From the talk by Colin Moat called “50 Greys of Shade” here is his list of plants for shady places:
Top 10(ish) Bulbs/Corms/Roots
- Narcissus ‘Jenny’/ ‘Jumblie’ / ‘Pippit’
- Lilly’s Cardiocrinum/Martagon/Nectaroscordum
- Galanthus + Leucojum
- Eranthis hyamelis
- Cyclamen hederifolium & coum
- Arum italicum marmoratum
- Anemone nemerosa (& blanda)
- Erythronium cans denis/ tuolomnense ‘White Beauty’ + ‘Pagoda’
- Fritillaria meleagris
- Trillium erectum/chloropetalum/vaseyi/cuneatum/luteum/grandiflorum/pusillum + Arisaema + Colchicum + Hyacinthoides non-scripta (Bluebells)
Top 10 Ground Cover Plants
- Geranium (includes magnifica/nodosum/macrorrhyzum/phaeum/pratense)
- Bergenia ciliata + ‘Overture’
- Epimedium ‘Orangkonigen’ + fargesii + versicolor + sulpureum + grandiflorum + warleyense + ‘Pink Champagne’ + ‘Amber Queen’
- Ajuga ‘Burgundy Glow’ + ‘Catlin’s Giant’ + ‘Purple Torch’
- Ompholodes verna + ‘Starry Eyes’ + ‘Cherry Ingram’
- Brunnera maculatum ‘Jack Frost’ + ‘Looking Glass’ + ‘Mr Morse’
- Pulmonaria ‘Ice Ballet’ + ‘Cotton Cool’ + ‘Diana Clare’ + ‘Stillingfleet Meg’ + ‘Dora Beilefeld’
- Vinca minor ‘Illumination’
- Hosta ‘June’ + ‘Blue Moon + ‘Junco’
- Heuchera ‘Obsidian’ + ‘Venus’ + Tiarella + Heucherella
Top 10 Stars/Bombproof/Long Interest (Spot the deliberate error!)
- Helleborus x hybridus + foetidus + argutifolius
- Convallaria majalis + rosea + ‘Vic Powlowski’s Gold + ‘Bordeaux’
- Polygonatum x hybridum + ‘Betburg’
- Aquilegia various hybrids
- Euphorbia amygdaloides var.robbiae + dulcis ‘Chameleon’ + griffithii ‘Dixter’
- Astrantia major ‘Shaggy’ + Star of Fire’ + ‘Roma’ + ‘Venus’
- Digitalis purpurea ‘Anne Redetzky’ + lanata + lutea + ferruginea + mertonensis
- Lamium maculatum ‘White Nancy’ + ‘Pink Pearls’ + orvala + orvala ‘Album’
- Viola cornuta + odorata + ‘Hearthrob’ + ‘Duchesse de Parma’
- Anemone hup ‘Honorine de Jobert’ + ‘Richard Ahrens’ + ‘Bodnant Burgundy’ + ‘Konigen Charlotte’
- Tradescantia ‘Osprey’ + ‘Bilberry Ice’
Needing more care and attention/conditions/specialist
- (Moister shade) Ferns Athyrium niponium pictum + ‘Silver Falls’ + ‘Lady in Red’ + Adiantum (Dryer shade) Polystichum+ Dryopteris (Most areas) Asplenium
- Actaea ‘White Pearl’ + ‘Brunette’ + ‘Cheju do’
- Aconitum carmichaelii arundsii + ‘Ivorine’
- Dicentra spectabalis + ‘Alba’ + formosa ‘Baccanahal’ + ‘Filigree’ + ‘Stuart Boothman’
- Maianthemum racemosa
- Angelica archangelica + gigas + sylvestris ‘Vicars Mead’ / Anthriscus sylvestris ‘Ravenswing’
- Thalictrum aquilefolium + delavayi
- Rodgersia pinnata + Podophylla
- Meconopsis cambrica + (orange form)
- Podophyllum peltatum + hexandrum + pleianthemum + ‘Spotty Dotty’ + ‘Kaleidoscope’
- Tiarella ‘Iron Butterfly’ + ‘Inkblot’
- Millium effusum aureum + Luzula sylvatica
- Silene fimbriata
Others
- Lunaria rediva
- Eupatorium
- Persicaria
- Astilbe
- Cardamine
- Hepatica
- Iris ‘Pacific Coast Hyb’ + sibirica
- Liriope
- Ophiopogon planiscapum nigrescens
- Primula (some)
- Roscoea
- Tricyrtis
- Some Campanula
- Gallium odoratum (sweet woodruff) great for very dry shade
Colin Moat is from Pineview Plants. You can contact him by emailing colin@pineviewplants.co.uk or through his website www.pineviewplants.co.uk, you can ‘Like’ Pineview Plants on Facebook or you can follow @colinmoat1 on Twitter.
If you would like to download this list as a PDF file, you can do that here.