Annual Heavy Shade Plants

Impatiens

• Impatiens top many gardeners’ lists of favorite shade-tolerant annuals. Impatiens offer ease of growing, colorful presence and endless versatility. The small-flowered annuals will fit into a window box or planter, yet come cheaply enough to cover large swaths of shady gardens.

  Nurseries offer common impatiens in virtually every color of the rainbow and in single- and double-flowered form. Most impatiens reach no more than 8 to 24 inches in height. For a taller variety, grow New Guinea impatiens, which have variegated leaves and often sport more subtle colors than common impatiens.

  Nurseries and even supermarkets sell flats of impatiens every spring, usually in mixed colors, but to plant the colors and varieties best for your garden, consider growing them from seed. Start impatiens indoors six to eight weeks before the last frost date. Add compost or well-aged manure to your garden before establishing impatiens and try to discourage foot traffic near the delicate flowers.

Begonias

• Begonias, also known as wax begonias, seem kindly disposed to either sunny or shady conditions, especially the latter. The blooms are larger and more dramatic than those of impatiens, as is their foliage, which in some varieties runs to red, bronze or deep green. Depending on the variety, begonias bear pink , peach, red or white flowers.

  Begonias bloom all summer and seem to do best when grown from seedlings, although with a little patience gardeners can start them from seed. The germination rate may not be as high as with impatiens, so plant more than you need.

Coleus

• Perhaps best thought of as the annual version of perennial hostas, coleus plants offer dramatic foliage in shady situations. Like hostas, coleus bear small flowers, which gardeners often remove to better show off the vivid leaves.

  Choices include the green-edged, pink-centered 'Watermelon" coleus, green and brown "Chocolate Brown" coleus and the vivid scarlet and chartreuse "Picture Perfect" coleus. Choose shorter varieties for window boxes. Buy several types for a truly dramatic burst of color in a shady corner or use them as a border for the more subtle perennial hostas.

  Coleus plants grow so slowly from seed that it’s probably wiser to buy the relatively inexpensive plants from a garden center or mail-order source. Space the plants about a foot apart to allow for their continued spread during the growing season.