What kinds of herbs do you want to grow? For medicine, teas, kitchen use, ...??

I'm assuming kitchen use - most all culinary herbs prefer full sun.

FataMorgana

Most herbs like the sun, however, cilantro does not like too much sun. Cilantro grows the best when it gets wither early morning sunlight or late afternoon and not too much in between! Hope this helps :)

Also depends on the shade. Mint, parsley, borage, comfrey, angelica could cope with moist shade but not much likes dry shade. Lavender and thyme need sun.

What do you mean by dry/moist shade?

I grow cilantro where it gets full sun all day but then I don't live some place where it gets blazing hot temperatures for days or weeks on end. So what conditions you have, including moisture as previously noted, makes a huge difference to what the various plants can tolerate.

And while there are culinary herbs that can tolerate shade, there are not really any that are "good" in the shade as you originally asked. I would suggest growing other plants in the shade and growing your herbs in a sunny location. Not fighting the location and its growing conditions meets with so much more success!

FataMorgana

My lemon balm and mint both thrive in shade. They mostly get dappled light and maybe get 1-2 hrs of direct light just before the sun sets.

In my experience, the following can do ok with PARTIAL SUN(2-3hrs).
MINT, PARSLEY, CILANTRO, DILLS, LEMON BALM, CELERY, CHIVES,SCALLIONS.
But they all can appreciate more sun, depending how hot or cool your summers are.

cyrus

Alright thanks guys, I'm gonna give cilantro a try, if that doesn't work out then i guess i just have to try another type of plant. Thanks~

P.S. Does anyone knowif cilantro spreads out fast, how big should the container be if I have a starter plant about 4 in tall 3 in wide?

Cilantro is an annual and grows like dill. It gets tall and then starts producing seed (called coriander). It sounds like you have a small pot of seedlings. Space them out, maybe 6 inches. It doesn't really spread. Usually I just seed a small area and cross my fingers. For me, it tends to bolt, easily but any that self sow from the year before seem much hardier. Last year what I planted later in the summer seemed to grow better. I have no idea how they get such wonderful leafy stalks that we see in the supermarket. Maybe someone will post the secret.

I would suppose a hydroponic or green-house culture plus cilantro varieties bred for those conditions as well as supermarket shelf-life. But this is just a guess. I don't know for sure.

FataMorgana

Yup I learned last year that cilantro and dill like to be protected from the afternoon sun during the heat of the summer. My seond cilantro planting last yr (aug) did much better once it was shaded by the huge basil plant that grew next to it. The dill reseeded itself this year and came up mid aprilish. It looks a lot better and bushier than my dill plants looked last yr. You'll get more leaves and will be able to harvest a lot longer if they're protected from the afternoon sun, otherwise both of those will bolt really fast

putri.m - dry shade would be somewhere like under a tree where the tree takes the moisture from the ground leaving dry soil at the surface or up against a wall where the rain doesn't reach and the masonry absorbs water, again leaving the soil dry. Moist shade would be where there was ample moisture in the soil, like near a pond but in shade.

In that case I mean dry sahde. Thanks guys I have started the cilantro and it seems to grow nicely, I picked some off yesterday since they started to become tall and tend to sprawl sideways while new stems were growing in the center of the plant.Is this okay? Is the sprawlness a sign that they need to be plucked? I didn't start by seed but planted small ones which I bought at a local nursery.

In the future I would save money and get better results by buying a package of cilantro seeds and direct sowing them. They tend to resent transplanting. Cilantro is as easy to start from seed as marigolds - which most gardeners have done at some point!

FataMorgana

To answer the original question, mint and thyme both do well in shade. My mother (in Oklahoma) grew mint on the north side of the house where it never got any direct sun. I (in Michigan) have a rambunctions tub of mint on the east side of a building, where it gets dappled sun in the early morning and full shade in the afternoon. I've grown thyme in many shady locations, and it does fine.

I've also had success with parsley in shade. The leaves seem more tender, although possibly not as large.

About your cilantro, as you no doubt know by now, when it suddenly gets tall it is bolting, at which point the flavor is lost. Best way to grow cilantro is from seed, sowing a bit more every other week so that you'll always have young plants with the best flavor. Some varieties are slower to bolt than others.