Hi Nancy,
Here are a few perennials that are in the category of "Rarely Damaged" from Rutgers University that you might consider:

Corydalis - this is a loose plant, about 8"high. It will multiply and it gets soft yellow flowers on it. My Mom has it in her garden and I have watched it over the years.

Liriope - This plant has dark green "grass-like" foliage. You can use quite a few of them together. They get purple spiked flowers in the summer.

Epimedium - This is a perennial groundcover. The leaves are very pretty and they have varieties where the leaves have a red cast to them...really nice leaves.

Hakonechloa - This is a small grass that will grow in the shade. It's very pretty. The leaves bend over softly. It is variegated so it will brighten up a shady area. It's a small grass.

I am not sure how deep your bed is and if these shrubs are too large:
Oregon Grapeholly - evergreen, nice leaves, blue berries.
Leucothoe - a simple nice evergreen shrub - soft.
Arrowwood Viburnum 'Blue Muffin' - This variety is smaller than others. It also gets blue fruits.

I hope this helps you out a bit.
Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Perennial Garden Design

Other plants for shade that are deer resistant and can handle quite dry soil include Saruma henryi, Lamiastrum galeobdolon 'Herman's Pride', Hellebores (evergreen as well), Arum italicum pictum, Chamelirium luteum, Geranium maccrorhizum. A fine shrub for dry shade is Eleutherococcus sieboldianus 'Variegatus' with beautiful variegated white and green leaves. Grows slowly to 6x6.

You are getting great suggestions so far...I grow most of the plants listed above and the deer (usually) leave them alone. Let me add a few I didn't spot...all are surviving in my yard with little supplemental water--in spite of drought.

Carex 'Evergold'--mounding, variegated, evergreen, deer haven't touched it in my yard. It should be hardy in your zone. (I'm 7b.)

Omphalodes cappadocica 'cherry ingram'--listed as hardy in zone 6... beautiful blue flowers in spring--attractive leaves in summer once blooms have faded.

Peonies --at least here in NC. They benefit from some sun in the morning, shade in the afternoon. Gorgeous blooms in spring to early summer--attractvie foliage thereafter. Deer don't touch them.

Pulmonaria--several varieties. Bloom in spring--but I grow them for the beautiful variegated leaves. The blooms are just a bonus.

Convallaria majalis (Lily-of-the-Valley)--Yes, it blooms in the spring. But the foliage is attractive, and the deer DO NOT TOUCH IT. (At least, not in my yard!)

Aruncus dioicus--another spring bloomer that has interesting foliage...good texture plant. Nice fall color as well.

Polygonatum commutatum and/or Polygonatum odoratum 'Variegatum' (Solomn's Seal) --the variegated form is nice...but I like the solid green as well. Another great texture plant.

You are going to have one wicked cool shade bed!

Thank you so much. I need to do some catalog shopping!!! What an amazing response!
Nancy

Meh, listing plants is the easy part. Weaving them together into a pleasing tapestry--THAT's the tough bit. That's where the whole "design" thing comes into play.

I've just got a thread going in the conifers forum about shade tolerant varieties - you might want to check that out.

I'm wondering why your border is dry. Do you have adjacent trees? If so, they may be sucking more water every year.

I grow a lot of plants in identical conditions, under a very large conifer belonging to a neighbour. Easy to grow are yews, ferns, Vancouveria, and cyclamens. Harder are hostas (the clumps shrink every year) and Hydrangeas (need water). You might also consider Acanthus mollis. I also have a very reliable, if uninspiring, Cotoneaster with silvery leaves whose name I don't know. Hellebores are drought tolerant once established.

Search this forum or the whole site for "shade" and you will come up with many threads.

KarinL

Karin:

My border is shaded by a row of tall hemlocks. They not only suck it dry but block some rainfall. Luckily, my bleeding hearts and ferns are okay. I occasionally drag a long hose out for the hostas which are not as well established (and may need more water anyway?).
I will check the "shade" site.
Thanks,
Nancy

I thought so - something about the situation sounded way too familiar. Sounds like the trees are the neighbours? I'm currently heading to court over the neighbour's tree that creates a whole sad looking front yard for me - unless I spend my summers watering (most of which goes to the insatiable tree) and my winters shovelling tree debris. My dry site also provides an apparently heavenly habitat for weevils, to whom I have fed hundreds of dollars worth of plants.

On the whole, my advice if you have the space would be to simply let the forest floor be the forest floor and garden elsewhere in your yard. In my case I don't have other space, which is why I'm going to court to re-establish jurisdiction over it. I want to grow some rhodos, as well as specialty conifers, and they just won't make it in the root zone.

Sorry if I wasn't clear about where other threads are - the one on conifers is in the conifer forum, and I've made other comments in threads on this forum. Maybe if you search this forum for the terms "neighbour" and "tree" the relevant threads will come up.

KarinL

There should have been a little apostrophe after the word "neighbours" in the first line above... quite a significant difference in meaning!!

KarinL