Annual Flowers for Part Shade

Like the best negotiators, some annual flowering plants are willing to compromise. They may prefer full sun or full shade, but in a pinch, they brighten partially shady spots without complaint. Gardens with tree-filtered sunlight or only four to six hours of direct sun exposure each day are in partial shade, and these accommodating annuals are well-adapted to call them home. Some tolerate sunlight better than others, however. So choose plants accordingly.

Downy-soft and as achingly blue as an empty summer sky, the fuzzy blooms of floss flower (Ageratum houstonianum) carpet sunny to partially shady areas from early summer until frost. In hot-summer climates, floss flower thrives when given afternoon shade. Plant floss flower -- which grows 6 inches to 2 1/2 feet tall, depending on its cultivar -- in fertile, consistently moist and well-drained soil.

Waterfalls of blood-red flowers cascading down columns of pale-green, heart-shaped leaves inspired the romantic name of love-lies-bleeding (Amaranthus caudatus). An eye-catching walkway edger or hanging-basket addition, the 2- to 4-foot-tall annual plant blooms from midsummer to the first fall frost and requires averagely fertile, moist, well-drained soil. Like floss flower, it benefits from afternoon shade where summers are hot.

China aster (Callistephus chinensis) features 3- to 5-inch-diameter, pompom or daisylike flowers that look like the blooms of the hardy garden mum (Chrysanthemum morifolium). Hardy garden mum's blooms are common in the fall gardens of U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 5 through 9, where that plant grows as a perennial. The resemblance is strong enough that when China aster flowers open in midsummer, you may think fall has arrived two months early. The white, yellow, red, pink, blue or purple flowers persist for several weeks. Grow the 2- to 3-foot-tall China aster in fertile, consistently moist, well-drained soil.

Pot marigold (Calendula officinalis) has flaunted its edible, sunshine-yellow to flame-orange flowers in kitchen gardens since Shakespeare's day, when both its blooms and leaves were tossed into the soup kettle for color and flavor. Today, pot marigold cultivars add creamy and apricot shades to the plant's palette. In cool-summer climates, the 1- to 2-foot-tall plant blooms during most of the growing season; elsewhere, giving it afternoon shade and cutting it back when hot weather arrives encourages the plant to have a second round of flowers in fall. Pot marigold thrives in averagely fertile, averagely moist, well-drained soil.

In partial to full shade, wishbone flower (Torenia fournieri) glows like tiny torches. Blooming in combinations of blue, lavender, pink, white and yellow, the plant is named for the inverted-V stamens tucked deep in its flowers' throats. Low mounds of light-green leaves increase the 6 inch- to 1-foot-tall plants' brightening effect. Wishbone flower grows best in rich, moist, well-drained soil.

A candidate for wet, shady spots where other annuals struggle, jewelweed or spotted touch-me-not (Impatiens capensis) is a distant relative of the more familiar impatiens (Impatiens walleriana), a tender perennial in USDA zones 10 through 11 but widely grown as an annual. Jewelweed is a much larger plant, typically growing 2 to 5 feet tall. From summer to early fall, hummingbirds often sip nectar from its orchidlike, red-spotted, orange flowers. Plant jewelweed in wet, humus-rich soil where it has room to spread.