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14 Beautiful Container Gardens for Shady Spots

These dynamic potted plant combinations thrive in partial to full shade — perfect for the porch or a shady bed

Lauren Dunec Hoang May 1, 2018

Houzz Editor; landscape designer and former garden editor for Sunset Magazine and in-house designer for Sunset's Editorial Test Garden. Her garden designs have been featured in the Sunset Western Garden Book of Landscaping, Sunset Western Garden Book of Easy-Care Plantings (cover), Inhabitat, and POPSUGAR.

Houzz Editor; landscape designer and former garden editor for Sunset Magazine and... More

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Take advantage of shady spots in the garden to play with a quieter, maybe even more romantic, style of container gardening that works with light and shadow. Create magical ferny vignettes that entice you to slow down and look a little closer. Or, pot up colorful combinations that include shade-loving flowers like begonia or fuchsia — their yellow, orange and pink blooms look all the more vivid against a shadowy backdrop.

For inspiration, take a look at these 14 container gardens, all brimming with interesting foliage and flowers, that thrive in conditions from dappled light to full shade.

Irene Brady Barber Greenscapes Design

1. Bountiful blooms. A combination of part-shade-loving coral flowers makes a welcoming statement at the entrance of this home in Portland, Maine. Hummingbirds love the tubular flowers of Fuchsia ‘Gartenmeister Bonstedt’, which bloom from early summer to fall. Orange-pink tuberous begonias and maidenhair fern, with its delicate foliage, fill in the container below.

Water requirement: Moderate to regular; keep soil moist
Light requirement: Partial shade

Glenna Partridge Garden Design

2. Part-shade stunner. A strappy-leafed New Zealand flax (Phormium sp., USDA zones 8 to 11; find your zone) adds height to this container combination. Although flax is often grown in full sun, you can get away with including one in a part-shade situation as long as the plant receives a few hours of morning or afternoon sun.

Other plants in this combination include: plum-colored heuchera (Heuchera sp.), pale pink gaura (Gaura lindheimeri, Zone 5), lime-green sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas, zones 9 to 11), purple flowering angelonia (Angelonia sp.), hellebore (Helleborus sp., zones 4 to 9) and trailing ‘Silver Falls’ dichondra (Dichondra argentea ‘Silver Falls’, zones 10 to 12).

Water requirement: Moderate to regular
Light requirement: Partial shade

Scott Byron & Co., Inc.

3. Summer color. This container combination would bring bright blooms and delicate, ferny foliage to a mild-climate garden with dappled light. Plants featured in this arrangement include white-flowering peace lily (Spathiphyllum sp.), pink impatiens and begonias and Sprenger’s asparagus fern (Asparagus densiflorus ‘Sprengeri’, zones 9 to 11).

Peace lily only thrive outdoors in very mild climates (zones 11 to 12). Chinese foxglove (Rehmannia elata, zones 7 to 10) is another tall flower that’s more cold-hardy and can grow in a shady container.

Water requirement: Moderate to regular; keep the soil moist for impatiens and begonia
Light requirement: Partial to full shade

Living Gardens Landscape Design

4. Chartreuse, pink and silver. This brightly colored container garden in Orange County, California, would make a pretty accent for a partially shaded patio or porch. Plants include bi-colored lime and burgundy coleus, variegated ivy, pink-flowering begonia and a cascade of ‘Silver Falls’ dichondra (Dichondra argentea ‘Silver Falls’, zones 9 to 11).

Designer Sacha McCrae notes that the containers are watered once a week at most and benefit from the moisture of the coastal California climate.

Water requirement: Low, if container is in full to partial shade; moderate water if in brighter light
Light requirement: Partial shade; designer reports less than one hour of direct sunlight per day

Tip: Containers in low light dry out more slowly than those in full sun. Be careful not to overwater, particularly if you have low-water succulents included in the combination.

Glenna Partridge Garden Design

5. Otherworldly vignette. Almost like a scene out of Jurassic park or a glimpse of a primordial forest floor, this creative container combination evokes a feeling of mystery.

The designer relied on all foliage plants to get the look, including tropical bird’s nest fern (Asplenium sp.), silvery brunnera, black mondo grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’, zones 5 to 10), golden oxalis and evergreen maidenhair fern. The contrast of the bright silver and chartreuse stands out in the low-light setting and against the dark ceramic container.

Water requirement: Moderate to regular
Light requirement: Partial shade; designer Glenna Partridge recommends two hours of sun per day

Design for Conscious Living®

6. Lush built-in planter. In a partially shaded corner in a Toronto patio, this planter box packs a lot of punch. Designer Celia Alida Rutte layered foliage plants with contrasting foliage, texture and heights.

Here are the container’s contents from top to bottom: annual castor bean (Ricinus communis) and bird-of-paradise (Strelitzia sp.) add height; dwarf papyrus (Cyperus sp.) and smoke bush (Cotinus sp.) fill in the mid-layer; and shrimp plant (Justicia brandegeana, zones 9 to 11), ‘Breathless Blush’ euphorbia (Euphorbia hybrida ‘Breathless Blush’, zones 10 to 11) and alternanthera (Alternanthera dentata) form the bottom layer.

