Dramatic color in the shade garden | backyard pollinator garden | Texas Gulf Coast Zone 9b

The shade garden is filling in with wonderful bold colors! As a #hummingbird and #butterfly gardener, having host plants and nectar plants is important to me throughout my backyard, but it can be a challenge in the shady areas. I have tried so many different combinations of plants in this area that have not thrived. But I don't need to search any longer because the following plants perform beautifully in this shady location in my backyard:
- Coleus (both shade and sun tolerant)
- Caladiums (both shade and sun tolerant)
- Salvia Madrensis (or also known as Forsythia sage)
- White-veined Dutchman's pipevine (Aristolochia fimbriata)
- Wooly Dutchman's pipevine (Aristolochia tomentosa)
- Shrimp plant (Justicia brandegeeana)

[@GrandmaSandy]

Thanks for sharing your beautiful garden with us today so much color. You’ve taken such good loving care of your garden. Thank you so much for sharing it.

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

Awe, that is so nice of you! Thank you for your comment! 😊

[@carolynlotz7460]

Love love your shade garden. I’m inspired in zone 10b. Love the boldness of chartreuse next to burgundy ❤️

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

Thank you so much! 😊 (Even my husband likes the colors, and likes to look at the shade garden).

[@yolandago1052]

I’m in zone 9b south Texas. I have butterfly pea in part shade and in full shade and it more than thrives in the summer heat. It comes in blue, lavender and white. Hummingbirds and bees are always visiting this plant. And a big plus…you can make a tea for anxiety with the flowers.

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

Thank you for your comment - this is good to know about butterfly pea! 😊

[@tammiedunbar6166]

Is butterfly pea an annual or perrinal?

[@pc1189]

The color contrasts are so pleasing to the eye you must love looking out the window seeing it. I’m in zone 10 a and got a couple woolly pipe vines in the fall from joyful butterfly and debated whether to put them in sun or shade so glad you mentioned how yours is doing. I left mine in pots so they probably would be happier in a less sunny spot, thanks for the info. And lastly the tallest cylindrical container really adds to the beauty and interest to this space. 👏👏

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

Thank you so much! 😊 I really do love looking at the shade garden. When I scan all the gardens, it really stands out. (It has taken me quite a few failed plants to get to this point. 😁 )

[@shadedfromreality]

Very beautiful shade garden! The contrasting coleus colors are beautiful!

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

Thank you for watching and your comment! 😊

[@nicholasryan5401]

Greeting's from Ireland, Great video and lovely garden, I have two salvia amistad and two salvia love and wishe's in pots. I bring them into the glasshouse to overwinter them and they are in my top ten long flowering and bee friendly plant's that I have.

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

Greetings from Texas to Ireland! 😊 Thank you for watching. Oh, I so agree with you about Salvia! It is a most wonderful plant for pollinators, and I have both varieties you mention planted in the ground. My Amistad gets over 5 feet tall - it is amazing.

[@Pierceb2]

I am enjoying your garden videos very much. As for shade plants I recently saw another video 0:12 on plants for Hummingbirds that included Pink Diamond Bleeding Heart and the nursery man said it was a Hybrid that blooms all year. It had a nice form with light foliage. It was in a Proven Winners Pot FYI.

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

Thank you for watching! 😊 I love Bleeding Hearts. I have tried (only once) to grow it down here south of Houston and the summer I planted it (from Proven Winners) we had LOTS of rain all throughout the summer and it drowned. I haven't tried another one because of that. I do know hummingbirds really like it though, as my mother has Bleeding Heart in her northern garden.

[@jennifergreene8891]

Hello neighbor! Lake Jackson here and loving how the shade bed filled out with such beautiful color! I never knew that Caladiums bloomed. Thank you for sharing 😊

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

Hi neighbor! 😊 It is fun how fast the coleus and caladiums grow once it gets nice and warm down here. The caladium blooms are fairly underwhelming, but it is fun to seem them for the brief time they make a showing.

[@jennifergreene8891]

@@ButterfliesNBirds I was wanting to do Coleus and Caladiums this year but, on ss the funds were not there. But, I will do them next year for sure. I have to thank you for sharing that they do so well for us here. I too had tried Hostas and Huchera with no luck, and I thought it was something I was doing wrong. Thank you for taking the time to share your beautiful garden. 🙏

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

If you do decide to get them next year, be sure to get the small 1.99 plants because they grow so well for us down here. You don't need to spend more money for the larger plants. As I mentioned, this is the first year I purchased caladium bulbs, and I am very pleased. I got 18 bulbs for 17.99. The only thing I don't like about planting caladium bulbs is they take a long time to come up because it needs to be very warm for them. I seem to be a little impatient. 😄

[@jennifergreene8891]

@@ButterfliesNBirds I too am a bit impatient 😂

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

😄

[@davidnicholson6406]

Your coleus looks great. I have my favorite Carolyn Wharton caladiums coming up in my deep shade.

