Hostas
Columbines
Bleeding Heart
Geraniums? Maybe

I love the Jacob's Ladder I have in the shade. It blooms in spring with blue flowers. I just planted a Caladium (not WS), some coleus and impatients. Good Luck.

Heuchera, Columbine, and Jack in the pulpit are all good shade perennials that can be winter sown. I know some have done Astilbe, but I have never been able to get it to sprout. Campanula can also be winter sown, and can take some shade.

My moneyplant is in shade all day and bloomed almost 3 weeks to a month along with forget-me-nots. Agastache will do well anywhere but I don't know which variety I have.

I have a combination of wildflowers, ferns, hosta and heuchera/Coral Bells in the shady areas of our yard.

For the shade areas that tend to be kind of dry, I've planted Eastern red Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis). Got this one as a plant, but I also winter-sowed some this year too. I got the seeds mail order from Prairie Moon nursery.

One of the most beautiful plants I've grown in our shade areas is Wild blue phlox (Phlox divaricata). It blooms in an amazing blue-ish lavender in the spring, and is just breathtaking. Also planted this one as a plant, but may try winter sowing it next year. This one seems to like a more moist soil. I think sometimes it's called Louisiana phlox. Prairie Moon has seeds for it.

This year, I winter-sowed Tall Bellflower (Campanula americana or Campanulastrum americanum) and it is growing nicely in a partial shade area of our yard. Won't bloom until next year probably...got seeds from Prairie Moon.

Once the spring wildflowers are done blooming, the ferns, hosta and heuchera are good for texture and color in the shady spots. I have a lot of different kinds of heuchera that I planted as plants, including 'Palace Purple', 'Silver Scrolls', 'Autumn Bride', 'Tiramisu', 'Bronze Wave' and Dale's Strain. This year I winter sowed the 'Dales Strain' (got seeds from Summer Hill Seeds) and they sprouted nicely, but then I seem to have lost the plants to something that ate them (?). Will try winter-sowing them again next year. The heuchera seem to be able to cope with some dryness in the soil, as long as they are out of the full sun.

I've had good luck with Lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina) in the shady areas of our yard. For hosta I have 'Minute Man' which is green and white, and some kind of huge, plain green hosta. I think I've read on the winter sowing forum that people have winter-sowed hosta...haven't tried it yet.

Best of luck with your gardening!

Don't forget boulders,a very nice touch,and a must have in my garden, the bigger, the better.
cAROL

I'm growing hosta, astilbe and lady's mantle from seeds I harvested from my own plants and winter sowed. Pulmonaria (lungwort) is another shade lover, as is black snakeroot, Japanese painted fern, bleeding heart, Japanese sedge grass (carex), and toad lily (tricyrtis). My full shade area is packed with all of the ones mentioned so far on this thread. Brunnera (Siberian bugloss) 'Jack Frost' is going gangbusters in that bed as well but I've never had any volunteers and I hear it's not worth trying to grow from seed. They're gorgeous plants for the shade but they're pricey at the garden nurseries. The one I have is 'Jack Frost.' Best way to get more of them is to grow one & divide it every 3-4 years.
Another one that's pricey but does produce seeds is Lenten rose (Hellebore), so named because it blooms during the season of Lent, very early. It's evergreen too.
I WS coral bells seeds I got in a trade but got zero germination. I may try to harvest seeds from my own plants this year and try again. I figure since coral bells were the ONLY seeds out of 44 different, new perennials I WS, I should probably try at least one more time.
The hosta I WS are doing great but they're not variegated like the parent plants. That's the downside of WS hosta seeds--chances are you'll get plain green ones but they're still free plants! They take time to get any size on them--3-4 years minimum. They don't need cold stratification--I grew some last summer in a sunny window, wintered them over and they're back up again this year, albeit still small.
For moist shade, turtlehead (chelone) is nice. I WS seeds and have some nice size sprouts. I WS the white since the butterflies supposedly prefer them over the pink. Don't forget hydrangea--the "hydra" part of the name is Greek for water. They want some shade too and there are gorgeous new cultivars coming out all the time.
Lamium makes a nice groundcover for shady spots along with ajuga if you don't mind it spreading everywhere. Creeping myrtle seems to thrive wherever it's planted--I've got it growing in full shade, full sun and everything in between.

-Corydalis lutea - got some of this from Ellen. It blooms all summer long
-Epimedium - love, love this. So very pretty all season long:
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-May Apple - I have only 1 leaf. I want more of this.
-Blood Root - So pretty - I am nursing 3 little shoots that a friend gave me.
-Wild Ginger - I am building a collection of this beautiful native. Right now I have it in 4 spots in the garden
-Variegated Solomon's Seal
-Brunnera - I prefer the green leaves to speckled ones. So distinct.
-Primula of any kind
-Oak Leaf Hydrangea - I have 2 - 1 is 3 ft tall already. Another is only 2 ft tall. Hope it'll grow more this year and bloom next year. Its fall colors are exceptional:
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-Hydrangea 'Annabelle' - the easiest mop-head hydrangea to grow. They are starting to bloom now. I keep the flower heads all through winter.
It is looking great with other shade plants. I have it with bold hostas. ItâÂÂs â Sum and Substanceâ in this picture & âÂÂKossa Regalâ here:
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Another one here. This year the âÂÂSum and Substanceâ is even bigger than in this photo, Variegated Solomon's Seal is next to them:
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In spring, Mertensia virginica is unequal in lifting my spirits. It is gorgeous next to yellow Daffodils and Primula veris & vulgaris. I am building a collection of this spring ephemeral and having it scattered all over the garden.

Thank you so much for all of your help! I am getting excited about winter sowing, and, if I could just keep my husband from throwing out my containers (for some reason, he thinks the old strawberry containers are TRASH...???), I will be ready to get started in time for winter!! LOL the problem I am having is waiting until winter to sow the seeds!!

deltazinnia, I believe that most people find strawberry containers do not work well unless some of the holes are taped shut. Otherwise they dry out too quickly.

Also, you can summer sow if you watch watering needs carefully. Or fall sow...

Hi deltazinnia! This past winter was my first year winter sowing, and I experimented with some different kinds of containers for my first time such as juice bottles, etc. But eventually I decided the containers that worked the best for me were plastic milk jugs or plastic water jugs.

So one thing you could do now in the meantime while you're waiting for winter to sow your seeds is to start collecting milk jugs. I also found it was kind of tough to get potting soil in the middle of winter, so that's another thing you can start stocking up on now while all the stores have their potting soil in stock.

This forum was a huge help for a newbie like me, and everyone had such good suggestions about how to get started winter sowing and what to do...hope you enjoy the forum as much I have!

deltazinnia - ditto what topie said. I had difficulty finding bales of professional grower's mix in January and when I did, it was frozen solid. There aren't a lot of options for thawing it in January. Buying it now or in the weeks ahead will mean you have it when you need it without chopping it off in pieces with an ice pick.
I was glad I prepped labels ahead of time but naturally didn't make enough of them for all the WS jugs I sowed. Milk jugs worked best for me too--the 2 liter bottles are okay but they blow over easy in the winter winds. The milk jugs will blow over too but if you run a bamboo stake through the handles of the outer ones, they'll keep the ones behind them anchored.
I WS an astounding 486 milk jugs and got an amazing crop of new perennials. I'm still scratching my head wondering how I'll find time to plant them all. The question isn't where--I've got an acre of land to fill. The question is HOW do I dig new beds and plant so many before winter?

No need to dig- build lasagna gardens.

Karen

Don't forget Monarda or Bee Balm! Adds beautiful color and the hummies and bees will love you for it!

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