Looking for something beyond hostas for your shade garden? This week, Joanne shares three standout shade-loving perennials that bring height, texture, colour, and serious foliage interest to darker garden spaces.

Some of the topics covered in this week's episode:

Adding height and structure to a shade garden: Larger perennials like Sun King Aralia, Bugbane, and Rodgersia can give a shade garden the height and presence of shrubs while still dying back as perennials each winter. They work especially well behind hostas, groundcovers, and other lower-growing shade plants.

Using foliage, not flowers, to create impact: The real appeal of these plants is their foliage: chartreuse, burgundy, large tropical-looking leaves, different textures, and contrasting shapes. These are plants you choose primarily for their leaves and the visual interest they bring to darker areas of the garden.

Creating a shade garden that changes through the season: These later-emerging plants can take over visually after early-season favourites such as bleeding hearts and columbine begin to fade. This creates a more intentional transition through spring and summer rather than leaving gaps once early perennials are finished.

Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss?

Email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect with Joanne on her website: down2earth.ca

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Down the Garden Path Podcast

On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low-maintenance as possible. 

In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon.

Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.