yew is the best evergreen for shade..... most evergreens prefer full sun...it comes in many shapes and sizes but alas is toxic to animals. privet would fit the bill and provide wildlife food but is another invasive so you probably won't want that : ) mahonia does very well in shade, has yellow flowers in spring and blue grape-like berries later so may be your best bet. it is native in parts of the u.s.....not sure if its native in your area.

I, too, am a planted native of Western WA. Throughout my childhood and youth, I foraged for berries all over Western WA. Now, in my own garden, although the majority of my plants are non-native, I have a lot of native plants interspersed here and there, that have volunteered and that I have nurtured, including both red and evergreen huckleberry and oregon grape, trilliums, etc. I have had all the berry plants growing in everything from complete shade to lots of sun. From my berry picking days, to my own plants, I can tell you that, even though they will grow in the shaded understory of the forest, the plants that produce the most berries, by far, are the ones that get more sun, and the more the better. This holds true for the flowering currents. As a berry picker, you always try to find a good thicket at the edge of the woods, with an eastern exposure. They really like several hours of morning sun. Sun exposure between 2 and 4 pm can kill young plants, but once established they can take that as well, if watered properly. I have a volunteer evergreen huckleberry growing out of a log in my back yard, in full sun, that is happy as can be. It gets enough water, because it's near a hardy fuchsia. A caution on fireweed (if that is what it really is). I have lived in Alaska, also, where it could almost be the state flower. It is a root runner and can be quite invasive, especially here in WA, where it doesn't get the winter cold to keep it in check. Salal, also a native, is also a root runner, but it is very hard to get established, if not growing there naturally. I have known people, whose yards are backed by a large forested area, that absolutely hate it. Regarding soil....all our native plants do like a highly organic, slightly acid soil. I have extremely light, sandy soil, which dries out very fast in the summer. My success with the natives has come from giving them a good, deep mulch of medium shredded bark, with fines in it. In the years I don't mulch I can really tell they are not happy. Good luck!

I have a highbush cranberry tree that is about 12' high. I dug it up from a few blocks away and dragged it back to my woodlot backyard and planted it last fall. Despite all the trauma it experienced it has done superbly and presented the birds with tons of bright red berrries that the birds will enjoy when the winter is here. We also have a mulberry, several serviceberry (great shrubs/trees... beautiful white blossoms, berries that start out red and turn bluish black as they mature and the birds go nuts for them) and the ground cover is mostly Blue Cohash which the birds go absolutely crazy for in the fall. We just moved here last fall and the woodlot had to be cleared of dense Garlic Mustard and Oriental Bittersweet which has taken us 2 seasons to do. We expect at least one more season of dense Garlic Mustard but in the mean time we have planted lots of native ferns, various coloured trilliums, jacks etc.. and I went on a berry hunt this fall and strew about loads of Blue Cohash seeds to help take over where the Garlic Mustard has been taken out. As for more species for the birds (our family are avid birders), you could try SweetGum (awesome trees with very strange seed pods), Tulip Trees (nectar), Dogwoods, SpiceBush (this is our next bush to go into the woods... they grow in large groups so we will plant a large stand of them next spring), any of the cherry species like "Pin Cherry" will attract birds and are at least native in my region (southern Ontario) and we have several 60' as well as tons of saplings. Sassafras are good for fruit as well. *sigh* so many cool plants and so little money ;o) Barb Southern Ontario

I'm late to the party in responding to the original post. My 2 cents: Indian pinks (Spigelia marilandica). They're very well-behaved...although I've heard they can self sow if they ever go to seed. Unfortunately, they're one of the favorite plants for rabbits in my area, which means I haven't seen them even bloom recently much less self-sow. Still, they're tough enough to keep coming up from getting nibbled down to the nubs, so that's impressive. And the foliage is pretty on its own. Oakleaf hydrangeas are marvelous, but I do think they prefer mostly shady spots (forest understory, etc.) I have one in full morning sun in TN that is hanging in there, but it does look stressed from mid-summer onwards. For the shady area, how about an Epimedium? It takes a little while to get started, but it seems bulletproof and mostly evergreen once it's established and has attractive delicate flowers in the spring. Spreads, but at a very manageable rate (or has so far). For a sunnier spot, what about Coreopsis verticillata 'Zagreb'? http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=c270