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.

Hi RJR1, I donÂt think youÂd be happy with ÂDragonÂs Blood or any of the other sedums. TheyÂre pretty much sun plants, and while theyÂd probably grow in part or even full shade (they grow almost anywhere!) I really donÂt think youÂd like the way they look. Even in sun ÂDragonÂs Blood can sometimes get real leggy looking. I wasnÂt familiar with the other two, so I looked them up. The one you suggested, Bunchberry, might be a possibility, but I donÂt know your soil conditions, so I canÂt be sure. HereÂs what I found. Bunchberry - Cornus canadensis Family: Dogwood (Cornaceae) Height: 3-8 inches Habitat: Cool woods, mountain slopes Shade, well drained sites preferred Cool, acidic soil (ph 3.0 to 7.9) Hardy to USDA Zone 3 Northern North America, south in mountains Southern limit of range may be due to its preference for cool, acidic soils and its inability to survive in summer soils warmer than 65 degrees F. ItÂs definitely hardy where you are! Do you have acidic soil? I wasnÂt familiar with it because apparently itÂs not grown out here because of our warm and very alkaline soil! The one creatrix suggested, Partridgeberry, sounds like a pretty good possibility. HereÂs what I found out about it. Soil Type - Well drained, humus rich, sandy loam Soil pH - Neutral Water - Moist to Dry Light - Full shade Height - 1-2 inches Time of Bloom - June - July Propagation - Division, slow spreading creeper I donÂt know anymore about this one either, but if the fallen oak leaves can stay on it and the birds like to eat the berries, that sounds like a really big plus to me. Since you have a large area, you might want to put in several different things for variety. Hardy ferns could be real pretty too. You also might want to post this on the New England Forum to see if you can find other things that like your local conditions. The things I suggested will grow pretty much anywhere and under any conditions. Have fun making your decision and watching them grow, Skybird

Thanks for the feedback. Ladyslppr: I do think the spiderwort is a garden escape, so not a true volunteer. I'll be working on getting rid of it (have to dig down). Davidl: I love the heart-leaved asters too, although they do reseed prolifically in my yard and I've cleared them out of certain areas where they were engulfing smaller natives. Peter: I actually had a pokeweed along the fence last year covering up a missing slat, but it hasn't come back. I do get a little nervous about its reseeding habit, but the birds love the berries and it's nice to have such a tall herbaceous plant in a garden with lots of small plants. Beggar ticks aren't a big problem so far, but I'll probably pull them. Indian tobacco has little blue & white flowers in the late summer when not much else is happening, so I may keep it (although it reseeds quite a bit). I'm surprised no one said anything about the brambles -- I had been pulling this religiously. Should I let it grow? They seem to pop up all over the place. I didn't mention my least favorite native volunteer -- poison ivy -- it serves an ecological purpose in the woods away from habitation, but just doesn't fit with my small native garden. My next door neighbor has it all over and every year it starts to come through, under and over the fence and I break my 'no chemicals' policy and get out the Brush-B-Gon. Another native volunteer I didn't mention is daisy fleabane, Erigeron sp. I tend to pull these also, but I'm not sure why. -- wd (Now if I can only encourage some volunteer native birds to nest in my birdhouse so I stop unintentionally breeding English house sparrows.... but that's a post for another forum.)

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.