I wouldn't recommend the conifers for a shady area, especially the cypress or juniper. Being in zone 8, you have lots of options, but the edible/medicinal criteria is difficult to satisfy. My best suggestion is Camellia sinensis, for tea production, but I'm not sure it gets tall enough naturally to provide much screening. I'm growing a flat hedge of mixed camellias in a similar space, pruning them into a narrow "wall" in sort of an unsupported espalier and tying the branches together where they intersect. It's a long term project, but provides color from September through April due to the variety of cultivars involved. The same technique might work with something more vigorous, but less ornamental, like photinia (I hate to suggest that, but it works in some situations). Osmanthus frangrans does fairly well in shade, as do (believe it or not - I didn't at first) Gardenias. Both of these are naturally spreading shrubs, but can be trained and pruned into a somewhat 2-dimensional shape. The kind of height you're after is a tall order - no pun intended!

You probably want lower plants under the windows. Both hydrangeas and rhododendrons like acidic soil. I am guessing your soil is not very acidic. The easiest way to make the bed would be to use a raised bed. This will accomplish two things. It will allow you to build up the grade so that water drains away from the house and your new plants. It will also allow you to bring in neutral or acidic soil and mix powdered sulfur and conifer (pine) bark fines with the soil to make it acidic. Rhododendrons have shallow roots so building it up 6 to 8 inches is adequate though 10 is better since there may be some settling. One word of warning, hydrangeas need a lot of water and rhododendrons don't like too much water. Hydrangeas are the first to wilt in hot dry weather and will tolerate fairly wet conditions. It looks like you have a very small swale between the two windows on the left. That would be the better place for a hydrangea. Rhododendrons like slightly moist soil but will die of root rot if the roots are kept wet, especially in hot weather. Some people recommend using aluminum sulfate on hydrangeas to make the bloom blue as opposed to pink, but aluminum sulfate will eventually kill many other plants like rhododendrons and azaleas. Whatever you do, mulch the soil with 2 to 3 inches of oak leaves, pine bark or some other organic material. The article below recommends wood chips, but they have the nasty habit of harboring a "artillery fungus" that shoots tar like balls onto your house that are nearly impossible to remove. A mulch conserves moisture, and keeps the roots cool in summer and warm in winter. Most azaleas that do well in your area are deciduous so you probably want the evergreen rhododendrons. The shorter, 2' to 3', rhododendrons would be better under the windows. I recommend: English Roseum, rose pink, 6' in 10 years. Haaga, pink, 3' in 10 years. Nova Zembla, red, 5' in 10 years. PJM, lavender-pink, 3' in 10 years. Purple Gem, purple, 2' in 10 years. Ramapo, purple 3' in 10 years. Roseum Elegans, rose-lilac, 6' in 10 years. Hydrangeas are deciduous, so they are good for summer color, but not for winter foliage. For hydrangeas, the oak leaf hydrangeas get very large and need a lot of pruning. An exception is "Pee Wee" which gets 4' tall. A couple of hydrangeas that bloom all summer are "All Summer Beauty" and "Endless Summer". Pee Wee All Summer Beauty Endless Summer Good Luck! Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Rhododendron and Azaleas in Illinois

While hydrangeas are lovely additions to a shady garden, they are not the slightest bit drought tolerant. In fact, the name 'hydrangea' is Greek for "water vessel". Oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) is probably the most drought tolerant of any hydrangea species but still appreciates moist soil. Here are a few shrubs that work well in a shady dry garden in my zone8: Nandina domestica (heavenly bamboo) Sarcococca sp. (sweet box) Aucuba japonica (Japanese laurel) Lonicera nitida (boxleaf honeysuckle - an evergreen shrub; not a vine) Ilex crenata (Japanese holly) Euonymus japonicus, Euonymus fortunei (wintercreeper) and Euonymus microphylla (boxleaf euonymus) yews (Taxus species) Most of these will take shade and sun equally well, so quite flexible in their siting. If you go with the Sarcococca, site that in the shadiest area. And it is important to know that drought tolerance of any plant is not immediate. You will have to supply regular water until the plants become established (at least one full growing season) and after, only when prolonged heat and dryness are present. There are also a good range of perennials and groundcovers for shade that are considered drought tolerant, again after establishment. Check at a local nursery (not a box store) to see what they have available for your area.

Hey, you guys, Thanks for replying. I'm wondering when everyone will get sick of my hemming and hawing over these various areas, but my head swims with the choices and I drive myself crazy! : ) I agree Felicia might not go as well with VQ, so I'm eliminating it from the choices. I was looking for contrast and LOVED the way Falstaff looked here, but also think a similarly coloured one might go well with other plants in front for contrast. That way it would be one colour covering the wall. Do Cl.P and LL have good rebloom? Do they BS for you, Sheila? Lillyfinch had some complaints about LL, but I don't know if BS was one of them. I'm tending toward these because I'm not sure how they would look with the others which I actually bought for a North facing wall ie. CL PInkie and especially LL are "orphans" without a home. If LL is fairly healthy, low-thorn and floriforous, that would be perfect. I was most concerned its purple colour would clash with VQ. However, if BB is the better plant health-wise, I'll use it instead, since I don't want to deal with this area too much. This space is an experiment that has failed so far, but an important one aesthetically. It does get full morning to early afternoon sun, but it wasn't enough for the plants I originally stuck there to get them through the winter. VQ is growing and bloomed last year and a couple this year, but is no where near as vigorous as the one I have in all day sun. (OF course, It did get stepped on and broken this spring.) Lisa and Sheila, have you posted full bush shots of your HMs before? I'd love to see them even if we don't share the same conditions. (My BB is a BS mess right now. Its leaves go all yellow and fall off, I think from BS.) P.S. The wall is stone coloured.