The thing is that an entry area is not going to be just about plants. The design issues at an entry can be influenced by so many factors--roof lines, paint or siding colors, window treatment, adequacy and aesthetic quality of porch, patio, or stoop at doorway, sidewalk (if needed), style of home... Hard to say whether it might or might not be more effective to carefully review these other matters before trying to fix the problem through the choice of a perfect plant combination. Perfect plant combos rarely achieve their potential if the real issue is something else. That being said, here are some of my favorite plants for the shade: Actea simplex (formerly, cimicifuga) Dramatic structural plant for the shade. Needs plenty of water, particularly first year or so. I like the dark form. Sends up 4 to 5 foot fragrant plume-like flower scapes in late summer. Heuchera Many new cultivars. Could probably find foliage in just about any shade desired, including pink, purple, lime, orange, chartreuse, and combinations. Many forms are "evergreen", which doesn't really happen for me in 6b, but might work better where you are. These are rounded or mound shaped perennials and mine sort of come in two sizes--the type that gets to be about 10" tall and the type that gets about 18" tall. The flowers, which I sometimes clip off, often rise high above the foliage. Brunnera 'Jack Frost' Really catches the eye of those visiting my garden in flower or out. Leaves are whitish silver with dark green veins and edges. Forget-me-not like blue flowers in spring. Sambucus 'Sutherland's Golden' Technically a woody shrub, not a perennial, and can get 8 to 10 feet tall. Needs shade protection, but leaves are more golden with more light, otherwise lime to light green. Feathery fern-like foliage. Fragrant flowers in spring. I have never purchased one myself, but some of the places that describe and sell japanese maples mention varieties that are smaller than what I usually think of as standard Jap maple size. Maturing at 6' or even 4'. That doesn't mean they stop growing, but usually indicates average size at 5 or 10 years. If space is an issue, maybe that would be of interest. Wellspring

Well I'm from Jasper(Goober Town), Alabama Has anyone mentioned Kudzu? We have it here thanks to Auburn University and the Japanese. Do a Google search for wonderful details about this incredible vine that you can actually watch grow. In late summer it produces a beautiful lavender to purple bloom that fills the air with the fragrance of concord grape jelly. I swear you can almost taste it. Gaahlay! Shazam! There is nothing quite like it. I'm done.

How dense do you want it. For fast dense privacy, you can't beat plain boring Ligustrum japonicum. It's common because it's reliable. It makes a nice dark background for more interesting plants. Prunus caroliniana is pretty dense but you need to tip-prune it to get it really dense. It's pretty fast. They get really tall after a couple of decades. Most of the Pitts tenuifoliums are not super dense. Monrovia has a new introduction called 'Tasman Ruffles' I think that is supposed to be much more dense. Pitts are pretty fast, but not as fast as Ligustrum if watered. They can be a little fussy, and aphids, scale can be a problem. Beautiful, though.

When I have fresh transplants out in the sunniest part of the yard and they look a little stressed I stick leafy branches from all the weed trees growing around the area into the ground beside them to provide shade. The leaves dry up pretty quickly so I have to cut fresh ones every couple of days but I have plenty of trees in the way so I'm always trimming something. I've also stuck Dollar store umbrellas in the ground to provide shade.