Flowers for shade in summer

By the time we get to the summer months, the leafy canopy overhead has closed in and shady spots in the garden are even darker. Spring flowers such as wood anemones and bulbs including snowdrops and bluebells have died back and vanished underground. Happily, there are some shade-loving plants that will flower in summer. We asked head gardener Phil Cormie, currently at the Himalayan Garden and Sculpture Park, to pick his top 10 flowers for shade in summer.

Geranium phaeum is an excellent candidate for shade, as are many of the hardy geraniums. Phil recommends the cultivar ‘Samobor’. “It’s a wonderful upright geranium with lobed leaves bearing a deep purple band and slightly pendulous maroon flowers in early summer,” he says. Like many geraniums, it responds well to cutting back after flowering for more blooms later in the season.

A beautiful, Award of Garden Merit-winning plant that Phil suggests growing at the front of a semi-shaded border. White,star-shaped flowers appear in June and July, followed by berries and distinctive foliage in autumn. Deciduous and growing up to a metre in height, it is a valuable plant for any shaded border.

Dissected, dark purple foliage emerges in spring followed by intensely fragrant, bluish-purple flowers in early summer. “It’s a lovely little clump-forming perennial with foliage that continues to give interest once the flowers have faded,” explains Phil. This deciduous plant will thrive in most soils.

“Architectural and dramatic foliage with stunning plumes of white flowers in early summer,” are what make rodgersia so appealing, says Phil. “They’re great for foliar contrast with grasses and irises,” he adds. The deeply divided palmate leaves can reach up to 40cm long and the shrub grows to