What we call “the garden” these days is no longer restricted to a sunny patch of well-drained soil devoted to tomatoes, marigolds, and roses.

No, gardens today take in the whole property, even shady, wet areas. Many pretty plants not only enjoy, but need, such conditions.

Ferns are what first come to mind for wet, shaded conditions, and these plants look and feel right at home there. Although they all are lush and green, there is quite a variety in their textures and sizes, everything from robust, 6-foot-high ostrich ferns to dainty maidenhair ferns, with each leaflet looking like a miniature, green fan.

But no need to restrict the colors to green. You can have flowers, too.

Plants such as goats beard, queen-of-the-meadow, and false Solomons seal all produce foaming clusters of tiny, creamy-white blossoms. Although the stems of goats beard die to the ground each winter, the plants grow 6 feet high and wide, so allow plenty of room. In early summer, foot-long flower stalks poke above the mounds of leaves. Queen-of-the-meadow blooms at about the same time, atop 4-foot flower stalks. False Solomons seal flowers arrive earlier in the season, at the ends of arching, zigzagging stems, each about 3 feet long and with a leaf at each zig and zag.

Lungwort and bleeding heart can provide early-season color in the shade, vivid blue in the former and red, of course, in the latter.

Daisies usually call to mind open, dry fields bathed in sun, but ragwort is one daisy that thrives in shaded, wet soil. The orangish yellow flowers appear from midsummer through early fall, with bold leaves — large, round, and up to a foot across — adding to the show.

Not as bold in form, but available in colors that range from pure white to pink to deep red, is astilbe. Of the lot, this is the plant that most commonly finds its way into more traditional “gardens,” that is, sunnier, drier plots. Astilbe, however, can tolerate shade and wet soil.

Dressed up with all these flowers, a site once considered a wet, dark wasteland will begin to draw you to it. Then, you need a path of stepping stones to carry you through the planting dry shod. The quintessential flower to border a woodland path is primrose. Many primrose species, such as polyanthus primrose, Himalayan primrose and Japanese primrose, brighten wet, shady sites in spring.