Self Seeding Annuals for a Shade Garden

Shade gardens can be filled with the color and flowers of self seeding annuals every summer, just the same as any other garden. Most gardeners and landscapers will stick with perennials that only come in various shades of green and offer different types of foliage. This is beautiful, but sometimes a pop of color or dainty flowers can transform even the darkest corner of your garden.

There are many self seeding annuals that do thrive in shade, while others will bloom and spread, but be smaller and less prolific versions of those growing in sunny locales. Because of the difficulty in finding plants that will thrive in shade, and the expense involved, adding flowers and plants that will reseed each year makes sense.

Here are the best self seeding annuals to add to your shade garden this year.

Coleus
Coleus plants have been the workhorse of gardens everywhere. The versatile plant comes in many varieties making it possible to find the perfect plant for whatever type of garden conditions and location you need. Because it is an annual, nurseries and gardeners everywhere collect cuttings to grow over winter and replant in the spring, but if you allow the flower to go to seed, you don’t need to worry about bringing them in when cold weather hits.

Impatiens
This popular flowering annual is ready to be planted in the spring and again in late summer to early fall if you want to add more color to a dying garden. Water well and often to ensure continuous blooms and when the time comes to tidy up for fall, let the flowers die in the garden bed and the soil remain undisturbed. Once spring arrives, the shade garden should be allowed to grow undisturbed until the impatiens have established themselves.

Money Plant
The money plant thrives in woodland conditions, making it the perfect plant to add to your shade garden for both its ability to self seed and the dainty purple flowers on bright red stems. If you enjoy butterflies, the flowers are a favorite of winged insects, so be ready for a show every summer. Include money plant in a self contained shade garden that does not need tending, while not invasive, it is an aggressive grower and self seeder so the number of plants will steadily increase every year in the garden.

Forget-Me-Not
Listed as a wildflower in most states, the Forget-Me-Not, is an perennial annual that is self sowing and can germinate in the widest varieties of climates and conditions among plants. The Forget-Me-Not is great for early spring color in a shade garden, and after a few years of growing and self seeding in the same spot, blooms will reappear from the roots of older plants that died off during the previous season. Use the plants in borders, or shade gardens that also have a rock garden element.

Each of these plants is a great addition to any shade garden, but particularly low maintenance gardens that you want self seeding plants to re-establish themselves every year without any help.