Shade Plants – Begonias and Kodiak Fresh
There really aren’t a lot of vine options, especially with a lot of flowers like that, tropical-wise, for shade. For folks to come to the nursery, what are they looking for that might be good in shade or part sun?
There’s a lot of things that you can do. Elephant ears are one of the nicer, tall pieces that kind of come to mind. There’s a lot of darker-leafed ones, there’s one that a speckle to it. But that’s a really good centerpiece for taller shade plants.
Begonias, there’s so many different kinds of begonias, which are more of a foliage plant. But, then the Rieger begonias and Non-stops, they’re more of your big flowers and that kind of thing. They’re so easy for shade. They flower really well. A lot of them are tuberous, so they’re very, they do kind of hold their water and their moisture a little bit longer, so they can stand to dry out a little bit more so than other things. So, they’re kind of almost like a fleshy stem.
New Guinea Impatiens are another one. That’s a really good thing, too, as far as flowers. That’s going to flower all season, and they’re really good for the shade.
Those are all annuals. There’s a ton of shrubs that will do okay or thrive in the shade. That’s the environment they prefer.
There’s a new plant we got. We always talk about the new species as they come in. This variety is called Diervilla Kodiak Fresh. It’s got a yellow-fragrant flower, it’s a type of Southern Bush Honeysuckle. It has an orange, orangish-yellow foliage to it. It comes out almost an orangish-red, and then it hardens off to a yellow. Then it’s going to flush growth again in the middle of summer, which will be that orange color with that yellow backdrop.
It is highly deer resistant, and it will grow full sun to full shade. It only gets three foot by three foot, so it stays fairly compact. It’s actually very hardy up here. A great plant for adding color in a shade area. That plant will grow full sun to full shade, so it’s extremely versatile. It’s just like the easy button for shade.
