Which Herbs Grow Best in Shade

[ButterflyGarden]

I have a small mostly shaded place that I could grow herbs in pots. What are the best herbs for this? I like basil, cilantro, dill, and parsley. Would those work?

[Susan W]

In a word None! Sorry to be bearer of bad tidings.....

I can't think of any herbs that do in the shade. I have some that survive in partial. Perhaps someone can chime with with workable ideas.

[sweet thunder]

The ideal condition for most herbs is full sun, but my herb garden only gets a few short hours of sun in the morning and then is shaded the rest of the day, and it is doing very well. I think it helps that I have sandy, well-draining soil.

I have parsley, sage, thyme, dill, oregano, cilantro, and lavender, as well as a pot of mint.
I keep the basil and rosemary in as much sun as I can muster. They really won't do well without it.

[SP8]

Set up a couple of reflectors to lighten up your shaded area.

A couple of second hand full length mirrors work great.

[rainbowgardener]

I also have a shady herb garden. It's definitely not best, but it's what I've got. Lemon balm is thriving there and mint and oregano. Sage is doing well in the sunniest side of the shady area (still not full sun). Tarragon and parsley are hanging in there, but I can't say thriving. St. John's wort and comfrey do fine. Lavender tolerates it, though is stunted. Anise hyssop (agastache) does pretty well.

Chamomile and dill have kept dying out.

[hendi_alex]

I have lots of full sun areas, but the herbs seem to do best in a mostly shady, morning sun only location. They get sun from about 9 a.m. until noon and are then in dense shade for the rest of the day. Basil, mint, parsley, cilantro, thyme all do well in this arrangement.

[jimmykx250]

All my herbs get a half day of sun as well. No direct afternoon sun at all and they seem to do fine. Oregano,dill,sage,rosmary,lavender,mint,french teragon. They are all in containers on my deck which faces east and gets morning sun only.

[tmace]

Ihave herbs in all areas of my yard.

Deep shade- I have sweet woodruff, lemonbalm,angelica , spearmint
Part shade (4 hrs of filtered sun)- I have many mints,chives (they do not bloom as mush as in sun, which is what I want), chamomile , parsley (keep moist) and germander.

I have been growing herbs for over 30 years, often for fresh use in resturants. Sometimes it is the soil condition as much as the light to make herbs grow well.

[lilypotter]

We all know that a sunny spot is ideal for an herb garden. But there are herbs that grow in shade also. Here is the list of herbs that grow in shade
1) Parsley
2) Lemon Balm
3) Chives
4) Thyme
5) Mint
6) Wild Ginger
7) Spicebush
Sweet Woodruff

[emerald7]

Yeah, I have had the same problem. I had a plan to grow a bunch of herbs out on my patio, but I discovered that A) my patio pretty much qualifies as 'full shade' and B) pretty much all the herbs I wanted need full sun.

Here is what I know about specific herbs:
Definitely full sun:
Basil & dill

Full sun but tolerates some shade:
Cilantro, mint, Roman chamomile, English lavender

So, I had to abandon that idea for the patio. Now I am going to grow my 'full sun' herbs indoors using full spectrum compact fluorescent lights turned on for a certain # of hours every day. We'll see how it goes. Good luck!

[emerald7]

I did find a few plants that do like the shade, although they aren't herbs.

Ferns: A lot of ferns like full shade.
Begonias (flower): Full to partial shade
Cineraria (flower): Full to partial shade
Cyclamen (flower): Partial shade

HTH!

[Sage Hermit]

A lot of times we see here people with dying plants that are labeled full sun however most of the time its over watering issues.

Basil likes full sun but definetly will grow in shaded areas. The thai and cinnimon basil both did fine in my sheded area and quickly dies when over watered. Keep a close eye on them and they should all do fine.

[rainbowgardener]

Don't know if the OP is still around from last summer to see what's happened to their thread. But some interesting things to note from all these different responses:

hendi_alex can grow more things in AM sun only than I can... that's because he's farther south than I am, in a climate with hotter, sunnier summers. All gardening is site specific and there aren't any general rules.

Lots of things will grow in less than ideal circumstances. Lots of plants labelled full sun, will survive in a variety of part sun conditions. They just may not grow as big or flower as much (and as noted flowering isn't always what we want for herbs anyway).

sun exposure isn't the only determinant. You can help your plants tolerate less than ideal sun exposures, by doing the best you can to give them ideal everything else (the right soil, right amount of water, etc)

[digging daisy]

I have a very shady garden as well, and have put most of my herbs in odd sunny corners. However I have had success with lemon balm, pineapple sage, valerian, savory, and thyme. The salad burnett isn't doing too badly at the moment, but we will have to see. Good luck!

[WatchMeShove]

why not consider planting something that likes full shade, like a Japanese maple. They look great and you could sell the seeds which could pay for all the herbs you buy at the store.