Choosing perennials for shade and blooming all summer

by Tonya
(Plymouth, MA)

I live in zone 6 and would like suggestions for partial shade perennials that will climb a chain link fence and flower most of the summer. I would also like suggestions for a low growing, full shade perennial that will flower all summer or will at least be pretty most of the season. I've been looking online but any help would be GREATLY appreciated!! This is all new to me! :)

Doug says you want silk flowers. What you're asking for doesn't exist in the gardening world - sad to say. Anything that climbs a chain link fence is considered a vine. You can see the vine articles here.

Shade flowers that bloom all summer are called annuals - like impatiens - and you can see those articles here.

Now, shade perennials that look good all summer are entirely possible - there's a ton of those. The two main candidates would be hosta and pulmonaria. Both flower nicely and both have a wide range of leaf shapes and colours that lend a good tone and range of color to the shade garden. I'm a big fan of both. Throw in a few Brunnera (fancy leaves and blue flowers) and toss in a few Actaea (berries or dark leaves) and you're starting down the shade garden road. :-) All the shade garden plants on this site have merit (or I wouldn't have written about them)

So it's mostly about looking at garden pictures, visiting gardens (and saying, "I want that plant") as well as sorting out what looks good to you in garden centers.

This is probably not what you wanted to hear - there are very few plants in the shade that bloom all summer - but you can create an amazing garden with leaves and flowers and experience messing about with plants.