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2 blue metal scroll chairs with matching table in a garden of Soft Caress Mahonia

Creating a Shady Garden Retreat with Beautiful Foliage and Blooms

  1. Home
  2. Creating a Shady Garden Retreat with Beautiful Foliage and Blooms
  • By Erica Glasener
  • August 6, 2019
Gardening in the shade doesn’t mean your landscape is destined to be lackluster.

If you explore native woodlands, take note they are a combination of both evergreen and deciduous plants. There is also the carpet layer, which includes evergreen perennials and spring ephemerals. If you use this approach when designing your own landscape, your garden will offer interest throughout the year.

Southern Living Plant Collection offers a variety of plants, including those with striking foliage and colorful blooms that not only thrive in the shade but stand up to the heat and humidity of summer, too.

Southgate Rhododendron Series

Selections of large leaf evergreen Rhododendrons like the Southgate® Series are hybrids that hold up in our intense heat and humidity. Aptly named, Southgate® Brandi™ starts out pink in bud and opens to white flowers flecked with purple. Use this evergreen as a background for deciduous shrubs or an informal screen.

For a contrast, combine it with Southgate® Divine™, which has lavender buds opening to light purple.

Mountain Snow Pieris

A good companion for these large leaf rhododendrons is Pieris, commonly known as Andromeda. The selection Mountain Snow™ Pieris boasts striking foliage and pendulous white flowers in spring. When new leaves emerge they start out bronze-red and turn green as they mature. The flower buds appear in summer, persist through winter and open the following spring. This evergreen beauty also attracts birds and butterflies.

Empress of China Dogwood

For a combination that offers spring flowers, evergreen structure and summer blooms, combine dogwood, both the native (Cornus florida and selections) or the evergreen Empress of China® Dogwood, with ‘Big Daddy’ Hydrangea and the heat tolerant Yewtopia® Plum Yew, a selection of Plum Yew that grows 3 to 4 foot tall.

October Magic® Inspiration™ Camellia in the Landscape

Inspiration™ October Magic Camellia

For part shade, the Southern Living Camellia Series offers shrubs in shades of white, pink and magenta which are happy in the garden or in containers. For a colorful contrast, combine them with perennials like ‘Cracked Ice’, ‘Twilight’ or ‘Solar Eclipse’ Heucherella.

Soft Caress Mahonia in a container on a partially shaded porch

‘Soft Caress’ Mahonia

Use ‘Soft Caress’ Mahonia to create an inviting retreat or in a shady container. Grow alone, or combine with annuals, changing them out for each season. With feathery, thorn-free foliage, high shade tolerance and brilliant yellow blooms each winter, what’s not to love?

Purple Pixie Loropetalum works well in partial shade too

Purple Pixie Loropetalum

While Loropetalum will grow happily in full sun, it will also tolerate a good bit of shade. Try Purple Pixie® or Purple Diamond® Loropetalum. For privacy in part-shade, Oakland™ Holly or Robin™ Holly offer evergreen foliage and handsome berries.

When it comes to creating a shady retreat, there are many options. Start with the shrubs and trees and then add your perennials, annuals and bulbs.  Select a variety of shrubs to ensure you will have blooms not only in spring but also in summer, fall and winter. Make sure to include a place to sit and enjoy your garden, too, especially on hot summer days.

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A Shady Retreat with Soft Caress Mahonia

Erica Glasener

The Southern Living® Plant Collection is proud to offer garden advice and plant care tips from industry expert, Erica Glasener. Erica is an author, lecturer and was an award-winning host of HGTV’s, “A Gardener’s Diary” for 14 years.
View More Articles

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Plants Featured In The article

Pieris

Mountain Snow™ Pieris

Pieris japonica ‘Planow’
Plum Yew

Yewtopia® Plum Yew

Cephalotaxus harringtonia ‘Plania’
Dogwood
Close-up on white flowers of Empress of China Dogwood

Empress of China® Dogwood

Cornus angustata ‘Elsbry’ PP14537
Camellia
Inspiration October Magic Camellia in white with pink edged petals

October Magic® Inspiration™ Camellia

Camellia sasanqua ‘Green 97-039’ PP20566
Loropetalum
Purple Pixie Loropetalum planted in a stone stepped wall of a bluff

Purple Pixie® Dwarf Weeping Loropetalum

Loropetalum chinense ‘Peack’ PP18441
Hydrangea
Close-up on big beautiful round Big Daddy Hydrangea blue bloom head

'Big Daddy' Hydrangea

Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Big Daddy’ PP14527
Rhododendron

Southgate® Brandi™ Rhododendron

Rhododendron ‘Brandi Michele Raley’
Rhododendron
Medium pink buds and several bright white open flowers sit atop bright green foliage

Southgate® Divine™ Rhododendron

Rhododendron hybrid ‘Lisenne Rockefeller’

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