Colourful plants for shady bed?

Hi all,

Can anyone recommend some plants, something colourful - maybe with flowers that I can plant in my bed. The bed is almost always in the shade, so need something that will survive well.

Also needs to be quite hardy as I have two rabbits who eat everything in sight! (I have a few plants, like Rosemary that the bunnies don't seem to like!) Must also not be poionouse (sp?).

Many thanks!

 

Hi Sm o g. It could be that the bunny problem is bigger than the shade plant problem. I have a north wall of a garage. Its not in deep shade, but only gets about 10 minutes of sun a day. Because it is by a garage its reasonably damp shade. If your bed is under a tree you could have dry shade, because the tree will draw up a huge amount of water.

In my damp shade I have :- Anemone japonica, Astilbe, Astrantia, Aquilegia, Campanula trachelium, Crocosmia, Dicentra spectabilis, Hemerocallis, Lobelia syphalitica, Lythrum salicaria, Persicaria amplexicaula, Phlox paniculata, Primula and Veronica longifolia. They all seem to be happy. I have left out Aconitum, which I know is poisonous, but haven't checked the others. A lot of these won't like dry shade.

 

That's a goodly list! I can't think of much to add except heuchera, nepeta and hardy geraniums.