If your garden gets a lot of shade, you can’t go wrong with our selection of shade-loving plants that will invite local wildlife into your garden.

Generally, however, you’ll invite birds, bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects to your space if you:

• Minimise paving, which can make your garden inhospitable for wildlife.
• Don’t have a large lawn (lawns leave little space for diverse plants and wildlife).
• Avoid using chemical pesticides, which kill insects and destroy natural ecosystems.
• Aim for variety in your garden, as diversity attracts wildlife.
• Mixing up the lawn with wild grasses and other indigenous plant species.

Celebrate indigenous diversity

South Africa boasts a rich tapestry of indigenous flora, and incorporating these plants into your space is like rolling out a green carpet to attract the local wildlife. 

Here are some of our top shade-loving picks:

• Wild foxglove (Digitalis purpurea): With its striking spires of tubular flowers, this plant serves as a beacon for sunbirds, adding a burst of colour and life to the shaded corners of your garden.

• Cape forget-me-not (Anchusa capensis): These plants entice bees and butterflies with their vibrant blue blossoms, creating a lively atmosphere in your garden.

• Ferns: These understated yet essential components of shaded gardens provide an elegant touch and a welcoming environment for various insects. With its delicate fronds, the maidenhair fern (Adiantum) is a favourite among butterflies and dragonflies.

• Bleeding hearts (Dicentra spectabilis): These shade lovers bring romance to shaded gardens, impressing human visitors and the charming malachite sunbird (Nectarinia famosa). The birds are drawn to the nectar-rich, heart-shaped flowers.
  
• Wild garlic (Allium ursinum): This plant will add a fragrant layer to your garden and invite an array of local pollinators, including the hard-working honeybee and the striking Table Mountain Beauty (Aeropetes tulbaghia). 

• Coral bells (Heuchera): Introducing a modern aesthetic to your shaded garden, this beautiful plant attracts local bees and hosts the elusive Rose’s ghost frog (Heleophryne rosei). The plant is ideal for creating a harmonious balance between your garden’s visual appeal and its ecological significance.
  
• False goat’s beard (Astilbe): This magnificent plant has feather-like plumes and comes in various shades. It also serves as a meeting point for the Painted Lady butterfly and the Cape white-eye (Zosterops virens) bird.

• Hostas: No shade-loving plant list is complete without the versatile Hostas. With their lush foliage, these plants provide a tranquil retreat for various South African creatures. The endemic Table Mountain Beauty butterfly and the Cape robin, with its melodic song, enjoy the cool shade offered by this plant.

• Clivias: These gorgeous plants bring a burst of orange colour to shaded landscapes. They also attract the attention of the Cape sugarbird with its long tail feathers and distinctive song. Including clivia in your garden ensures a display of vibrant blooms every year (especially in spring) and the presence of local birdlife.

• Star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides): With its star-shaped, creamy-white blossoms and glossy green foliage, star jasmine entices local insects, including bees and butterflies. The sweet, heady fragrance of this South African native climber will transform your garden into a scented haven. Its vines provide a charming backdrop, making the plant a versatile, enchanting addition to shaded areas.
  
• Wild dagga (Leonotis leonurus): Known for its striking orange tubular flowers, wild dagga is a fast-growing shrub that provides a beacon for nectar-loving birds and insects, including sunbirds and bees. 

Time to cool down in the shade

Thoughtful plant choices are the key to a thriving shaded garden that welcomes local wildlife. All these plants collectively contribute to a diverse ecosystem, ensuring your garden is visually appealing and a haven for the wonderful creatures around us.
Need help finding the right indigenous, shade-loving plants for your garden? Chat with an in-store consultant or tap into our popular consultants-on-call service.

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Filtered shade 

This occurs under large, open-branched trees, which allow dappled sunlight to shine through, creating forest-like conditions beneath the trees. 

Best plants for this type of shade include:

• coleus 
• ferns
• impatiens 
• begonias 
• hydrangeas 
• liriope 
• foxgloves 
• philodendron 
• cordyline 
• cineraria 
• fairy primrose
• torenias

Semi-shade 

This refers to areas that receive up to five hours of direct sunlight a day and filtered or dense shade for the remainder of the day. This type of shade often occurs next to garden walls. 

