Blue lobelia (L.syphilitica?) is a shade plant.
I grow the bigger Joe-Pye eupatorium in almost full shade.

I grow the agressive Clematis virgiana in shade - but it will grow anywhere. Of course there is virginia creeper - again very agressive, but it will climb the house wall and I AM able to control it.

I grow adlumia fungosa in shade - very nice biennial, though the pale pink color is a bit wishy-washy. Try not to grow in near any corydalis lutea because the young seedlings are so easily confused and I'm always pulling them up.

apcohrs - do you know if that is the eupatorium fistulosum? i saw this growing in our local botanical garden, although it was in a huge area so i was afraid it might be too expansive for our small garden. and is it really near full shade? i never thought eupatoriums (of any specie) could grow in shade, so i'm curious....

I agree that a Eupatorium could work. Eupatorium purpureum often grows in woods, so I'm sure it would be fine in full shade. But I find purpureum to be the least pretty of the pink Eupatoriums (flowers are very pale), so I would be tempted to try fistulosum instead.

More ideas:
black cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa)
Canada lily (Lilium canadense)
turk's-cap lily (Lilium superbum)
tall meadow rue (Thalictrum pubescens)
culver's root (Veronicastrum virginicum)
woodland sunflower (Helianthus divaricatus) -- though be warned that this plant spreads very aggressively by rhizomes

I grow both eupatorium maculatum and eupatorium purpureum. (I dont have any e. fistulosum, yet.) The e. purpureum (sweet joe pye weed) grows well in shade.

I agree with Janet E, that the sweet joe pye weed flowers are more "grayish pink", less bright than the other eupatoriums. but that is common for "shade" type plants, their colors tend to be less vibrant.

another good plant you may want to consider (that JanetE also listed) is veronicastrum virginicum (culvers root) it grows in shade and complements the eupatorium quite nicely. in the sun it can get quite tall. but in the shade is grows shorter and the flower heads tend to be more dainty than what many pictures show.

If you decide to try woodland sunflower, i would be careful to dead head flowers so it doesnt take over. but in complete shade it will be harder for it to be as aggressive. and it does like "a little sun" it tends to grow on woodland edges.

another suggestion would be some asters that like shade, white woodland aster (aster divaricatus) or arrow leaved aster (a. saggitifolius). I grow the white woodland aster, and it blooms nicely in the shade.

Although taller than 4', Vernonia novaborensis is growing well in about 2 hours of sun for me.
Nice purple flowers in August.
Does not necessarily need wet conditions to grow and flower well.
Some native Lonicera species trained on a pole or fencepost will flower on and off almost the entire season. I grow 'Blanche Sandman' and it has terrific orange flowers.
The Cimicifuga is a nice suggestion also.

Rx

thanks everyone. garden in the woods actually still has some eupatorium fistulosum available, so i'm considering that based upon your own growing experience. it's a debate between that or some vines, so we'll see. thanks again!

Something I'm growing for the first time is figwort, Scrophularia marilandica. Got the seeds from my mom, who got them from a plant in a nearby wooded area. Not much in the way of flowers - little brown jugs - but the hummers love them. It's roughly 10 feet by 2 feet. Very sturdy, upright grower. I have several growing in part/full shade, doing well. Just a suggestion.
Carol

thanks carol, that sounds interesting and i will look into it. otherwise, i think i'm going with cross vine, it seems to suit what i need perfectly. thanks to everyone!

First thing that comes to my mind is tall bellflower, Campanula americana. Gets 3-4 feet high, normally grows in moist shade.

Patrick Alexander