Hello, Tricia. It is definitely hard to tell as we can only guess at what you saw and experienced when living with these plant daily. So I will guess.... 1. Stems that "look" dry as sand can actually be alive. The exterior woody shell which we see is hard and protects from the elements, just like in trees. But the interior where the sap resides could be green. Dormant too. Why do you not experiment next year? Prune off a stem and see if you see green or is it dry dead inside. If dead, prune two inches below that cut and continue until you either find green or hit the bottom. Here in the south, stems that do not leaf out by mid-to-end of May can be considered dead (mid-to-end of June if located the northern parts of the country). 2. Bloomage may be "later than normal" under such conditions but not thaaat late (September?). Foe example: Leafout happens here in April and about 4-6 weeks later (varies a lot) then I start seeing the bloomage. Things should work similarly for you. How about you monitor this interesting question and post updates as you notice changes. 3. I have not seen such a list. But Hydrangea Macrophylla Maculata can be grown in Zone 6 and, if it is hardy to zone 6 then you can assume the wood can withstand temps as cold as -10 to 0F. Maybe less if they warm up the next day. Hydrangea macrophylla 'Variegata' is a Zone 6er and Hydrangea Macrophylla Light O Day is a Zone 5er. Or so the nurseries say. While the wood may withstand these cold temps, I am not sure about the flower buds. Hydrangea macrophylla suffers from early or late freezes since the flower buds have a weak dormancy. Surprise warm weather in winter or early spring causes the buds to emerge from dormancy, grow and become susceptible to freeze damage; see Hayseedman's famous post on overwintering hydrangeas for more info. 4. Late June but feel free to do the pruning I suggested in Question #1 in late spring if you are curious. Luis Here is a link that might be useful: Overwintering Hydrangeas by Hayseedman

Oh, Pat, you're wearing down my resistance to GaA (wish she had an easier name). I wanted to avoid more pale roses because the color washes out so badly in our sun. But if I remove the pitiful Easy Does It (ha), then I have a space for GaA. Hmmm. Rose Mom, I love your elegant home, and the flower beds you left behind are wonderful, too. Leaving them would be hard to do. Diane

I've had good luck with winter gem boxwoods here in zone 5. Also have had green velvet without a problem with the cold. I think these are both varieties of Korean boxwood. I have lost one or two over the years to what I believe was a fungal disease, but most years they look great. I don't happen to be using them as Foundation plants but you could. I also have had no problem growing densiformis yews in partial shade. Probably a prosaic plant but it works and stays fairly small. Maybe three feet wide and two feet tall. I do use some of these as Foundation plantings. Obviously you would want to combine several different types of plants. Annabelle hydrangeas are also popular here as foundation plants in shady spots.

In a similar situation (with some parts getting a tad more sun than you and some parts a tad less) I have many daylilies, veronica, shasta daisies, asters, phlox, perennial foxgloves, helenium, geraniums, echinacea, penstemon, solidago, hellebores, coreopsis, rudbeckia triloba and (I think) Herbstonne, scabiosa, lupines, bleeding hearts, monkshood, astilbe, lilies, and liatris. I also let columbines, feverfew, campanula, and Queen Anne's Lace reseed (I know some think QAL is a weed but I love it!) All of the above do well although the helenium is new so not sure yet how that will do. I also have reseeding nigella, larkspur, and few other annuals that are left over from my market-selling days. I let these reseed and they seem to do well in the part-sun gardens. For shrubs I have weigela, flowering almond, carolina allspice, hydrangeas, deutzia, boxwood, hollies, spirea, quince, and a couple of roses that are doing okay, not necessarily thriving, but that may be due more to my neglect than their situation. I did plant a Lyda Rose in a friend's garden in similar conditions that is spectacular! And I have a Darlow's Enigma in almost full shade that is doing well. Red or yellow twig dogwoods may work too. One of my gardens used to be a shade garden till we lost a beautiful oak, and there are hostas in it. It still gets some shade, but the first two summers the hostas fried (I didn't move them because we had planned on getting a new tree but life got in the way!) This year I am determined to give them more water to help them along, and so far so good, including this last week of 85 degree weather and no rain for weeks. The hard part for hostas here, like for you, is the direct afternoon sun. If you have sections that get morning or later day sun hostas may work better there. If you go with astilbes they may need supplemental water as well. I also have put in dahlias last year and this year. I did the flowers for my daughter's wedding and planted almost 100 tubers last year, and even with leaving some in the ground to die and losing some over the winter in storage, I still had about 85 tubers this spring. I don't have any "full sun" conditions at all, and in a weary attempt to get all those tubers planted this spring I had to put some in somewhat shady conditions so I'll see how they do. The ones last year in part sun did quite well (I converted my vegetable garden, the sunniest spot, for the dahlias last year. This year it's back to veggies so dahlias are roughing it lol) But many are in the same part-sun conditions as last year and they did quite well. Depending on moisture levels in you garden, itea, clethra, cephalanthus, salix, and viburnum may do well. I take care of a friend's garden with similar sun conditions but it's practically a swamp, and these thrive there but I think they need the high water levels. She also has ligularia in here, another moisture lover. Surprisingly, peonies and hydrangeas do well, and I would think this soil waaayyy too heavy and wet, so maybe the peonies would work for you too. She has another plant here that I can't think of. I want to say sambucus but I'm not quite sure, and so not quite sure if this one needs lots of water as well. I also like to supplement some bare spots with annuals. I never did many annuals till I started selling at market and now I love so many of them. I always have zinnias, and annual rudbeckias, and I also like cosmos and cleome. Sorry, didn't expect this post to be so long but kept thinking of more stuff! Hope this helps! :) Dee