My early flowering Narcissus - the paperwhites and jonquils (as some of us term them) - are just like Al's: leave them alone and they'll dig their own ways to a comfortable depth. However, I also have some which don't have that 'digger instinct'. They perch near the top of the soil and relentlessly form daughter bulbs, lots of leaves, and very few flowers. Earlier this year I had a clump of 'Baby Moon' in a pot, looking innocent. I tipped them out and discovered (gulp) about sixty bulblings (they were too small to be bulblets) in a six inch pot. Two years, from three bulbs... It looked like a mass of Muscari. I would definitely try planting the splitters deeper - after I had picked out the plumpest and most juicy bulbs from the clump. You could pot up or plant out the remainder in your propagation garden if they're well-loved, obviously. Bulb top maybe three to four inches down. If your climate permits - pile on the mulch or good compost in autumn to about two-three inches, in case they've squirmed up again.

Thanks for the feedback. I can't wait to dress up that corner because, again, I have a yard full of shade! I planted a small knock out rose already, it's hard to see in the picture. I don't have that much time to devote to it right now so I'm having to work on it as I can. Hopefully by this time next year it will at least not look so drab and pitiful. Unfortunately I don't have permission to get rid of the honeysuckle, or the fence, for that matter. Anyway, I like the idea of salvia and verbena, but I'm not crazy about daylilies there for some reason. A friend mentioned loropetalum, but I'm not sure about that either. It won't be hard to make it look better than it does now, but I do want to plant things that go well together, so I appreciate your ideas.

I am on the 8b/9a border, and a few of those suggested plants are very iffy for winter survival here: bougainvillea, ponytail palm, jatropha, and plumeria are all likely to die without significant winter protection. However, you can overwinter a potted plumeria in a dormant state in a cool, dark (but not above-freezing) location such as a garage. Potted ponytail palms can be easily overwintered in the house, since they are happy in the dry heat. There are also many plants on that list that will reliably survive the winter, but will defoliate or even die back to the ground in the cold. Some of them are plants that are evergreen in central/south Florida (hibiscus, passion vine, etc.). You asked for perennials, so maybe you don't mind winter die-back, but I thought I'd mention it. If you want something evergreen to add some height and structure, you can use Indian hawthorn (as Carol mentioned above) or ligustrum. For a deciduous shrub or small tree, crepe myrtles (mentioned above) are great. If you get a bigger type and let it keep most of its crown growth (no coppice pruning, a.k.a. "crepe murder") it will eventually make a nice tree and give you a partly-shaded area to plant under. Knockout roses (mentioned above) grown in full sun will reach 5'-6' or more in a couple of years if you don't cut them back too aggressively. If you keep them cut back, you can maintain them at 3'-4'. They will defoliate briefly in the coldest part of winter, but generally don't drop their leaves until the hard freezes hit - so often they are green past Christmas. For edible landscaping, the blueberry bush (decidious) can be attractive. It has white flowers in spring, of course followed by the tasty berries. The dwarf Sunshine Blue only gets 2'-4' tall and has pink flowers. Blueberries love sun, but you have to maintain an acid soil. For an unusual color on a bigger shrub - IF you are willing to mulch very well and water regularly - loropetalum will do great in full sun. It has beautiful purple foliage and the brilliant pink flowers in spring are a bonus. My next door neighbor has some beautiful ones, and there are several apartment complexes and shopping centers that also have lovely ones that get all day sun. I am not kidding about the mulch and water, though - they will die or look terrible if you stick them in full sun without adequate mulch and moisture, and I'd wait until fall to plant them. They will need the cool months to get their root systems established before facing the heat next summer. Their foliage is much denser if grown in full sun, dense enough that they can be pruned into shapes - rounded top shapes are popular around here. The native saw palmetto or the king sago (cycas revoluta, which I believe Carol mentioned above) can be an effective backdrop or centerpiece for your perennial flowers, too. They are almost bulletproof. Ornamental sweet potatoes are a pretty ground cover to weave among your flowers. While they are not supposed to be hardy, mine have come back after the last two winters. Mine are out in the brick mailbox planter exposed to dawn to dusk sun along the street. However, the grocery store sweet potatoes I planted with them (some that had sprouted after I failed to cook them soon enough) have grown even more vigorously. I leave them in the ground all winter. One last thought: I bought some pretty purple African Daisies from HD this spring. They have done really well, repeatedly blooming in sun and poor soil with no deadheading. They were labeled as perennials, but since I just got them this year I can't report on their actual hardiness yet. Good luck!

humbleone- my first inclination would be to go with something in the boxwood family. I think a dark green leaf is a necessity in this situ. cause both daylilies and liriope have what i would characterize as a light green coloration, and 3 plants with the same is def. a no-no. Plus, they're very slow growing and can be maintained below the daylily background with minimal effort. It would depend on the shape and size of the planting area, but if it was just a single or a single grouping of evergreens that is to be planted then rheingold arborvitae, hinoki falsecypress or even some of the low junipers could work. I wouldn't use any of those if the planting bed was just a straight line with 3 rows of diff. plants though. Hard to make that look good with most plants, but the low formal boxwood hedge would pull it off nicely if it is a straight line border. (My initial impression was that the bed would be a straight line, such as along the side of the driveway...)