In areas of semi-shade, you can successfully grow:

• agapanthus 
• gardenia 
• abelia 
• plectranthus

Dense shade 

This is the most challenging type of shade to grow plants in, especially for new gardeners. Shaded gardens normally lack water and light, and it’s even worse with dense shade.

Try growing: 

• peace lily 
• aspidistra 
• fuchsias
• hydrangeas
• Ivy
• azaleas 

Alternatively, try lightening the shade by removing lower tree branches and thinning out higher branches. You can also encourage plants to grow in very dense shade by adding plenty of compost to the soil and spraying plant leaves with a diluted solution of liquid fertiliser.

For more shade garden plants and tips, read these blogs:

• Plants for Shady Areas
• Gardening in Shady Spots

The post Success in the Shade appeared first on Stodels.

If your shade is dappled (in other words sunlight filters through the trees above in a dappled or lacy pattern), then try planting azaleas, camellias, hydrangeas, philodendrons and spring-flowering bulbs like daffodils, freesias and lachenalia. You can also grow primulas, violas, pansies, impatiens, begonias and lobelias successfully in shady conditions.

Good choices for semi-shade areas that only receive direct sunlight in the morning include star jasmine, sacred bamboo (nandina domestica) and Duranta “Sheena’s Gold”.  Remember to feed and mulch these areas well to help keep the roots of the plants cool. 

If your garden is always in full or deep shade, analyse if the soil is wet or dry and choose your plants accordingly: moist, shady areas are a happy home for maiden hair fern, elephant’s ear and many plectranthus species, while clivia miniata, which occur naturally in the shade of tall trees in our local forests, will thrive in dry shady areas; as will periwinkle (vinca major), fairy crassula (aptly known as the skaduplakkie in Afrikaans) and Canarian Ivy, the indigenous paint brush plant (haemanthus albiflos). 

Happy gardening!

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There’s no reason for shady areas of your garden to look dark and bare. Many plants grow well in shady spots – even those which receive no direct sunlight at all.

Here’s your guide to what to plant where :

Full or deep shade receives no direct sunlight at all. The choice of plants for these areas depends on whether the soil is wet or dry. Moist shady areas are a good spot for hen and chickens, maiden hair fern, elephant’s ear and many plectranthus species. Dry shady areas provide a good home for periwinkle (vinca major), fairy crassula (aptly known as the skaduplakkie in Afrikans), Canarian Ivy, the indigenous paint brush plant (haemanthus albiflos) and clivia miniata, which occur naturally in the shade of tall trees in our local forests.

Dappled shade occurs when sunlight filters through the trees above in a dappled or lacy pattern. Many plants thrive in these conditions, including azaleas, camellias, hydrangeas, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, philodendrons and spring-flowering bulbs like daffodils, freesias and lachenalia. You can also grow primulas, violas, pansies, impatiens, begonias and lobelias very successfully in these conditions.

Semi-shade refers to areas which only receive direct sunlight for a portion of the day (or example, morning or afternoon sun). It’s important to feed and mulch these areas well to help keep the roots of the plants cool. Good choices for areas which receive morning sunlight include Duranta “Sheena’s Gold”, star jasmine and sacred bamboo (nandina domestica).

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Use mulch to convert a shady area under trees into an eco-friendly forest floor. Mulch will encourage retention of moisture, promote organic soil by providing a base for earthworms and other organisms which in turn will be a source of food for visiting birdlife and so encourage a healthy ecosystem in shady areas under trees.

One can create mulch from Autumn leaves gathered from other areas of the garden, together with good compost and garden waste, which together with the natural fall of leaves from the overarching tree, will form a constant compost layer under trees, and will feed and enrich the soil to create a verdant forest floor. The resourceful gardener could even incorporate other waste into mulch. Instead of discarding old newspapers and old oasis, cut them up finely and dig into the soil to form the basis for the mulch which is so necessary to create rich, organic, moisture-retaining soil in shady areas under trees thus providing a base for colourful indigenous plants to brighten up the forest floor.

South African gardeners have a surprisingly large selection of colourful, indigenous, shade-loving plants from which to choose.

