I agree with Carol on #2 and #6, they look like Dioscorea. #1...poor pic, but maybe, just might be Lycium...Wolfberry. It definitely strikes me as a Solanaceae. #4 Coreopsis. #5 Very blurry, but it does have some resemblance to Chickweed, Stellaria media. #7 Very poor picture. Could be a lily, a grass, a palm?? Who knows! #8 Reminds me of White Lettuce, or Prenanthes. But with one leaf it's hard to tell. #11 Definitely, 100% sure it's Lamiastrum galeobdolon. Sadly, these could be easily identified by many of this forum's regulars if only you had provided better pictures.

Phlox stolonifera may do better than subulata in shady conditions. Any of the wood asters will give you lots of flowers, if you don't mind waiting until late in the season: white wood aster (Aster divaricatus - already mentioned), blue wood aster/heart-leaved aster (Aster cordifolius), whorled wood aster. (The Latin names are changing, but most nurseries still use the old Aster generic name.) They spread by reseeding, need very little sun and don't mind dry conditions. The virginia creeper is an excellent idea -- very fast grower, nondescript flowers, but beautiful red fall foliage, and the birds love the berries. Although it is thought of as a vine for climbing up things, it makes a nice ground cover (I've seen the leaves get huge in shady locations.) Wild geranium (Geranium maculatum) is said to grow quickly, with nice pink/lavender flowers. The trick with any ground cover is -- if it grows quickly where you want it, it may also grow quickly where you don't want it. My practice has been to put the aggressive natives in difficult conditions (dry shade), where they are supposed to be tamer. In better conditions (more sun, more moisture), I put the slower growing ground covers (partridgeberry, wintergreen, Canada mayflower, etc.) and try to control the weeds until they spread. Can't help you with the nurseries in that area. Is there a native plant society nearby? For a directory of mail order places, try Gardenwatchdog.com. -- wd

Wisconsitom: Imagine my hand smacking to my forehead. Of course! We do have deer, but we only see them way at the back of our property, and even that infrequently. They do cross our street sometimes, but about a "block" down or so. There are so many better places so close - hundreds of acres of wooded recreation land. (Which is really cool for us humans, too.) I'm still confused about why it used to be so much more sparse with the woody undergrowth if it's deer, though. I'll read up and see if the deer population has changed in the area. In my recent reading on woodlands, I saw a photo online of a place where folks had fenced off to keep deer out a year or a few before. It was enlightening. As far as wildlife, after I went to bed a few nights ago, my husband heard 2 fishers having a fight or trying to scare each other off right behind our house. If you've ever heard a fisher, you know how disturbing they sound. But I guess I'm happy our woodland and surrounds is supporting all local wildlife. My son & I saw a red spotted newt near the new walkway only a few days after it was installed, and I was so glad things weren't so disrupted it scared everybody away. Queen Gardener - I'd love to start trading. But I feel like I don't have anything useful to trade. I have oodles of seeds (who doesn't?), but a lot of them are getting old. I should have harvested some seeds from the plants I do have so I could get started trading. Next year, I guess. I agree, E-bay does have good prices if you can find the reputable people.

What a lovely thread this is! Thanks to all who have posted. I will second Peren.all's suggestion of Actea/Cimicifuga, particularly the dark-leafed types such as Brunette, Hillside Black Beauty, etc. I have many of the others mentioned here such as Hydrangea macrophylla varieties in the half shade spots, a few types of Solomon's seal/Polygonatum, Dicentra eximia/ fern-leaf bleeding heart, Astilbe, European ginger, columbine, and primroses. There are a few plants that I have with hosta that I didn't see in others' posts (though I may have missed since this is a long post). Veronica 'Georgia Blue' grows for me in both sun and mostly shade. In sun it has a tighter growth habit and darker leaves, while in shade it spreads among other plants in a friendly and nonaggressive manner so that it just winds arounds other plants filling in bare spots. It blooms well in both sun and shade in late spring. Iris cristata (crested iris) is a slowly spreading spring bloomer that is fine in full bright shade. Depending on the selection, it blooms can be from white to medium blue. It is mostly done blooming by the time the hostas are fully leafed out but the foliage is a nice contrast to the hosta foliage for the rest of the season. This photo has a couple of foamflowers/Tiarella as well in the upper right corner and center bottom. Some have fancier foliage than these two, and there are also Heucherellas which are Heuchera-Tiarella crosses. 'All Gold 'Japanese forest grass/Hakone grass/Hakonechloa macra is one of my favorite gold plants, and I often have it with hosta. It expands very slowly; I think I've only divided mine once in 15 years and is happiest with a lot of shade. This one is being crowded by a self-seeded Hosta. Leucosceptrum japonica 'Golden Angel' has the unfortunate common name of Japanese shrub mint, but it isn't a shrub, just a medium perennial, and though it is in the mint family, it doesn't spread like mint. It does expand slowly, but is easily controlled; I haven't had to do anything to mine in 5 years or so. Gold Angel is just to the left of center in the photo below, farther back in the bed. Hakone grass is on the right. Between it and gold hosta are a biennial foxglove which blooms pink and is trying to out-compete a Japanese painted fern, which looks a lot nicer in better circumstances. The Sputnik-like seed heads are from a white allium which is happy in a bit less than half day sun. An evergreen shrub to go with Hostas (if you have acid soil) has a few branches over on the left, Leucathoe. Partridgeberry/Mitchella repens is native groundcover that likes shade. Another native is False Solomon's seal/Maianthemum racemosum, which has red berries later in the season. There are a couple of groundcover shade-loving geraniums - Geranium x cantabrigiense 'Biokovo' and Geranium macrorrhizum - that might be too aggressive for Hosta - I am just trying the combination in the last couple of years.