Like the more popular columbine, epimedium sports springy stems and spurred flowers in spring and early summer.
Usually grown for their variegated heart-shaped leaves rather than their blooms, brunneras produce panicles of small, blue forget-me-not-like flowers in spring and early summer.
Their spurred flowers in a wide variety of hues appear above ferny foliage in late spring and early summer.
Growing to 3 feet tall with red stems and roughly heart-shaped green leaves with red undersides, the plants produce clusters of 1-inch pink and white fragrant flowers during summer in partial to full shade.
Although most species of anemones will survive and even thrive in less-than-sunny conditions, the Japanese type is particularly useful because it blooms from the end of summer into autumn.
Keep in mind that it needs partial or high shade and is extremely toxic to people and pets.
Pulmonaria will grow in either light or full shade.
10. Lungwort (Pulmonaria spp.)
With their rosettes of green leaves and heads of round—often “eyed”—blooms, primroses remain among the most charming of the perennial flowers for shade.
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