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Home » Gardening Information » Great Plants

Luscious-Leafed Perennials—Diversifying the Foliage Plants in Your Shade Garden

Plants & Gardens News | Volume 22, Number 1 | Spring 2007

by Bob Hyland

Move over, hostas! A growing legion of perennials with fabulous foliage has arrived on the scene, determined to undermine your ubiquity in the shade garden. I'd be the last to deny that hostas offer a wide and spectacular range of leafy shapes, sizes, and colors. But in many gardens, overused hostas have become prime bait for slugs and snails (which riddle them with holes) and deer (which graze them to the ground). Nowadays, there are many worthy alternatives that diversify the shade-garden palette and make great hosta bedfellows.

Some gardeners are hesitant to explore their shade plant options, perhaps because the flowers of these plants often take a backseat to the leaves. But this shouldn't be seen as a limitation: Shade foliage offers so much bold, brazen color and so many sumptuous shapes and textures. Many new leaf colors have been added to the swatch book: Green is now trumped by chartreuse, lime, merlot, burgundy, dusky purple, and glistening silver. Shade leaves also offer eye-popping patterns that are marbled, streaked, splashed, and stippled like fine-printed fabric. In my view, the foliage of a beautifully colored coral bell or variegated heartleaf brunnera rivals the inflorescence of any sun-loving coneflower or garden phlox—and sustains a much longer period of interest.

So find a good spot in the garden under a leafy canopy or in the shade of a building or wall and let the adventure begin. The selection of perennials below offers a broad range of foliage (and flower) options for dynamic design in the shade. They are organized according to foliage shape, color, and surface patterning. Many like evenly moist, well-drained soils; with ample moisture, some can even tolerate more sun. Some will prosper in dry shade. In general, space plants for good air circulation to prevent powdery mildew and other fungal leaf diseases.

Stunning Shapes

Astilboides tabularis

Use this bold architectural perennial to create a Christo-esque Umbrellas installation in your shade garden! Native to eastern Asia, Astilboides tabularis develops elegant lobed leaves that can reach a whopping three feet across. The leaves rise on long petioles to about five feet in height and look like light green parasols. The plant is perfect for a moist shady glen or the edge of a shaded water feature. In midsummer, it bears plumes of tiny creamy-white flowers, very reminiscent of Astilbe, to which it is related. USDA Zones 5–7.

Darmera peltata (umbrella leaf)

Here's another show-stopping perennial that forms an umbrella-like colony in the shade. Native to Oregon and California, Darmera peltata produces two-foot-wide, deeply lobed dark green leaves, which tower on three-foot-long stalks, particularly if given lots of moisture. The curious flowers appear well before the foliage, in early to mid-spring, as spheres of white to bright pink blossoms on tall naked stems, looking much like ornamental onions. Zones 5–9.

Kirengeshoma palmata (yellow wax bells)

Native to Japan, this coarse-textured perennial forms colonies of large, overlapping maplelike leaves and creates a layered green tapestry in shade borders. Its arching, dark reddish-purple stems reach four feet in height. Loose clusters of nodding, waxy yellow tubular bells appear in September, injecting a welcome flush of flower color at the end of the season. Even when not in bloom, Kirengeshoma is an unbeatable foliage plant. Zones 5–8.

Ligularia japonica

A must-have designer plant for our customers at Loomis Creek Nursery, this East Asian Ligularia offers some of the most imposing foliage in our moist-shade exhibition borders. Everyone marvels at the deeply divided palmate leaves, which grow 10 to 12 inches across. Borne on three- to four-foot-tall stalks, the leaves are lustrous deep green on top and densely fuzzy underneath. In summer, loose clusters of orange-yellow daisylike flowers rise above the foliage on six-foot stalks. Zones 5–9.

Syneilesis aconitifolia

Dubbed the "shredded umbrella plant" by Tony Avent of Plant Delights Nursery in North Carolina, this woodland member of the aster family is native to dry hillsides in Korea and highly valued for its exceptional foliage. New leaves are covered with frosty white hairs when they erupt through leaf litter in early spring. They soon expand to form mounds of 15-inch-tall, finely fretted grayish-green foliage. Insignificant flowers appear above the foliage in summer and warrant little more than a few minutes' attention with your pruners (they really detract from the superlative textural quality of the plant). Syneilesis slowly forms a two-foot-wide colony in five to seven years but is well worth the wait. Zones 5–9.

Cool Colors

Carex muskingumensis 'Oehme' (palm branch sedge)

I am a big fan of ornamental grasses and grasslike plants. In moist shade, sedges (Carex species) are the name of the game. They provide tufted clumps and creeping fountains of fine-textured foliage. Leaf color varies from green to blue to golden yellow, sometimes with bold vertical striping. My current favorite is Carex muskingumensis 'Oehme'. A cultivar of our native palm branch sedge, it offers subtle, light-green foliage with clear yellow edges. Leaves radiate horizontally on top of 1- to 1½-foot-tall triangular stems and collectively resemble a small palm. The plant is a great native alternative to the more invasive dwarf variegated bamboos. Zones 4–9.

