THE plant for dry shade--Geranium macrorrhizum--big Root Geranium. Semi evergreen, handsome groundcover, highly deer resistant, easy to control, very attractive with late spring bloom and no dead heading, dividing or other attention required. What more could you want? Alternate--Epimedium sulphureum--slower to fill in, must be cut back in late winter, but very attractive and has early bloom. If you garden in deer country, as I do, there is very little point in planting plants that deer love. It's a losing battle. And while it is true that starving deer will eat anything, there is a huge range of plants for both sun and shade that they generally have very little interest in. If your yard has mostly unappealing plants, they won't hang out there much. That said, I ALWAYS spray a new plant with a good repellant so if some young thing tries it, their first experience is YUCK! They spread the word. And having said all that, yes, I do have a few plants that deer will eat, and I do spray those. But they are very few, so keeping up with the spraying is not onerous and doesn't break the bank. However, I have NO hostas, yews, or tulips--the ones that say "Free Lunch".

I agree with everything akaMEgrower said, but would like to add that any plant that is moved needs protection from desiccation such as partial shade, more frequent watering, some wind protection, etc. Transplanting a plant from the wild is even more tricky because they have very few roots and their roots are much longer. The plants grown in cultivation have much better root-balls from being transplanted several times and growing in richer media and containers. The best way to collect R. maximum from the wild is to collect seeds. That is what most people do. The mature plants that are collected from the wild are usually large plants that are rescued before they would otherwise be destroyed by crews clearing land for new construction or highway construction. They are usually cut to about 12" from the ground and dug. One more thing, the various named forms of R. maximum that you find in the trade are ones that were found in the wild and propagated from cuttings. It is found in the wild from Nova Scotia to Georgia. There is much variation in each location and from location to location. The best of these variations have been selected. These selections include: "Curly Max": pure R. maximum that has a unique curly leaf. rarefindnursery.com offers seeding of Curly Max and also seedlings from superior wild selections. greergardens.com offers a form called R. maximum f. rubrum which has flowers that vary from white to red. Some of the red flowering ones are propagated from cuttings and sold as 'Red Max". If you want a plant to come true to the wild, choose either plants from cuttings collected from a plant in the wild or seedlings from seed collected in the wild. Plants from tissue culture have a different plant habit due to hormones that are applied to cause vegetative buds to form and sprout.

Solidago caesia is called bluestem or wreath goldenrod. Zigzag goldenrod is S. flexicaulis. I grow them both and neither is invasive for me. Both are fine garden plants for shade, along with S. erecta, wand goldenrod. All three offer different form and leaf color as well as flower presentation. Here in middle TN they bloom in August and September, which isn't that late in this climate, anyway. Soeur

Hi Beth, I'll second several of the things PopMama has recommended--things I have too. I have several different hostas. They come in different sizes, textures, and colors--greens, blues, yellows, whites--some solid colors and lots of variegated ones. Of the ones I have I like the variegated ones the best--but there are SO many different varieties! I have a bleeding heart that's just forming the "perfect" heart shaped flowers and it's wonderful! Dicentra spectabile. The problem I have is it always comes up "too" early and is quite susceptible to freezing--as in the next couple nites!--and I have a big pot over it right now until it warms up again in a few days!!! There's also the "everblooming" bleeding hearts, Dicentra formosa (if that's still the correct species!), but the hearts on that aren't nearly as "perfect!" I only have the "real" one, even tho I have to cover it a couple times every year!, because the flowers are just so amazing! I LOVE hardy ferns! My Japanese painted fern is just starting to grow for this year--it's deciduous so it "goes away" over winter, and I love Autumn Ferns too--they're semi-evergreen so they "hold up" pretty well most of the winter but look pretty bad by spring--depending on wind, weather, and precip! The new fronds on the Autumn fern are "bronze" when they're just starting to grow and turn all green as they get older--I love the color. Both of those ferns are not invasive, but there are some that are, so if you're looking for some, check them out first! I love the Heucheras--coral bells--too! There are ones with green leaves and coral/red or pink or white flowers, and then some with all different colors of leaves, from dark to kind of chartreuse--some of those have insignificant flowers, but some of them have "good" flowers too. If you happen to be in the Metro Area and could come to the swap I'll have a couple Heuchera 'Firefly" I'll be giving away--it's a fairly short one with green leaves and pretty red-coral flowers. I also have a Brunnera, false forget-me-not, and I think it's really cool! They come in varieties with plain green leaves, and also variegated varieties with different degrees of white in the leaves--ranging to almost all white. Clusters of tiny sky-blue flowers--mine will be blooming very soon. I also recommend "real" forget-me-nots (Myosotis). They're biennials, and they look really bad by the time they finish blooming, but they reseed like crazy and I find it easiest to just cut or pull them out after they finish blooming and producing seed. Mine just started blooming within the last couple days. If you get one plant and it reseeds, in a couple years you'll have them coming up all over the place--but they're very shallow rooted so they're easy to pull out if there are too many of them. I think they look good here, there, and everywhere among the other perennials. Astilbe has great flowers, but when I was selling them I always had people coming in asking how to get them to bloom, and as near as I can tell it's very difficult to get flowers here in Colorado because of the dryness! I suspect if you kept them wet all the time, both in summer and winter, you could get them to bloom. I don't have any because I like "easy" things! I keep trying with the lily-of-the-valley too--mostly unsuccessfully! I have them in my "escape-proof" garden (along with sweet violets and sweet woodruff--both of which are invasive!) because they're supposed to be invasive--but they certainly haven't been so for me! But if you got them going they have wonderful little bell flowers with an amazing scent! I also have Bergenia, which I love! Large, "leathery" leaves that sometimes turn orange or red in fall, depending on the temps and moisture. It's one that definitely can't take any hot midday sun out here in our high altitude. Also likes to stay pretty moist over winter. Clusters of pretty pink flowers in spring--mine is just starting to bloom now. Variegated Solomon's Seal is another possibility, but while it does get very small "bell flowers" hanging from the curved stems, they're not AT ALL "showy," so it's grown mostly for the variegated foliage. I understand they can be somewhat invasive but mine are in heavy clay and haven't been at all. Ordinary primroses love shade, and some of them, especially the lighter colors, are very fragrant. Don't like heat, so they go semi-dormant over summer when it gets hot and come back again when it cools in fall. Mine are in full bloom right now. Another one I have that's just starting to bud is "windflower." Anemone sylvestris. It can be grown in sun with enough water, or shade, and mine does very well on the north side of a two story house. This one IS invasive, and it's about the only thing I grow that is, but I love it so much I wouldn't want to be without it! It's another thing I should have a couple of at the swap! Taller things you might consider are Aruncus, goats beard--showy white flower panicles, and Thalictrum--there are different species. One I have has what I call purple fluff--there are no actual "individual" flowers, just "puff balls" of "purple," and the other one I have has clusters of tiny pink flowers--that's my most recent one and I like it the best! Besides having "actual" flowers, it blooms longer. Since you're just starting to plant in that area I recommend you watch closely this summer how much sun the area actually does get. In mid summer when the sun is high in the sky even the back of my two story house gets direct sun for a couple hours a day--right against the house. So if you were to plant something like the Bergenia you'd need to be sure it was going in a place with not "too much" sun. In winter the evergreen leaves especially can't take any of our high-altitude sun! All the other things I mentioned would be fine with "some" sun. There are lots of things you can plant in shade, most/many of them aren't as "showy" as the full sun things, but they're very pretty anyway! When looking for shade things always remember to look for interest in the foliage too--like with the hosta. It's amazing how much "color" you can get with "just" foliage. Have fun planning and playing, Skybird