Top ten shade Annuals

Bridal Veil

Add elegance to your shade garden with these tiny white blooms on trailing vines. These hardy flowers are easy to grow if you keep them well-watered and away from direct sun. Enjoy the beautiful blooms from mid-to-late summer. A great filler for containers and combination plantings.

Coleus

No matter what you are looking for, you will find it in a Coleus. Grown for their colorful foliage, Coleus come in never-ending supply of textures, sizes, shapes, and habits ideal for literally any situation. Let the larger varieties take center stage or choose a smaller or compact version to serve as an accent in your containers. Just keep them watered and they will thrive all season long.

Dragon Wing® Begonia

A real showstopper with lustrous, wing-shaped foliage and bell-like blooms in shades of pink, white or red. Add color and texture to your beds and baskets with these popular beauties. The best part about these begonias is that they are durable, tolerate heat and humidity and can grow just about anywhere!

Fern

Ferns are the perfect addition to any shade garden because there are so many to choose from and they’re incredibly easy to grow. The fronds add drama and vertical interest with their varying textures and colors. Larger varieties can act as anchors for larger shaded areas while smaller selections can be used to add a pop of color or define a border.

Fuchsia

Flamboyant flower buds and blooms are hard to miss! Fuchsias are best used where the trailing stems can spill over container edges, hanging baskets and window boxes. The funnel shaped blooms are loved by butterflies and hummingbirds. Keep a look out for more unique species that have distinctly different flower shapes and colors to stand out among the crowd.

Impatiens

The go-to flower for shade gardening, Impatiens show off their single or double blooms in a wide range of colors and habits suitable for containers, hanging baskets and the landscape. Impatiens are making quite the comeback now that advances in breeding have improved their resistance to downy mildew.

New Guinea Impatiens

Flamboyant flower buds and blooms are hard to miss! Fuchsias are best used where the trailing stems can spill over container edges, hanging baskets and window boxes. The funnel shaped blooms are loved by butterflies and hummingbirds.

Rieger Begonia

Perfect for adding long-lasting color in your shade garden. The combination of dark green shiny foliage contrasted with the larger-than-life blooms are sure to make an impression! To keep the party going, remove spent blooms to encourage rebloom and water with care to avoid getting the foliage wet.

Torenia

Also known as the Wishbone flower, these unique flowers are easily recognizable with their trumpet-shaped blooms and come in regal colors ranging from blues and purples to pinks and yellows. There are upright varieties that work well as bedding and border plants and trailing varieties that are perfect for containers. A favorite of hummingbirds.

Tuberous Begonia

Exquisite blooms in solid and bicolor shades of yellow, red, pink, orange and white and even double bloom versions that look like roses. An outstanding choice for filling out your containers with luscious color. Trailing varieties add drama to hanging baskets and window boxes.