Based on my experience (a lot of dappled shade from tall, limbed-up oaks here) you would be quite disappointed in the performance of rudbeckia, shasta daisy and echinacea. Mine exhibited spindly/leggy growth, sparse bloom and low reistance to disease.

There are plants that will give you good color in partial to full shade, but I'm drawing a complete blank right now ... spent too much time out in the sunshine cleaning up and re-edging on the beds.

What do you want along the fence line - shrubs, vines, herbaceous perennials, evergreens? Are you looking for privacy, color or something else?

If you have room for it, hydrangea gives a great early summer display, even in partial shade. Deutzia blooms well in shade; there are several varieties from dwarf "Nikko" to the old fashioned fuzzy deutzia that can get over 6'. Tiarella (foam flower) is subtle, but long lasting. I have several daylilies that do well with good morning sun, but then dappled to full shade from about 11:00 on. Astilbe, hosta, forget-me-not, bleeding heart (either spectabilis or eximia), columbine, anemone, hardy cyclamen, heuchera, sweet autumn clematis, climbing hydrangea. (Brain's finally kicking in, but I know I'm still leaving out a lot). When dealing with shade, I like to stick with cool colors to maintain that cool, calming atmosphere. Don't overlook the value of leaf shapes, variegations, colors, textures, especially in a shade garden. Ah ... incarvillea (hardy gloxinia) ... late spring to early summer. Chelone (turtlehead) for dappled/partial shade. I also find perennial candytuft (iberis sempervirens), hardy geranium, some irises, clematis, spiderwort to be quite adaptable to shade if it isn't too heavy or if they get a good dose of early sun. Not winter hardy, you'd have to lift the corms and store indoors, but tuberous begonias are prolific and colorful, some bearing flowers that rival roses and peonies; they're fantastic in containers with coleus, dichondra and ornamental sweet potato.

For many years I had to push the envelope, as I was determined to grow perennials, even in this dappled shade, and none of the nurseries had anything for shade except hosta/begonia/impatiens ... and it was BI (before internet). I started out experimenting with adaptable and generally disease-free sun-lovers and some mail-order plants, which were quite pricey at the time.

I'm sure I've still left out a lot of plants, I'll try to get back later with a list, but maybe someone else will fill in. There's also a forum on Shade Gardening, isn't there? You can really create a lush, relaxing garden in the shade. Almost four years ago we added a 1500-gallon koi pond to ours and it transports us to another place, especially in the evenings.

Diane

Thanks Diane for a great reply and information, I will hit the Shade Garden Forum & see what the folks have been saying over there.

I used to grow echinacea and rudbeckia in a yard that got very little sun. They bloomed a bit, but certainly far less than if they would have had sun. That seems to be how it goes with a lot of sun lovers--they'll often live, but not well. You can get a lot of floral color in a woodland setting early in the season and late. Early you have pulmonaria, brunnera, primula, geranium phaeum, bleeding heart, ephemerals, bulbs and all that. Late in the season you get the chelone, aconitum, Japanese anemones, toad lilies, etc. Midseason I always found a little more difficult, but I've gotten a fair amount of color from dianthus barbatus, monarda, some heuchera, some thalictrum and various lilies. Oh, and the tall phlox seems to bloom no matter how close it is to a big tree trunk. There's lots of other stuff out there too.

Yeah, you will be disappointed. Look for things that are native to your area and will flower in the sort of shaded location you describe.

When the gardener bows to the conditions at hand and plants accordingly the result is well worth the effort and the wait.

The thing is, bright summer bloomers look kind of odd in woodland settings. Oakleaf hydrangeas would be an exception - they bloom in summer and the leaves turn great colors in the fall.

Eleutherococcus comes in a lovely variegated version that brightens up dark corners (no flowers). Variegated solomon seal and the silvery painted ferns are lovely in summer (SS flowers in spring).

'King of Hearts' dicentra bloomed all summer for me last year, but everything else I can think of is a spring bloomer (rhododendron, azalea, kalmia, jack-in-the-pulpit, mayapple, erythronium, sanguinaria, trillium, hepatica, mertensia).

Not sure whether tiarella blooms in spring or summer - mine hasn't bloomed at all yet!

I managed to keep a very basic garden journal in 2006, and see that my tiarella "Pink Skyrocket" began blooming between May 29 and June 4, and continued blooming into early July. It's a keeper :-)

Diane

I've had great success with fringed bleeding heart in deep, dry shade. It seems to flower from May until September. The pink flowers aren't huge but against the blue green leaves it's quite spectacular.

The Leopard plants, Ligularia Tussilagenea aureo maculata (Farfugium Japonicum), has bright yellow blooms in the fall, but of course it's the yellow spotted leaves that really catches the eye all season. One of my favorite plants.

My favorite sun lover for shade is not for flowers. Caryopteris Snow Fairy has great variegated foliage and really brightens up the shade. I used to have it in full sun (where it is supposed to go), but it was almost all white and distracting! In sun it stays nicely variegated. The end of the season it loses some of the white and has light green mixed in. In sun it has late season tiny blue blooms, but they're nothing to write home about so I didn't mind giving them up by moving this to the shade.

There's a pic of it somewhere here in GW.

Gold foliage hostas will help too.

I have started some rudbeckias in shade and they bloom a bit. They don't look as out of place IMO as some other flowers would in the woodland. As a matter of fact, I have some volunteer daisy-type flowers that I think are rudbeckias that I found in the shade. They just get a couple of hours of late afternoon sun.

Lobelias might do well (if moist enough). Monarda too.

Having discovered shade gardens on a new property in 2001, I sometimes think they are the most beautiful. There are so many plants which have already been mentioned that would be great for your gardens and I'll probably repeat them, but I have the following growing in dappled shade all day and sun until 11 with shade the rest of the day.

Cimicifuga - Bugbane.
Ligularia the Rocket.
Hostas... of course.
Jacob's Ladder.
Eupatoriums - Joe Pye Weed.
Astilbes -short ones, tall ones... purples, whites, pinks, reds.
Digitalis - many varieties!
Aquilegia - Columbines.
Thalictrums.
Perennial geraniums.
Dicentras.
Aconitum - Monkshood.
Ferns - Japanese Painted Ferns and Ostrich Ferns are my favourites as well as our native ferns.
Brunneras - Jack Frost is great!
Perennial Poppies - Papaver Orientale for early show.

There's probably a few more, but those are off the top of my head. Have fun as these are great gardens to create!