Heuchera (coral bells, heucheras)

The garden world continues its love affair with North American coral bells (Heuchera species). New foliage colors, variegations, and shapes are being introduced at a breakneck speed. (For a detailed discussion, see "Heavenly Heucheras," Plants & Gardens News, vol. 20, no. 2, 2004.) Coral bells are easy-care shady border plants that form clumps and mounds of rounded to heart-shaped leaves characteristically lobed and often toothed on their margins. Their ultimate charm is cool foliage color, but coral bells also produce loose racemes of small white to pink flowers on one- to two-foot stems in spring. These aerial floral stems have subtle charm, but I am quick to remove the spent blooms to let the foliage shine unobstructed. Leaf colors vary from the satiny, dark purple-black of Heuchera 'Obsidian' to the yellow-green of KEY LIME PIE (Dolce Series). Zones 4–8.

Mukdenia rossii

The awkward Latin name of this seldom-cultivated groundcover belies its glamorous foliage. A Chinese relative of Heuchera, the plant produces deeply lobed mid-green leaves that grow up to eight inches wide and resemble miniature Asian fans. The foliage forms hearty mounds that spread slowly by creeping rhizomes. In May, clusters of starry white, bell-shaped flowers bloom above the leaves on 12- to 15-inch stems. Mukdenia grows well in full sun or partial shade, in moist but well-drained soil. In bright light, the foliage develops bronzy-red autumn tints before going dormant. The leaves of the cultivar 'Crimson Fans' become splashed with bright red earlier in the season (usually in summer). Zones 5–9.

Lamium maculatum (spotted deadnettle)

I never tire of the silver-leafed varieties of the spotted deadnettle and their ability to ignite dark, shady sections of a border and knit together companion plants. Lamium maculatum is a tough-as-nails rhizomatous perennial native to Europe and western Asia. It weaves a flat sheet of foliage composed of triangular to ovate toothed leaves. Spikes of whorled white, pink, or red-purple snapdragon-like flowers rise four inches above the foliage in summer. The time-tested cultivar 'Beacon Silver' sports silver leaves with narrow green margins and clear pink flowers. 'White Nancy' bears white flowers above similar foliage. A more recent introduction, GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY, bears a striking yellow edge around its silvery-green leaves. Zones 4–8.

Pulmonaria (lungworts)

Lungworts are prized for striking mounded foliage that is often exquisitely spotted, splashed, or streaked with white or silver. After years of growing many different cultivars, I find the solid silver-leafed forms most satisfying. They glow and glisten in shady borders and call attention to surrounding plant compositions. Lungwort flowers definitely take a backseat to the foliage, but the tiny funnel-shaped flowers bloom in shades of pink, red, violet, blue, and white in early spring when most gardeners are starved for color. The most stunning lungwort in my book is Pulmonaria 'Majesté', which sports nearly solid silvery-white leaves with a very narrow irregular green edge, plus cobalt blue flowers. 'Samourai' is similar but has longer, narrower leaves reminiscent of a Japanese samurai's sword. 'Moonshine' provides rounded shimmering silvery-white leaves with a more pronounced dark green edge and pale bluish-white flowers. All three of these cultivars are tolerant of heat and humidity and show good resistance to powdery mildew. Zones 4–8.

Eye-Popping Patterns

Athyrium niponicum (Japanese painted fern)

Painted fern aptly describes the technicolor fronds of this species and its cultivars. Handsome crowns of feathery foliage sport finely dissected silvery gray-green fronds suffused and blended with red, blue, and pink. Japanese painted fern adds class and refinement to any shade border. As long as its roots are kept cool, it is very tolerant of heat and humidity. In general, the foliage colors are most vibrant in spring. New selections are being grown from tissue culture to ensure that gardeners have just the right choice of color patterns for their borders. Athyrium 'Ghost' (a hybrid of the painted fern and the native lady fern, A. filix-femina) remains on my top 10 list with its two-foot-tall ghostly silver-white fronds. Newcomer A. niponicum var. pictum 'Burgundy Lace' exhibits the best red and metallic-burgundy pattern. Zones 5–8.

Brunnera macrophylla (heartleaf brunnera)

This beefy, coarse-foliaged shade perennial from the Caucasus is valued for its heart-shaped green leaves and bright blue forget-me-not-like spring flowers. Its popularity in recent years has skyrocketed with the introduction of new leaf patterns. I am so enamored with the etched leaf pattern of Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost' that it inspired the graphic design of our nursery logo. This cultivar—with its perfect heart-shaped leaves and exquisite netted silver overlay on a green background—is one of the most gardenworthy shade perennials to come along in decades. 'Looking Glass' (a sport of 'Jack Frost') offers an almost solid silver, heart-shaped leaf with much less pronounced veining. 'Hadspen Cream' introduces an irregular creamy-white-edged leaf to the mix. Zones 3–7.

Geranium phaeum var. phaeum 'Samobor' (dusky cranesbill)

I generally seek perennial geraniums for semishaded borders based on both their flower color and foliage. High on my list is Geranium phaeum var. phaeum 'Samobor', from the wilds of the former Yugoslavia. It offers semievergreen, palmately lobed leaves dabbed with what look like strong, perfectly spaced purple-black brush marks. Dark burgundy blossoms appear on tall stems in early spring, but give them and the leaves a hard shearing after initial flowering to promote a fresh flush of handsome foliage for the duration of the season. Very similar in habit and equally striking is Geranium × oxonianum 'Katherine Adele', which has dark bronze-centered, irregularly lobed and dissected leaves and silvery-pink flowers veined in purple. Zones 4–8.

Nursery Sources:

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