Design Ideas for Shaded Flower Beds in the Front

Shade Tree Garden

• Swap out sun-loving grass, which is often hard to grow under shade trees, with a shaded flower garden. Match the colors found in surrounding beds, containers and borders to create a cohesive design in the landscape. Shade-tolerant impatiens grow in a rainbow of bright colors to space around the tree for a burst of color in the garden. Pansies offer their happy "faces" in the dappled or deep shade of a shade tree. Space them around the tree in one color for a unified design or mix different colors together for a colorful display. Containers filled with pansies and situated at the base of the tree offer a variation on this design.

Entryway

• Entryways often contain overhangs that keep the space dry and free of full sunlight. Under the entryway, create a flower bed that adds an inviting element to the space. Shade-loving, ground covers like sweet box thrive in shade and produce bright flowers in late winter to early spring. Woodland phlox and other low-growing plants provide color and texture to a shaded entrance and look striking flanking the front of the flower bed. Scented lily of the valley plants produce dainty, bell-shaped, white blooms that emerge in early spring and last through the season.

Winter Blooms

• Brighten up the front flower bed with winter-blooming flowers. Winter bloomers that thrive in shade provide a much-needed burst of color to the home entrance. Lenten roses add nodding, bell-shaped blooms that shoot up through winter's layer and provide a burst of pink and white in the front flower bed. Create a focal point around the front of the home by planting winter daphne, an evergreen shrub that grows 3 to 6 feet tall and wide and produces fragrant, white and pink blooms that light up the winter garden with color. Frost tolerant and shade tolerant, winter daphne has a rounded form and evergreen foliage that retains its color into early spring. Place these attractive evergreens on either side of a shaded front door.