>It does not get sun except for 3 months of year for 2-4 hours a day in afternoons. Avoid rhododendrons and azaleas. They can make do with scanty dappled sunlight but if they're totally in the shade for 9 months of the year, they won't do as well as what you would like/expect. (August and later into the fall is mainly when they're asking for sunlight to help them make the bloom buds that will open in the spring.) Plus, if watering is a problem, they won't do at all; they're not deep-rooted and don't survive droughts at all without plenty of water. There are reblooming azaleas and a few rhododendrons will have a few fall blooms, but they won't work well without regular rainfall/watering and some sunlight. Camellias won't survive the first year without good regular watering either, but after that they can survive a drought much, much better than rhododendrons and azaleas. Depending on the height you are wishing for, camellia varieties Shishigashira and Bonanza, either one or both, would make nice plants for that spot. They are sold with the sasanqua camellias (but are really hiemalis). Shishigashira can for sure do well and bloom well with less than an ideal amount of dappled or direct sunlight. I have read a post by someone who had some success growing a Madame Alfred Carriere up the wall on the north side of a house. The rose didn't bloom much at all until it got to the sunlight of the roof area but then it did okay. The trick would be in getting the rose to the upper areas of the wall where it could get some sunlight, but maybe in your situation your 3 months of the year would give enough sunlight to allow the rose to get there. There are some other shade-tolerant climbers that might work that way, mostly Noisettes (like Cato's Cluster or Champney's Pink Cluster). But camellias would be close to a sure thing, and they'd look good there too, even when not blooming. You might try a combination of the two--a shade-tolerant rose with some evergreen camellias for variety in foliage size, color, and texture. The polyantha rose Eutin with its red blooms might work to the left of the window and you could pull some canes down to parallel the window bottom too; Liz Druitt credits Eutin with a good bit of shade tolerance. Some (but not all) of the hybrid musks also have good shade tolerance and can climb; red Skyrocket (aka Wilhelm), Will Scarlet, or Nur Mahal might work there. One Shishigashira centered under the window with a climbing shade-tolerant rose planted on each side might look nice and might also work with your sun situation (might work--I certainly wouldn't say that with any certainty). Eutin might have a better chance at blooming heavily in the months when you have some direct sunlight there than would the hybrid musks. And once established, Eutin would survive a drought. But survival is not the same as blooming; you'd still have to water it well for it to bloom well when you weren't getting good rainfall. Shishigashira is small enough that there would still be room for a few rose canes pegged beneath the window behind it. Shishigashira in front of a rose pegged below a window would stay really short for a long, long, long time. Our Shishigashira that is maybe 25 years old now is wide but still under 2' tall, though it has been grown in almost no direct sunlight and might have grown faster under ideal conditions. It has been a heavy bloomer in spite of its slow growth. (Once-blooming only, but the bloom period lasts a long time each fall.) It would be interesting to see how this turns out with whatever you decide to plant! I hope you'll post some pictures! Best wishes, Mary

Excellent :D. Guess I was thinking that there wasn't enough sun for the things I was growing in my full-sun areas. Now when I divide my rudbeckia, I'll put some over there, along with some daylilies. I'm guessing that Russian sage might work as well then? Yes, I amend the beds and they get good drainage. I always take out the mimosas, too, although I think they are gorgeous. Love the itea and the clethra, which I didn't know about before, and I will definitely try again with lavender. Many thanks for your help on this :D

Thanks for the ideas browneyedsusan. I checked out 6 ornamental grass books from the Library and while very nice coffee table type books, they were not very explicit. I also chanced upon sesleria which may work as well. Again, I thank you.

Pics might be helpful, Kelly. The north side of a house can be a bear simply because of how heavily shaded it tends to be. How much space do you have to work with from the utility box outwards?