in a area with partial to full shade.
Common Name:
Toad Lily
Botanical Name: Tricyrtis hirta
Height: 30-36"
USDA Zones: 4-9
Requirements & Benefits:
The Common Toad Lily is an easy to care for, slow spreading, clump forming perennial with 4"-6", deep green leaves alternating along multiple, 30"-36" upright, arching stems. Tricyrtis hirta produces loose clusters of awesome Toad flowers at each node along the stem.
Common Name:
Trillium
Botanical Name: Trillium grandiflorum
Height: 8-24"
USDA Zones: 3-7
Requirements & Benefits:
Trilliums are shade loving, spring blooming perennial woodland wildflowers. They have three dark green, single layer leaves below a green three leaf whorl, below their large three petal flower. Trilliums will most likely perish if their foliage is cut from the plant
Common Name:
Trumpet Creeper
Botanical Name: Campsis radicans
Height:
30 ft.
30 ft.USDA Zones: 4-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Trumpet Creeper is a deciduous, clinging vine which grows to great heights. It produces large orange-red trumpet shaped blooms throughout the summer. A hummingbird favorite
Common Name:
Violets
Botanical Name: Viola sp
Height: 2-6"
USDA Zones:
4-8
4-8Requirements & Benefits:
Violets are dainty little self seeding versions of the Pansy. Their seeds can be directly sown into the garden at anytime from spring through fall, but the seeds need darkness and 70° to germinate
Common Name:
Wax Begonia
Botanical Name: Begonia semperflorens
Height: 6-12"
USDA Zones: 9-11
Requirements & Benefits:
Dwarf varieties of Wax Begonia grow from 6"-8" tall. Tall varieties grow from 10"-12" tall. They have succulent stems and waxy, deep green to dark mahogany colored foliage, and they produce loose clusters of single or double, white, pink or red flowers from early May until October.
Common Name:
Western Sword Fern
Botanical Name: Polystichum munitum
Height: 3-5 ft.
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Native to the coastal forests of North America, this large, easy to grow fern grows best when planted in compost rich soil in a cool, shady, moist garden location. Western Sword Ferns are deer resistant and suitable for growing in the acidic soil found beneath Cedar Trees and other conifers.
Common Name:
Wild Ginger
Botanical Name: Asarum species
Height: 6-10"
USDA Zones: 5-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Wild Gingers are low growing, woodland perennials that are known for their showy, Cyclamen-like, heart shaped foliage and their very unique, three lobed flowers that hide from view below the foliage.
Common Name:
Woolly Thyme
Botanical Name: Thymus pseudolanuginosus
Height: 1"
USDA Zones: 3-9
Requirements & Benefits:
Spreading mat of tiny, hairy, light green foliage; covered by tiny pink flowers in mid Summer. Several aromatic Thymes are also available.
Common Name:
Woolly Yarrow
Botanical Name: Achillea tomentosa
Height: 9-12"
USDA Zones: 5-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Woolly Yarrow is a very durable and low maintenance perennial with aromatic, greyish green, strap-like leaves. It produces small clusters that continue throughout the summer. Very drought tolerant
Common Name:
Yarrow
Botanical Name: Achillea millefolium
Height: 4 ft.
USDA Zones: 3-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Yarrow is a long blooming perennial wildflower with fern like greyish green foliage and long lasting, 4-6" flower clusters
Common Name:
Yellow Corydalis
Botanical Name: Corydalis lutea
Height: 12-15"
USDA Zones: 6-10
Requirements & Benefits:
Corydalis lutea is a short lived perennial wildflower that is very easy to grow and care for. They grow 12"-15" tall and gradually form 24" diameter mounds of light greyish-green, fern like foliage. Sprays of bright yellow, 1" tubular flowers begin to appear in early May and will continue until the first frosts of Fall.
Common Name:
Zebra Plant
Botanical Name: Aphelandra squarrosa
Height: 12-18"
USDA Zones: 11-12
Requirements & Benefits:
Zebra Plants are extremely showy evergreen plants with pairs of shiny, 6"-9", lance shaped green leaves, boldly variegated with cream, white or silvery striped veins. Under ideal conditions, they can be persuaded to bloom.
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