flowers for a shady sopt?

I have a shady raised bed that I'm planting with a selection of ferns. I am growing a white flowered clematis up the fence behind it but I would really like some flowers so complement the ferns.

I recently saw a whole bank of ferns in St Ives with crocosmia in St Ives and it looked great. It was on a north facing bank but even so I'm sure they get much more light than my spot with the light reflected from the sea so I don't think I'll get away with crocosmia. Before I dug it out it was full of red hot pokers that were doing very badly.

Red flowers would look perfect though, or anything oriental looking.

The bed is small, only about 30cm wide and not that deep because there's the foundations of an old wall underneeth.

Any suggestions?

 

Hostas are good for flowers this time of year and go great with ferns. Other things I grown with ferns are heavily pruned rhus, ligularia and a real beauty Cimcifuga. Rogersia, phlomis and zantadeschia are also winners with ferns.

BM

 

Pachysandra Green carpet looks good too, evergreen, glossy and flowers short white spires.

 

Hi sparkle,
My crocosmia are growing under a large tree and facing north. Doesn't seem to bother them at all, they're flowering great at the moment - in fact the flowers are bigger than some I have growing in a sunny spot.( They're just bog-standard orange ones - grow like weeds down here)
If I were you, I'd give it a go; and you could have a little bit of Cornwall in 'the smoke' :D

 

thanks both for your tips - I'm encouraged by your success windy so I will give it a go. Hopefully they'll do better than the red-hot pokers (all foliage and no flowers!).

BM thanks for your suggestions. God bless google image search Cimcifuga does indeed look like a beauty, hopefully there will be room for one of those two. I really like the look of Rhus and Ligularia although they're probably too big for that spot I will squeeze them in somewhere!

 

Forgot to say Sparkle, they do flower slightly later than the ones in the sun