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

Fantastic! 🤩 This is the first year I have planted Carolyn Wharton caladiums from bulbs ... and I like them! Mine get bright sun for a couple of hours right after lunch, and I hope it isn't too much.

[@davidnicholson6406]

I think they can go most any where. I went all out this year and got 50 large bulbs for all across the front of my house,in beds pots and planters. I love the play of color on each leaf and they are some of the largest.

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

Oh wow - 50 large bulbs - that will be stunning! 🤩

[@goldengirl65]

They are all growing so well. It is a flower coming out on my yellow salvia. It's so slow to open though. No colour as yet, just the buds splitting apart to form the big head. Hopefully some colour pops out soon.

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

Is it developing a long bloom stalk/spike?

[@goldengirl65]

​@@ButterfliesNBirdsno I wouldn't say it's long at all. Infact I was surprised when I heard you say how long they get but these were new from the nursery only a couple of months ago or so and they were badly pot bound when I went to repot them and this is their first flower so I'm wondering if once it gets growing properly if they will develop longer for future flowers. I guess I will just have to wait and see. The whole flower is shaped like a big triangle and all these smaller buds have moved apart to form that triangle which is probably close to the size of my hand maybe a bit smaller and those buds you can see even though they are light green they have a tinge of yellow but are not open enough to see the proper yellow colour. Hope I'm explaining ok. Leaves look like yours and are big and the main stems are quite square and shaped edges to them and about my little finger width and maybe even thicker. Quite sturdy feeling.

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

You described your plant very well! When it flowers, let me know what they look like. The Salvia Madrensis here gets 2 ft. long butter yellow bloom calyxes. In our spring, sometimes mine will get a small bloom calyx. But then nothing until fall when the long bloom calyxes appear.

[@bharris2853]

9b also I like to collect unusual specimens you have some great varieties where do you find them?

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

Thank you! I have purchased some of the coleus and caladiums at a nursery SW of Houston called Enchanted Gardens. (It is my favorite nursery in the Houston area). I have also ordered coleus online from Proven Winners (their ColorBlaze series is wonderful) and this is the first year I have ordered online from Rosy Dawn Gardens, which specializes only in coleus. This is also the first year I have planted Caladium bulbs which I purchased from Costco in early spring. Usually I just purchase Caladium plants so I can see what the foliage looks like. But I have been happy with the Costco bulbs from Longfield Gardens (which is a great bulb company).

[@tammiedunbar6166]

Is Porter Weed dorminant during the winter in your growing zone? Does it return the following Spring if it's planted in the Earth. Or should I plant it in pots and protect it overwinter in my garage.

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

No, porterweed will flower for me during the wintertime. I only take it in if there is a chance for freezing temperatures. But, it will get woody and large and I need to trim it up in the early spring so new growth starts. Porterweed usually doesn't survive freezing temperatures if it is planted in the ground.

[@tammiedunbar6166]

@@ButterfliesNBirds Hello fellow Gardner I've noticed that the bumblebees pierce a hole in the back of the blooms on my saliva plants to collect the nectar on the tube shaped flowers. Have you observed their behavior in your garden?

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

Yes, I love to watch them! Both the bumblebees and carpenter bees do that here ... pretty nifty. I thought bees couldn't get to nectar in tubular shaped flowers until I watched them. Many mornings I am outside very early observing in my garden ... I love this time.

[@tammiedunbar6166]

In Metropolitan Atlanta Georgia at times during the winter the temperatures drop down into freezing.I don't think my Porter Weed will return if I plant it in the ground next Spring. Your winter temperatures are similar to Southern Coastal Georgia during the winter.

[@tammiedunbar6166]

I have a Hot lip sage that is planted in the Earth that has become woody&Shrub like. It's one of the first plants to start blooming during the hummingbirds migration during the Spring.

[@lilmak889]

Fuchsia

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

I had a fuchsia in a hanging basket that the hummingbirds loved. It didn't seem to like our climate though. Where are you located?

[@lilmak889]

@@ButterfliesNBirds central Florida. They are perennial here, and while they look a bit sad June-August and go dormant through the heat for me, they are gorgeous from February till heat comes and wake back up once the heat subsides all the way through end of November.

[@lilmak889]

@@ButterfliesNBirds oh and I keep the pots with the saucers underneath for a bit of a wet feet, so they never dry out.

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

That is so good to know - thank you! 😊 I probably should have kept mine.

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

👍😊