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Container flowers for shady area

belindaramsay8belindaramsay8 Posts: 6
in Plants
Hi everyone, this is my first time on here, and I hope that someone can help me. I am looking for advice on what flowers should I plant in pots for a shady area at the side of my house? They need to be container plants, as there is no soil in this area. I’m looking for all summer flowering and brilliant if it actually went on into the autumn too. Ones that will come back again next year would be ideal. Many thanks
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  • WildFlower_UKWildFlower_UK Posts: 236
    I have a shady front garden and will be planting up in pots mostly evergreens (ferns and sarcoccoca) but will be adding colouring with Vinca Minor varieties which I believe have all summer flowering (indeed they've already started to show!). Also a cyclamen for Autumn/Winter colour. Hope this helps :)
    "If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need"
  • belindaramsay8belindaramsay8 Posts: 6
    That’s brilliant thank you so much. I shall have a look and see what I can get this weekend and get them going, many thanks.
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    edited March 2021
    I'm considering Mahonia Soft Caress in pots to go by my north facing front door.
    Sarcococca was the other option I'm considering

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • K67K67 Posts: 2,506
    edited March 2021
    @Pete.8  I wouldn't recommend mahonias soft caress of which I bought 3 for my north east facing front,  by next spring they were sticks with dead brown leaves, they do not like cold winds. They did survive and I moved them to the vack garden and they coped well with snow but a couple of weeks ago a few branches went brown but still surviving but your area needs to be sheltered for them.
    The Sarcoccoa in the same area I have are doing well though and at the moment smell wonderful.
    Hosta do well in containers and do have flowers and some hardy geraniums are suitable for shade.

     
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    edited March 2021
    For a bit of colour, those new Begonia boliviensis varieties might be worth a punt. Not hardy but you can store the tubers as you would a dahlia. Geranium 'Rozanne' would be nice in large pots, it's almost trailing. Which reminds me, non-clinging Clematis are another option e.g. Clematis 'Alionushka'. (By the way I'm assuming bright shade such as you get on the north face of a house, rather than a very dark courtyard, which might be more challenging).
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • belindaramsay8belindaramsay8 Posts: 6
    I am looking for hardy if possible. We have a south facing garden but this walk way is shaded due to house etc
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    K67 said:
    @Pete.8  I wouldn't recommend mahonias soft caress of which I bought 3 for my north east facing front,  by next spring they were sticks with dead brown leaves, they do not like cold winds. They did survive and I moved them to the vack garden and they coped well with snow but a couple of weeks ago a few branches went brown but still surviving but your area needs to be sheltered for them.
    The Sarcoccoa in the same area I have are doing well though and at the moment smell wonderful.
    Hosta do well in containers and do have flowers and some hardy geraniums are suitable for shade.

     
    Thanks for the heads-up @k67
    I was planning on ordering them today. Sounds like I shouldn't waste my money.
    Back to the sarcococca.... I'm waiting for S Gorepani to come back in stock at Crocus - I've been waiting for about 18 months now as the 'Date Available' keeps moving further out and no other suppliers.
    I'm having trouble finding 2 of anything of a decent size that will be happy in pots by my north-facing front door

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • KeenOnGreenKeenOnGreen Posts: 1,831
    We have mostly ferns and Sarococca in our shaded area, however we have a wonderful Geranium nodosum "Svelte Lilac", which flowers it's socks off all Summer, but you do need to deadhead it regularly.  It comes in a white form, and a lovely variety called Clos de Coudray.

    We also have an Actaea Chocaholic in a pot, and a Filipendula Red Umbrella; the flowers are OK, but the foliage adds a nice splash of colour.  Heuchera's do well in shade, and come in great colours, but they do tend to get attacked by Vine Weevil if planted in pots.  There are no flowers as such, but grasses such as Hakonechloa, and sedges such as Carex oshimensis Everillo add some more colour with their yellow/green foliage.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Fuchsias do well in shade and there are hardy forms or you can buy the tender ones and take cuttings which you keep sheltered over winter and then plant out in fresh compost once the frosts are over.

    Begonias like shade and grow as corms which can be lifted and stored over winter.

    Hostas can survive in pots outdoors but die down over winter but the foliage is fabulous and flowers vary form white thru lilac to purple.  They associate well with ferns and Japanese maples which also do well in shade as long as they're not exposed to strong winds and deep frosts.

    Other online nurseries surely stock sarcococca but be aware that it flowers over winter/early spring and then just sits there being green.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • belindaramsay8belindaramsay8 Posts: 6
    That’s brilliant. Thank you everyone. 

    Are the geraniums hardy? And will they come back every year? 
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