I do quite a lot of perennial gardening in the shade, but I can't think of any plants that would fulfull all your desires. So many shade plants are grown more for the interesting leaves than for the flowers on them. I have numbers of ground cover type of plants for shade including epimedium but the flowers are short-lived and not substantial. The leaves are interesting though. Another one is creeping phlox which is nothing at all like moss phlox. Again the flowers don't stick around long and have no smell that I recall. I love the leaves on Brunnera macrophylla also known as Siberian bugloss. (And some people call it true perennial forget-me-not.) I have the cultivar called
Dawson's White and also Looking Glass. I will get Jack Frost sometime when I see it at a reasonable cost.

The only shade perennial I can think of that has a nice smell is lily-of-the-family, but again you have tiny flowers that don't last long. So I will be interested in hearing if anyone has suggestions that match all your needs too.

Joanie D.

You do, however, have lots of options for part-shade or sun.

You might want to check out myosotis sylvatica and see if its looks suit you.It's also known as a forget me not, very pretty blue flowers. I bought a package of seeds a few years ago, and it described them as perennials. Later I saw the exact same plant described as a biennial, even as an annual. I was getting pretty confused, but since the seedlings were thriving on my window sill I decided to plant them and see how they did. I put them in an area that was shady for much of the time. Well, a week after I planted the little dears, I looked out the window and saw my DH ripping them out with wild abandon. He was sure they were weeds. This was not the first time he'd done this and it wasn't the last. I rushed out to try and stop him but it was too late. He then started to dump a thick layer of mulch over the few little ones he missed.
That year I saw that 2 had managed to cling to life. The next year I saw them again. This year there were a couple in the same spot and another nice big one several yards away. This particular forget me not was growing up against the north wall of my house nestled with some hostas. No sunlight ever reaches this spot, yet it bloomed profusely and had flowers for several weeks.

for full sun, I like the yarrows in pastel colors assorted, there is no strong smell however. Lilliums asiatics smell lovely, such as casa blanca or stargazer is a old favorite among many. The blooms on lilliums as well as most perennials are not as long as with the annuals it seems , but there are exceptions and I am sure others out there can think of some. Lilacs smell lovely, thats a shrub, and needs full sun.

Darn difficult to meet all your expectations, I pass on any thoughts for now, but will think on it and come back if I can brain strom some ideas for you.

I think you need to plan seasonally like fireworks going off in suscessions. Early mid and late for spring and early mid and late for summer and early mid and late for fall. ( early and mid Spring may be a joke here in Maine, but its amazing how early in the right mocro climate the dafs and crocus can appear some years!) :)

How about dianthus? Some varieties bloom quite a while, they are tough as nails and most (but not all) smell wonderful. Not a traditional cut flower, but they work well in a bud vase.