Water requirement: Moderate to regular
Light requirement: Partial sun to partial shade

Tip: Starting with a large planter allows more room for small trees and shrubs, which help really give the feeling of a garden in a small space like this courtyard.

Irene Brady Barber Greenscapes Design

7. Window box brights. Sunset flower colors of orangey-gold, coral and vivid pink glow like embers against dark foliage in this shady window display. The designer included Fuchsia ‘Gartenmeister Bonstedt’ and multiple types of tuberous begonia, and also included bright foliage accents, such as lime-green scotch moss, variegated jasmine and trailing muehlenbeckia.

Water requirement: Moderate to regular
Light requirement: Partial shade

debora carl landscape design

8. Green goddess. There aren’t many succulents that thrive in shady conditions, but among those that do, aeoniums, like the one featured in this container, steal the show. Use a large-scale one, like Aeonium ‘Mint Saucer’ (zones 9 and up), to anchor a container combination like an oversize flower would. Here, the edges of the container have been filled in with shade-loving plants that bring a contrasting textural element, including feathery foxtail fern (Asparagus densiflorus ‘Myers’, zones 9 to 11) and grass-like golden sweet flag (Acorus gramineus ‘Ogon’, zones 5 to 9).

Water requirement: Low to moderate; don’t let Aeonium sit in soggy soil
Light requirement: Partial shade to bright indirect light

Kikuchi + Kankel Design Group

9. Simple and contemporary. A combination of foxtail fern (Asparagus densiflorus ‘Myers’, zones 9 to 11) and trailing deep-purple sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas, zones 9 to 11) makes a nonfussy entryway display that looks clean, contemporary and attractive — even from a distance. To make porch and entryway containers stand out from the street without relying on colorful flowers, choose structural plants with at least one plant for height.

Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Partial shade

Design for Conscious Living®

10. Tropical effects. “I love, and frequently add, bird-of-paradise to full-shade and part-shade planters,” says Rutte, who designed this container. While the plant doesn’t flower when not exposed to full sun, it adds height and a tropical feel to containers. Here, bird-of-paradise is paired with bright-colored coleus, asparagus fern and silver-leafed licorice plant (Helichrysum petiolare, zones 9 to 11).

Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Partial sun to partial shade; the designer reports that this container receives about four hours of sun per day

Tip: In cold climates, containers with bird-of-paradise can be transitioned indoors and used as houseplants in the winter. At the end of the season, remove any annuals used in the combination and bring the potted bird-of-paradise to a spot inside where it receives bright light.

Le jardinet

11. Japanese maple. Add height to a large container by starting with a Japanese maple (Acer palmatum, zones 5 to 8) and filling in around the base with color-rich annuals and perennials that tolerate partial shade. Here, the designer used two types of sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas, zones 9 to 11), a brick-red-leafed coleus and Bonfire begonia (Begonia boliviensis) to create a cascade of color below the tree.

Water requirement: Moderate to regular
Light requirement: Partial shade

Glenna Partridge Garden Design

12. Carnivorous. In nature, North American pitcher plants (Sarracenia spp.) thrive in areas with bright, dappled light, such as under trees with high canopies, and with their roots in boggy soil. If you can re-create these conditions in a container, Sarracenia make cool potted specimens, guaranteed to delight garden visitors — unless, of course, the visitor is an insect. “My clients’ little boy was fascinated with this plant and searched for bugs to drop in the pitcher,” says designer Glenna Partridge.

Water requirement: Regular; keep soil moist
Light requirement: Partial shade; prefer bright, indirect light to full sun post-bloom

Tip: Try combining pitcher plants with other carnivorous species, like Venus’ flytrap (Dionaea muscipula, zones 7 to 10), maidenhair fern and moss.

Partridge notes that pitcher plants need more sun after flowering, so plan on moving the container to a spot that receives brighter light, and combine with plants that tolerate the same conditions.

Living Gardens Landscape Design

13. Bright trio. A pretty planting of orange-flowering begonia, purple fan flower (Scaevola aemula, zones 10 to 11) and white-variegated caladium (Caladium sp.) make a vibrant combination on a deep shade patio. Both the flowers and the light foliage of the caladium add brightness in a dark spot.

Polka-dot plant (Hypoestes phyllostachya, zones 10 to 11) and lamium (Lamium sp.) are two other bright-leafed foliage plants that can be tucked into shady container combinations.

Water requirement: Low to moderate
Light requirement: Full to partial shade; designer McCrae reports that the container receives less than one hour of sun per day

Jeffrey Erb

14. All foliage. This easy-care combination of leafy plants provides a lush backdrop for a New York City deck. Sticking with all foliage plants, chosen in dynamic colors and contrasting textures, adds interest while saving the trouble of pinching spent blooms.

Here, the designer used grassy ‘Ice Dance’ sedge (Carex ‘Ice Dance’, zones 5 to 9), deep purple heuchera (Heuchera ‘Plum Pudding’, zones 4 to 9) and creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia, zones 3 to 9) to spill over the sides.

Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Partial shade

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