Shaded gardens: 10 ideas for setting up green spaces to fall in love with

Although it is clear that many of the most popular plants - due to their abundant blooms - need a rather sunny exposure  to produce their many flowers and grow at their best, there are also many others that manage to capture attention for their beauty, and which prefer to remain in shady areas.

They are plants that love cool and less sun-drenched spots, with an abundance of vegetation around them that creates a suitable environment for their growth: shade and partially filtered light. Plants like this, generally, have less conspicuous blooms but concentrate  their beauty in their leaves which can have absolutely enchanting shapes and colors. They are even more fascinating, then, if combined with others to create patches of green in the garden that become real oases of tranquility.

Lush foliage, with plants reaching different heights to create areas of greenery full of detail to be explored: this is the charm of the shaded corners of the garden.

Among the plants most commonly used for these spaces, there are the popular hostas (plantain lilies) and the heuchera (alumroot): just a quick search on each of these names, shows that they have an infinite number of shapes and colors that can easily compete with tthe beauty of, for example, rose bushes. and many other more popular plants. Additionally, both hosta and heuchera also have very elegant - if somewhat less showy -flowers.

Variegated leaves and many different shapes, between the rocks and mulch. Here and there, splashes of color given off by flowering plants that love the partial shade and coolness - such as astilbe (goat's beard) or hydrangeas.

As a group, they really look like enchanted gardens, offering pleasant shelter from the heat of summer!

Hydrangeas paired with hostas and some seasonal blooms such as impatiens (also known as touch-me-nots).

Pairing the same plant swith a crushed stone ground cover (or gravel) of some kind, creates a pleasing aesthetic effect with the rest of the garden - and is also an option for shady spots in the home, even without having to fill it with greenery.

Even without large flowers in sight, don't you find these corners of green (and yellow, and white ...) really spectacular?

If you are looking for combinations of hydrangea and hosta to carpet the ground, you might consider the lysimachia nummularia aurea and a purple-leaved ajuga - it is one of the most beloved pairings of garden designers.

And for brushstrokes of color there are always Astilbe (false spirea), with their very light vari-painted feathers.

Here are some examples of the many colors of foliage one can get from heuchera.

Have you ever set up some corners of your garden in the shade using these techniques?