I THINK YOU HAVE THE GENE FOR BECOMING A REAL GARDENER.. AND THE FIRST THING YOU NEED TO STOP DOING.. IS FEARING OR WORRYING ABOUT ANYTHING so my best suggestion ... is simply go to a good local nursery.. not the big boxstore.. and buy a dozen or two... of whatever strikes your fancy.. whatever the budget will allow ... and give them a try ... really.. gardening is not an engineering science.. make and draw plans.. finalize every uncertainty ... in fact.. i find very few gardeners who are engineers ... [the fence and the hardscape.. are those types of things.. but once you get to the plants ... become your inner hippie.. lol] art students.. teachers.. and old hippies.. dont care about all that planning etc ... they just plant what makes them happy.. and usually end up with some of the best gardens.. simply due to lack of fear of trying everything ... the first thing you need to think about.. is the backbone of the garden.. some larger .. long lived plants ... that will be there forever ... trees.. shrubs.. maybe conifers ... [and there is a forum for each] and after you fill those few spaces... then you start thinking about filling in with some semi-long lived perennials ... and then finally.. fill empty spots with annuals ... and if it takes the rest of your life.. just have fun.. some quiet zen moments.. [actually my hard core gardener came out.. when i used to get so PO'd at work.. i would come home and dig large holes.. to work off the stress.. and it didnt take me long to figure out..i could plant things in the holes ... lol .. so then i started going to the nursery at lunch.. to have a reason to go dig more holes ...] but i digress.. lol BUT MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL.. PLEASE DONT WORRY ... and they say you are a true green thumb.. when you have killed every plant.. 3 times .. before you succeed ... its how we learn.. and how we learn to push the envelop .. and it does not bother us in the slightest if it dies.. or we fail ... [well that $250 tree did bother me.. lol] .. and if something dies.. its another lunch trip to buy another.. and try something else ... and dig a new hole ... good luck.. come back often.. we like to enable newbies ... ken ps: i will repeat.. even your shade.. is EXTREMELY BRIGHT ... and you will be able to grow 90% of the full sun plants to specification, all of the part shade plants.. and even shade plants there] ... do not let your shade.. limit you in choosing what might not fit there.. if it pleases you.. buy it.. insert.. roots down.. and water.. and see what happens.. if you blow 5 bucks.. who cares.. but if it lives.. you will have hours of joy ... DO NOT WORRY ABOUT IT ... and commit to memory.. that MOST shade plants.. are ONLY shade tolerant.. and do better in part sun.. or even full sun ... presuming they are zone appropriate for north FL ... the short version of that is: buy what makes your toes tingle.. instead of choosing something OK to fit in a given space ... odds are.. it will live.. with just the minimum of aftercare ...

Agree with Ken to some point BUT it *is* possible to have plantings under a maple. I've done it. Under multiple maples. The trick is to find plants that handle the root competition and don't mind some dryness, and to plant a bit out from under the tree - I'd say at least 6 foot away from the base of the tree. There are also a few tricks you can pull out of your bag such as lining holes with garbage bags or sink large plastic pots to plant in, use moisture-absorbing crystals, etc. I have even gotten hydrangeas (!!) established under a maple tree, and they are thriving (the moisture crystals were invaluable here). Here's an example photo. You can see the shadow of the maple in the lower left corner. We have turtlehead, hosta, fern, brunnera, and you can see the edge of a hydrangea. The bed extends closer to the tree, you can't see it in the first photo. Anyway, the edge of the bed begins about 6' or so from the base of the tree. Hey, I think the plants are doing pretty darn well. I used the garbage bag trick to get the turtlehead going, but they've been there about 10 years already and are firmly established. Same bed, different angle. There's plants behind/next to the hydrangea you can't see in this photo: Point is - it takes effort to garden under maples, but it is possible if you're willing to do some trial and error and be creative in how you manage the problem.

I posted this same response to another thread on shade gardening, but copy and paste is so easy, so... Solomon's seal grows nicely in full or part shade and the spring shoots are reported to be usable very similarly to asparagus. By one account in the book _Perennial Vegetables_, even preferable. The giant Solomon's seal variety (Polygonatum biflorum var. commutatum -- synonyms: P. commutatum, P. canaliculatum, P. giganteum) is more convenient for eating purposes because the shoots are much thicker than the standard smaller version. You'd have to pick quite a few of the smaller ones to contribute usefully to a meal since their shoots are pencil thin or maybe thinner. Other shade-tolerant listed in _Perennial Vegetables_ include ramps, fuki (aka butterbur), and wood nettles. The uncooked nettles, sadly, sting if touched, so would have to be located and treated with care. The book includes still others, but I haven't read through it with care outside of the plants that are suited to my colder climate. An article at http://hubpages.com/hub/Shade-Gardening-101 on shade gardening also lists ginseng, highbush cranberry, sumac (for 'pink lemonade' sun tea made from the fruits--other parts are poisonous and boiled tea is too bitter to drink). And then there's mushrooms, but I'm guessing you wouldn't be interested in that for someplace that also should have a strong ornamental aspect.

You don't mention much about the soil other than it is clay. The first thing I do with a new bed is amend with compost, and in the case of clay, you might want to add some zeolite, greensand and lavasand to break up the hardpan nature of the clay. I can't imagine zinnias not doing well in full sun, but if the soil around them was bare maybe the roots were too hot. Did you use any mulch under the flowers? Something like small pine bark chips will help the soil conserve moisture and keeps the soil cooler. They also break down and add a nice tilth to the clay. Begonias are a shade plant and really can't take direct sun at all. If you have a location that only gets a little sun in the morning and is shaded the rest of the day, that's a good place for begonias. Another good plant that will love a hot sunny location is lantana. It's a Texas native, blooms all summer and gets to be about 15-20" tall. It comes in lots of different colors and will spread to cover a large area. Verbena is a sprawler and blooms all summer and part of the winter here too, but it's not very tall. Cheryl