What plants grow best in dry shade? Here are 3 shade perennials to plant
- - - What plants grow best in dry shade? Here are 3 shade perennials to plant
Paul CappielloJune 28, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Depending on where you live, it may seem that your garden has seen nine days of gray rain for every 10 days on the calendar.
Usually by the latter half of June, the ground near Louisville, Kentucky, is dry and cracked, I've gotten thoroughly frustrated with and thrown out all my old, broken sprinklers, and replaced my leaky hoses ... all in an attempt to keep the garden from wilting before my eyes. This spring I've spent more time trying to keep moss from growing on my garden hat.
But we know it won't last. The heat of summer is moving in. Those 40%-chance-of-showers forecasts that never materialize, especially when you really need them, will go into fable mode. This is the time of year we're reminded that our gardens need more drought-tolerant plants. And for most of us, drought tolerant plants that excel in the shade are the hardest to find.
In most of the middle and eastern parts of North America, the local woods get pretty darned dry at some point during the summer. So it is in the understory of those woods that we can find some excellent suggestions for dry shade plants for the garden.
So here are a few suggestions to help you fill those tough to manage spots in the drier and shadier parts of the garden.
Native ginger, Asarum canadense
The North American native ginger, Asarum canadense, offers pale green, heart-shaped leaves with unique brown flowers nestled close to the ground.
One standout groundcover found in woodlands from southern Canada, through the Midwest and eastern North America is the native ginger, Asarum canadense.
A common herbaceous perennial in open woodlands, this native ginger is perfectly at home in the shade of large deciduous trees. It grows to about 8 inches tall and spreads to form thick and dense colonies, crowding out most weeds. In fact, its vigor in the garden is a bit of a double-edged sword. It is vigorous and outcompetes many other plants, leading to nice uniform ground masses.
The North American native ginger, Asarum canadense, offers pale green, heart-shaped leaves with unique brown flowers nestled close to the ground.
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But that vigor can mean that sometimes it can act a bit too big for its horticultural britches. Put another way, it doesn't always play nicely with more delicate garden specimens and might take a bit of editing to keep it from crowding out other plants in your garden.
Aside from its tolerance of dry shade, the native ginger is a great little plant for the garden. The spring flowers are brownish little cups (one common name for this ginger is Little Brown Jugs in reference to the flower shape.) They are formed right at ground level so you actually have to get on your hands and knees and peel back a few leaves to see them bloom. A great little surprise for kids of all ages whether along a woodland hiking trail or a shady corner of the garden.
Bottlebrush buckeye, Aesculus parviflora
Bottlebrush Buckeye makes a large and informal specimen with large white flower spikes in late spring. Its roots exude a compound that suppresses weed growth around the base of the plant making it a gardener's dream.
Another good eastern North American native dry shade plant is bottlebrush buckeye, Aesculus parviflora. A shrubby cousin of the better-known Ohio buckeye (Aesculus glabra), this one forms a large, colonizing shrub that will grow up to 10-feet tall or more in light to moderate shade. Once established, it forms a delightful, loose and coarse mass of layered branching topped with gleaming white spikes of late spring flowers.
They are frequented by everything from bumble bees to hummingbirds and a wide diversity of butterflies. Soft yellow fall foliage color develops as the season comes to an end.
Bottlebrush Buckeye makes a large and informal specimen with large white flower spikes in late spring. Its roots exude a compound that suppresses weed growth around the base of the plant making it a gardener's dream.
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Another nice bonus of bottlebrush buckeye in the garden is that it is moderately allelopathic. That means that its roots exude a compound that suppresses germination of other seeds. Once a bottlebrush buckeye becomes well established, there's little need for much weeding beneath its branches.
Solomon's seal, Polygonatum odoratum
The European/Asian native Solomon's Seal is usually found in the variegated form with bright white leaf edges. It is an excellent choice for brightening up a dark, shady garden.
The third of our dry shade warriors is the fragrant Solomon's seal, Polygonatum odoratum. This rhizomatous (spreading by underground stems) herbaceous perennial comes from light woodlands in northern and central Europe and Asia and it performs nicely in a wide range of North American gardens. Over the years it has become a mainstay in American shade gardens, and it is surprisingly drought tolerant once established.
Forming a slowly spreading colony of 24-inch-tall, gracefully arching stems, plants produce lightly fragrant white spring flowers that hang like little white bells from the underside of each stem. The form that offers white-edged leaves, 'Variegatum,' works wonders in shade gardens as the shining leaf edges brighten up any dark corner of the garden. There are some choice (and quite expensive) forms out there with more pronounced white patches on the leaves that should come with a warning label, "may make unsuspecting gardeners experience spontaneous knee weakening."
The European/Asian native Solomon's Seal is usually found in the variegated form with bright white leaf edges. It is an excellent choice for brightening up a dark, shady garden.
In a well watered and fertilized garden setting, Solomon's seal can cover more acreage than you may want.
What is the best plant for dry shade?
While there are many more good plant selections for dry shade gardens, a general gardening comment is appropriate with all. There are very few (and I mean very few) plants that perform best in dry shade without a little helping hand to get them established. Those listed above will tolerate and do fine in dry shade. But there's a big difference between an established plant doing well in dry shade and a newly planted specimen being dropped in a dusty hole in the ground and left to its own devices.
Almost all plants being planted into a dry and shady condition will do best if given a little cultural TLC for a season or two to help them get established and before being left to fend for themselves. Generous watering through at least the first growing season will help them start off in the right direction.
One tip for establishing about any plant in a dry and shady site is to plant in the fall. Especially in the case of those herbaceous perennials that overwinter underground as fleshy storage root systems, fall planting allows those roots to develop in the still warm soil without the stress of the heat of summer.
Now if anyone out there knows how to keep moss from going on a straw hat, please let me know.
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Paul Cappiello is the executive director at Yew Dell Botanical Gardens, 6220 Old Lagrange Road, Crestwood, Kentucky; yewdellgardens.org.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: What plants grow best in dry shade? 3 shade perennials to try
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