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From: ark@alice.UucP (Andrew Koenig)
Newsgroups: net.garden
Subject: shade-loving flowers
Message-ID: <5378@alice.uUCp>
Date: Fri, 2-May-86 14:24:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: alice.5378
Posted: Fri May  2 14:24:22 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 3-May-86 20:15:37 EDT
Organization: Bell Labs, Murray Hill
Lines: 20

The ones that come to mind first are Hosta (plantain lily),
Dicentra (bleeding heart), Impatiens, Tradescantia (spiderwort).
If you have some sun, you can also grow azalea, rhododendron,
mountain laurel, lilies, day lilies (hemerocallis), and daffodils.

I think Hostas are interesting, though some find them boring.
They are true perennials with very attractive foliage.
The leaves all grow directly from the crown.  A single leaf
may be a foot long, and a plant gets dozens.  In late summer,
they grow 2-3 foot flower stalks with small lily-like flowers,
usually purple or white, sometimes fragrant.

Tradescantia is an underrated plant (almost no one I know seems
to have heard of it).  It seems to thrive in almost any conditions,
from bright sunlight to deep shade, from dry to wet.  The grass-like
plants get clusters of buds at the top.  The buds open by twos and
threes, each bud open only for a single day.  They open at sunrise
and close in mid-afternoon on hot days, later on cooler ones.
The flowers are an inch or less in diameter, usually purple (though
recent varieties range from almost red to white).