Jenn: I am in SoCal and have a spanish style home with an arcade, also, but mine faces north. I had a Dracaena by my front door for years until it grew too tall. Then it went to the backyard until it grew too tall for the overhang by the back door. I think that is a perfect choice for your (and mine) architecture. I hate to get rid of these "old friends", so I had to put it in a hidden corner. I also had what I think is called Dumb Cane under my porch light. It has now grown too large and is in my hidden corner. I have a very large Mother-in-law's tongue by the front door which has bloomed once in 12 years. It has the most delightful fragrance. It compliments the architecture, also.

Pyracantha is a possible, and Bougainvillea - if you don't mind spines. Cantua or Campsis might also work for you.

Lydia, I grow dozens of foliage plants in containers in west facing afternoon GA sun which has to be very close to your conditions. Variegated Asiatic Jasmine is beauiful, evergreen (well...green, white & pink), and seldom flowers...can be grown on trellis or as groundcover for your Bay Tree as it would not mind dryish conditions. Variegated Hedera helix would also serve..no flowers. Other hardy in z8 foliage plants I've used alone or as groundcovers under larger plants: Asparagus plumosa or Saxifraga sarmentosa (the Strawberry Begonia flowers but easy to clip off), Lygodium japonica "Japanese Climbing Fern". The herb Ruta graveolens has flowers but easy to clip off, otherwise just lovely blue frilly foliage). Likewise Purple Fennel with dusky purple foliage. Hardy Z8 perennials Tanacetum 'Isla Gold' has frilly chartreuse foliage. Centaurea gymnocarpa 'Colchester White" has white-silver beautiful cut foliage...I have it underplanted with Dichondra 'Silver Falls'(nonhardy but I carried over inside). Young Eucalyptus cinerea trees can be grown as shrubs with silvery-blue foliage. For a large plant: Cordyline australis Red Sensation is a red/purple leaved phormium lookalike which is hardy for me. Hibiscus coccinea 'Texas Star'foliage is lovely reddish-green even if you clipped the flowers off. Likewise the colorful-leaved forms of annuals: Ricinus (Castor Bean) like 'Carmencita'...just clip flowers. Alternanthera dentata Rubiginosa' with deep scarlet foliage & stems has tiny flowers but haven't noticed any bees..but then I'm only outside at dawn and dusk when weather gets above 80 degrees F. Strobilanthes 'Persian Shield' has lovely purple/silver leaves. The Black Taro loves full sun if kept moist, even loves pot sitting in a few inches of water. Likewise the colorful forms of Canna: Tropicana, Pretoria etc. and you could clip flowers off. I know there are more...I'm waiting til daylight to go out & water. May add more later. But there are a lot of gorgeous foliage plants with colored leaves, frilly lace-like or big & bold. And lots of them are hardy... some evergreen so we can have nice container gardens even for our short winter months. I hate to spend money on annuals when often I can find a hardy plant for the same garden effect, especially in our zone...and have the fun of seeing it return bigger and better each year. josh Here is a link that might be useful: Variegated Asian Jasmine

In my formerly* full-shade bed here in Southern New England (Zone 6a) are planted many various personally selected, named hostas but also Heuchera/coral bells, variegated false Solomon's seal, Carex 'Ice Dance', Gentian andrewsii, Aquilegia/columbine, Japanese Anemone, Tricyrtis/toad lily, Hellebore/Lenten rose, Pulmonaria/lungwort, Stokesia/Stoke's aster, Alchemilla mollis/lady's mantle, Chelone/turtlehead, Brunnera/Siberian bugloss, daylilies, Dianthus/carnation, among others. * I say formerly full-shade because gypsy moth caterpillars stripped all five of my mature (150+-year-old) oak trees of leaves back in mid-June and will again next June leaving my full shade garden beds exposed to full sun about the time of the summer solstice. The well-established plants are still alive but showing signs of heat stress. I use recycled gallon milk jugs with a hole punched an inch from the bottom opposite the handle with an ice pick, fill the jugs with water and set them at the base of the plant. It's the poor gardener's irrigation method but the plants get watered close to the base. Water remaining in the container when the level drops below the pinhole keeps jugs from blowing around in the wind. I'm in a cooler zone/climate than you are but I hope you find some perennials that suit your site as well as please your eye. My garden pleases mine and it's a huge rush to walk out and think, "I did that!!" each morning. Best of luck to you.