Brighten your shaded home with annuals this year and give your landscape a whole new look! With so many new annuals in your local garden center out there today, there is sure to be an annual that will wow you. Whether you have a heavily shaded overhang or dappled sunlight throughout the day you are sure to find an annual that will work brilliantly for you.
So you have a shaded bed where you have always planted impatiens? And like many of us, a new disease called downy mildew wiped out your flowers last year? Unfortunately for all of us impatiens lovers in Columbus, OH we’ll need to rotate out or flowers and try something new. This fungus that causes sudden leaf and flower drop thrives in wet conditions and can spread through direct contact or by airborne particles. So what should you plant? Try to design your beds with a variety of coleus this year. ‘Trusty rusty’ or ‘wizard scarlet’ coleus are sure to please the eye. 
There are so many colors to choose from with their amazing variegated leaves it is hard not to like this plant. Not in to the psychedelic colors of the coleus? Try a new variety of begonia like ‘sparks will fly’. The bronze leaves contrast with the orange flowers to brighten up that shady spot. Many of the new guinea impatiens have amazing flowers like ‘sonic pink cherry’. The new guinea impatiens do not contract the downy mildew disease and will give you the impatiens flowers you are accustomed to.
Looking to try a different accent annual in your shady planters? How about caladium? Smaller than an elephant ear but with similar leaf shape, these plants come in a variety of variegated colors. Try ‘miss muffet’ with its speckled light green and red dots. ‘White Christmas’ is a newer variety that has white leaves and green veins. An upright fuchsia called ‘electric lights’ is sure to charm company with its dark green foliage and purple and red flowers.
Like the look of spreading annuals in your hanging basket? Try a variety of torenia, maybe better known to you as wishbone flower. These spreading annuals get about 10” tall and profusely bloom throughout the summer. Spreading like a wave petunia, the flowers are more compact and you see more foliage but there are very neat varieties such as the new ‘grape-o-lic
ious’. White flowers with a purple center scream for attention.
Just because you have little sunlight does not mean you are cursed to live with hostas and ferns. There are annuals that do wonderfully in shaded areas and will revitalize your landscape. Take a look around your garden center and find some annuals that will work for you. If you live in Columbus, OH give us a call and we would be happy to point you toward the dark side of the annual garden.
