seems as if you want azaleas-- but i'd give up after 12. nor would i try for the box wood. how about hollies or rhodadendrons or some type of conifer?

the 'northern lights' series of azaleas are bread to be xtra cold hardy-- but the wind might be doing them in-- have you tried using a burlap wrap over the winter?

on plant that i think has a nice cottage feel to it is kerria japonica-- small leaf, bright yello flowers, stems are bight green all year long. on the same thought maybe red twig/yellow twig dogwoods would give you some winter color too.

another cottage shrub i like is the old fashioned bridal veil spirea. mock orange is nice too, will handle shadier site as well.

diggerb

How about pieris japonica?

There are lots of small, evergreens which can take the northside. Pieris is ok....but, you'll need to have your soil tested. I think with your azaleas, you may have had the problem of marginal hardiness (you'd be safer in zone 6, I've done it here in zone 5, but they tend to be deciduous and mine are in a protected eastern location) and also, they like acid soil. Pieris is also an acid soil lover.

Look at the dwarf Chamaecyprus, particularly the Hinoki cultivars, and some hollies (holly likes acid soil too, so again, you may have to use some acidic fertilizers to help it along if your soil is alkaline which tends to be the case in limestone areas).

I do have a cottage look (after pulling out overgrown junipers and yew ). I use cimicifuga "black beauty" or James Compton or brunette, with various yellow leaved and variagated hostas, foxglove, violas, astilbe, Jap. fern, epimedium, kiragoshoma, iris (dwarf crested), bleeding hearts, brunera and monks hood. Rodgersia and carex as well. Oh yeah, and the various colored leaved heucheras...I can't get enough of heuchera. I add impatiens and monkey flower, as well as coleus for annuals.
Oh...and tricerta hirta (various sorts), and other ferns. Carex Bowles golden. Golden or yellow leaved cultivars like shadier spots, so you can also use Sweet Kate tradescantia. Hydrangeas, particularly the yellow leaved or variagated leaved varieties are also good.

You'll only need about 3 evergreens (hinokis or holly) on either side of your front entrance and fill inthe rest with perennials.

Make sure your soil is amended and light. And don't plant right underneath your eaves, go out about 2 -3 feet before starting. That will give you space to weed as well as be beyond the drip line of your roof. I put down layers of newspaper then cover that with pea gravel to prevent weeds.

Hope this helps.

Knockout roses are great but they do need at least 6 hours of sun/day; the north side of a house usually isn't good for that, unless you can plant far enough away to be out of its shade. My neighbors have a beautiful rhododendren on the north side, but I know that they amended the soil quite a lot with peat moss ( & maybe other stuff) to make it more acidic.

Aren't many viburnums fairly evergreen & shade tolerant? That could be a nice addition to the falsecypress and holly, to give some fragrance and flowers in the summer.

The cranberry viburnum does do well in shade, as to a variety of other yellow leaved items. I have found, however, that most of my viburnams don't give winter foliage here, and some of them the bunnies really love to chomp down on.

One think I did forget was Mahonia (Oregon Grape) which does well at my church downtown, and is also fairly drought tolerant.