Marianne's Response

Full Shade Plants for a City Garden

My new garden boxes, each 11ft x 4ft, are 3ft deep, in full shade, in downtown Lansing MI (zone 5-6). What small shrubs, evergreens and perennials will work there?

Posted by Ann Andrews on September 3, 2017

Marianne's Response

Congrats on your new garden space. You have lots of options for full shade including dwarf yew evergreen shrubs, assorted ferns, Japanese maples that have been grafted to stay small, hellebores for winter blooms, hardy English primroses and dwarf daffodils like February Gold for spring color, dwarf Japanese anemone and hardy fuchsias for summer blooms, Fastia japonica and Aucuba for large scale foliage along with lamiums, pulmonarias,  heucheras and brunnera for summer foliage color. Keep trying different plants and combinations and you'll come up with a beautiful display and have it made in the shade. Keep growing, Marianne Binetti