The following three familiar species of ground covers and herbaceous plants are easy to grow and ideal for colour and beauty in shady areas under trees:

Plectranthus

Plectranthus flower in Autumn and are are also grown for their pleasing foliage all year round. There are 50 species of the Plectranthus or Spurflowers, with white and pastel blue and purple flowers which are indigenous to South Africa, including ground covers and herbaceous shrubs. South African gardeners enjoy using the Plectranthus for the ease with which they can be used to provide both attractive, thick ground cover and garden shrubs which vary from 30cm to 2m. in height. Plectranthus thrives beautifully in shady areas.

Impatiens

Impatiens are both colourful and useful, as they reseed themselves every year once established in shady moist areas. Impatiens provide colour and beauty, especially around water features and in shady, moist areas under trees.

Begonias

Several species of Begonia which are indigenous to South Africa are suitable for shady areas. Ask the Stodels consultants for advice.

Indigenous Bulbs

Bulbs for shaded areas include the familiar indigenous orange, pink and yellow Clivia, The good news for South African gardeners is that there are several less well-known Clivia species with beautiful pink and orange pendant flowers which are ideal for planting in shade under trees. Do request your Stodels consultants for more information.

A less familiar indigenous bulb is Moore’s Crinum which displays large pink/white flowers growing on tall spikes in late Summer.

Equally spectaculour are the Scadoxus or Paintbrush lilies which have striking coral/orange flowers on long stems.

Vines and lianas

Indigenous Vines which flower attractively include the flowering Ivy which can be grown as a ground cover as well as a climber. Your forest garden also needs Lianas to interlace with tree trunks and branches.

Discover the following beautiful and colourful shade-loving lianas:

The Hiccup nut, bearing coral/orange flowers.

The Flame creeper which bears orange flowers.

For contrast, use Blue lips which is a liana with attractive blue flowers growing from colourful glossy foliage.

Crassula

Crassula is an indigenous succulent plant found in forests, which can be used as an attractive ground cover in shady areas. Some species are small rosette plants which will not spread too vigorously and thus can be used effectively with other plants without spreading and covering them.

Streptocarpus

Streptocarpus is a beautiful companion plant for the Crassula. Also known as the Cape primrose and related to the African violet, with typical purple flowers, many species are perfectly suitable for the shady garden which has cool conditions and good organic soil.

Indigenous Tree Ferns

What is a forest without Ferns? Unfortunately our indigenous Tree ferns are endangered, but good local nurserymen are cultivating tree ferns from Australia and New Zealand which will thrive rapidly in a wide variety of growing conditions, including cool, moist, shady areas under trees. Request your Stodels nurserymen to procure these specimens for you to put the finishing touch to your indigenous, lush, shady forest garden

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Tuinmaak op skaduplekke in u tuin kan ’n groot uitdaging bied, maar as u die regte plante kies, is u goed op pad na sukses.

Hier is ’n paar idees vir plante wat in verskillende soorte skadu groei :

• Gefiltreerde skadu word aangetref onder groot bome met oop takke wat spikkelsonlig deurlaat en bostoestande onder die bome skep. Goeie plantkeuses vir hierdie soort skadu sluit in coleus, varings, impatiëns, begonias, krismisrose, liriope, vingerhoedjies, philodendron, cordyline, cineraria, fairy primula en torenias.
• Halfskadu verwys na areas wat tot vyf uur direkte sonlig per dag kry en gefiltreerde of digte skadu vir die res van die dag. Dié soort skadu word dikwels langs tuinmure aangetref. Op plekke waar halfskadu is, kan u met sukses agapant, katjiepiering, plumbago, abelia en plectranthus kweek.
• Digte skadu is die moeilikste soort skadu om plante in te kweek. Probeer peace lily, aspidistra, fuchsias, krismisrose, ivy en asaleas in digte skadutoestande. Andersins kan u die skadu ligter probeer maak deur laer boomtakke te verwyder en hoër takke uit te dun. U kan plante ook aanmoedig om in baie digte skadu te groei deur hope kompos by die grond te voeg en die blare van plante met ’n verdunde oplossing van vloeibare misstof te spuit.

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