Flowers for shade, especially perennials, are usually associated with springtime, before the leaf canopy fills in and blocks most of the sunlight. We do have a few summer blooms in our shady back garden, though.
There’s a ‘Darlow’s Engima’ rambling rose growing on an arch that leads into the Back Garden. It would probably like more sun than it gets, as its flowers are fairly sparse.
Sparse or not, they have a lovely fragrance.
Purple-Flowering Raspberry (Rubus odoratum) likes shade and generally blooms throughout the summer.
The flowers are pretty and the big maple-shaped leaves are attractive, but the fruit is nothing to write home about.
Some say that Bee Balm (Monarda didyma) wants full sun, but the rhizomes I planted here in part shade seem perfectly happy. I just have to make sure they don’t overwhelm the Indian Pink (Spigelia marilandica) growing at lower right.
While I aim to emphasize white flowers in the Back Garden, many of the summer-blooming perennials that like it here bloom in red, purple, and yellow.
White summer flowers are provided by ‘Annabelle’ Hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens) which has big poofy-looking clusters of bloom through much of the summer. You can cut this plant back hard since it blooms on new growth.
Are there any summer-blooming perennials in your shade garden right now?
gardeninacity 
The raspberry is beautiful, worth having even if it didn’t have any fruit. I love bee balm. I can grow quite a few kinds, but my typical kind, Panorama Red Shades, is my sacrifice plant. It is chewed up every year, and none of the nearby plants are touched.
I suppose that could be a fair trade off. For some reason nothing goes after my bee balm, or any of my monardas.
Lovely flowers!
Thank you!
The colors and variety in blooms always delight at this time of year!
Definitely!
The colours of all the plants are really lovely…. it is difficult to choose, but the white hydrangea is an absolute knockout in your garden. The flowers look like candles in that shady part of the garden.
Yes, I prefer the plain white hydrangeas to the pink and blue ones.
I’m often surprised by the differences between native plants and garden plants, as with your beebalm. The colors are luscious, here, but I do like those white hydrangeas.
Agreed.
If you have a bit of damp shade then iris ensata, Rogersias, Astilbes, and Zantedescias are all flowering now and of course in normal shade flowering hostas are at their best.at the moment.
I have a couple of Astilbes and one Hosta, though the Astilbes are not blooming.
My hostas are blooming. 😉 What a sweet birdhouse.
And it has a wren family this year!
Oh, nice!
Glad you like it.
The white hydrangea blooms are lovely, especially combined with their deep green foliage. The Indian Pink is native here in Texas, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it for sale. It’s sure a pretty one! Lovely summer garden!
The Indian Pink wants a certain amount of moisture.
Great ideas, thanks! Add rabbit cover to the challenges of shade gardening. It seems just about any colorful plants I try to add that bloom in midsummer are gobbled up. (My Spigelias are caged; although I think the rabbits are leaving the tops of them alone now that they’re established.) I can see why the previous owners planted so many Hostas!
I haven’t had trouble with rabbits eating the Spigelia.
How are you for rainfall? We are very dry in summer. I love the raspberry but the fruit ones I’ve got need a lot of water. Amelia
We had a wet spring but it’s been dryish since June, though not too bad.
Yes, my favorites right now are Tall Bellflower which is a beautiful blue and Silene which is a bright red for the most part. I just noticed today that there is one blooming pink. I didn’t know they would do that.
Is that Silene the Fire Pink?
Summer flowers for shade are tough to find. Big leaf aster might do for fall color.
I’ve never seen the Indian pinks.
Big Leaf Aster has not done very well in my garden, not sure why.
It seems to like poor soil.
White always shows nicely in shade, but a bit of colour looks lovely too. I like that Indian Pink. Is that a perennial? Have never seen it before.
It is a perennial. It’s not always easy to find, even in this country.
Perhaps I can find some seed and try growing it. It is lovely.
Everything looks lovely, I can imagine the smell of the rambling rose, they do have such a wonderful fragrance.I do like that Indian pink.xxx
The rose does have a nice scent, a bi t like honey, I only wish it had more flowers.
Hosta, Astilbe, and Annabelle Hydrangeas are all blooming. Love the Astilbe and Annabelles, but the Hosta not so much. 🙂
Not a big lover of Hostas myself, but I know plenty of people who are crazy about them.
I have very few shade areas but will have a good sized one to work on in another couple of years — I do plant to try the Spigelia there for sure! Do you have any problem with the rubus being invasive? I am constantly battling wild raspberry here. 😦
No, this species doesn’t seem to spread aggressively.
All of these are great plants — but I totally love Spigelia. Our big plant was in flower a couple of weeks ago, and I was glad we were here to see it.
Spigelia is a great plant for moist shade. Flowers are very unusual and eye-catching.