As stated by FataMorgana, most of the shade plants need lots of time to germinate, not to mention years to blooming time. I glanced through Cullina's book to see what he listed as "four weeks, sown at 70 degrees," and for shade. Arisaema is listed, but in my experience it takes over a year, and it needs two-three years to bloom. Darmera may work, if you have a moist spot. Polemonium germinated for me in one year. Both Tiarellas and Trilliums have self sown for me in the woodland, but they are slow growing and take a long time to bloom. I, too, wanted a lush look when I was first interested in shade natives, but eight years later I am still adding as many as I can. I recommend a variety of native ferns to fill in the spots created when many of the plants you mentioned die back as the weather gets warm.

Actually, all you need to do for a lemon tree is plant it in loose soil, water the soil lightly, and stick it in a ziplock bag. See this thread: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/trees/msg111341588777.html That lemon tree is mine. I grew from seed. All I did was (STEP BY STEP leaving out absolutely NO information) 1) I grabbed the seed from a lemonade drink made from a lemon bought from a lemonade stand, this past summer 2) put the seeds in a cup of water. All of them sank(sadly, I have no clue where they are now) 3) Placed them in a container somewhere (except for 6) 4) took that plastic cup and cut some holes in the bottom 5) put soil (which turned out to be harder than rock when watered) inside the cup 6) stuck the seed in the cup 7) watered the soil lightly 8) stuck the seed in a plastic ziplock baggy 9) put it on the counter 9) Forgot it was even there About 2 weeks later, I said "OH CRAP! AM I TOO LATE? IS IT DEAD? I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT ABOUT IT!!! OH MY GOSH, PLEASE DON'T BE DEAD! PLEASE DON'T BE DEAD!!!" After panicking and looking for about 20 minutes, I finally found it buried under a lot of crap. I looked into the bag and I'm thinking, "Awwwwww!!!! It's so cute!!!" There was a little lemon tree with it's first two leaves sprouting. After I saw that, I stuck it in the windowsill where it's currently working on it's 5th leaf while finishing up it's 4th. It's the most beautiful thing ever. I would've increased the germination rate though to all six seeds instead of 1 of 6 if I had followed the directions provided online though(nick the seed coat and all that other stuff). But really, just planting the seed and forgetting about it for about 1-2 weeks seemed to work fine. I probably just got lucky though.

A lot of the plants you mention take at least a full year or two of growth to bloom. I have grown them all for 25 yrs or more, and violets, woodland phlox, and Jacob's ladder need a full year (spring to spring) at least. Virginia bluebells take 2 years, as does wild geranium, which is a rhizome. The dicentra family (Dutchman's breeches, squirrel corn) usually take about 3-5 years from seed. Touch-me-nots can be seeded in fall and will bloom the next year as they are hardy annuals. Spring beauties are bulbs, and if planted from seed, take 3-5 yrs, bulbs will bloom in the spring. Don't know about lady slippers, I think you almost have to have a plant, and they are horribly expensive ($50-75!!!!) Most of the plants you mention can be purchased in plant form at a local nursery or on line, tho you may not be able to find them for sale until spring as many of them go summer dormant. In fact, most of those plants are better planted in spring when they can have a whole year to grow before they bloom. Fall is not really a good time to plant the ephemerals, even if you could find them, with the exception maybe of ferns, violets and Jacob's ladder which do not go summer dormant. It takes a lot of patience to grow those plants from see. If you can find the plants, you will be much happier with the results. Check your local nurseries, or find a friend willing to share. Just don't dig them from the wild! Good luck starting a woodland garden, I love mine!

Thanks very much for the feedback. I've tried to dig back all the ground around the stem of the tree and leave as much of the upper root system exposed as possible, but from the sounds of your hypothesis this indeed won't be enough. Therefore I'll definitely take your advise and try going back to square one with the roots in mind: de-pot, sanitize any rotting or ill roots, and try re-potting with a lot of non-absorbing material around the root dirt pack. Will stick with terracotta unless informed otherwise. I've noticed that even though the H20 it gets (I've turned the auto-spigot off and water manually until this gets solved) drains straight through, the actual ground stays pretty remarkably wet. I'm thinking this may be the potting mixture my wife tends to throw on "to give it ground," which may not be the greatest quality -- and worse still, per your warning, just helps the root system to sink deeper into trouble. Ie. there's no mulch or leaves in there, but there is a lot of very water-retaining dirt! I'll give your suggestion a go ASAP and report back in a few weeks. Good news is, everything above ground level (apart from dying foliage) is solid and without any rot, mildew or peeling. So I'm feeling confident your analysis and remedy will do the trick! Thanks ever so much once again, and I'll let you know if the Parisian "citronnier" bounces back.