One of my favorites right now for the shade is Clivia. It has several cultivars and I started with this cultivar last Nov 2014, Clivia miniata 'Solomone Yellow'
Clivia belongs to the Amaryllid family so it will have the wide spade-like leaves. The wonderful thing I find with this plant, it is so drought tolerant so if you are the type that forgets to water, this is a good one to have . It has very thick noodle-like roots, so it shows just how much water it can hold and will need very good drainage so those fat roots will not rot.
The other thing, if you do not have space outdoors for it, it will still thrive indoors in a container and manage to bloom. Just remember to give it a good cool down/dry time in late Fall. I guess this would also depend on our prevailing microclimates, but I do find it wants that cool down here, since we do have about 6 to 7 months of super dry and hot conditions.
It adds such wonderful color indoors during the doldrums of late winter, while waiting for the rest of the plants to come back to their usual vigor in Spring. I have a real fun time growing this one, the wide green leaves makes a good indoor statement. It is also very prolific in making new pups, so I have several now growing with the mommy plant.
I took this photo yesterday, 20Jan2016, it sure is a nice center piece on its own, even with just leaves for now. I think it is busy with its pups growing around it right now, but still hoping it will attempt to make a bloomstalk soon.
I have a noid Clivia nearer our bay window too, it spent about a month of cool dry time last Dec 2015 in our garage. Really impressed how it kept its foliage. That bay window is facing North, so it is really good if you have areas indoors with just the North window and looks rather bare, this one will thrive easily. So I am waiting if it will be able to make its bloomstalk soon.
