Persicaria polymorpha would probably be a good choice. I grow that in both full sun and varying degrees of shade. In full sun it is stiffly upright with lots of upright creamy-white flowers. In shade, it is a bit shorter with a looser, more open habit and fewer flowers - but still well worth growing. It is a perennial that dies to the ground each year but looks like a shrub by the time it blooms! It doesn't seed around and, while the clump will increase in size, it doesn't creep from the roots. It's an outstanding plant. Keep all your shade plants very well watered - I'd bet most of them will survive better than you might expect.

You don't post what zone you're in which would be helpful to folks willing to respond to your question. If you're in a temperate zone, the answer to your question is a qualified yes. I grow both hosta and hydrangea in a couple of part sun garden beds and both do very well. Also growing in the same beds are sedum, cranesbill, stokesia, coral bells, daylily, weigela, dianthus/carnation, columbine, buddleia/butterfly bush, caryopteris/blue mist shrub, chelone/turtlehead, Virginia knotweed 'Painter's Palette,' Polemonium/ Jacob's ladder among others. Assuming the plants adapt to soil & moisture conditions, there's a good chance the above would also thrive in your garden bed.

Hi Lori... Thanks for that info on Virginia Creeper. It sounds like it grows slower in the shade, but I really try hard not to choose plant material that is going to become a future problem for me or my neighbors, whether it is native or not. I think I am going to still find someone else who can use it. If I had a different property with more room and a wooded area that I could let it loose in, I would love to try it. It sounds very pretty. Thanks for the arrowwood tip. I know the NEWFS does usually have that one. maifleur....yes, you are lucky to have such a nice neighbor. I also have been given permission from two of my neighbors to trim their trees that overhang my yard. I am pretty sure I don't need their permission to trim what overhangs my yard though. It is nice to check and let them know what you are trying to do though. I hate to prune a tree in a way that distorts it's shape and I try not to do that. We do have a huge limb that was hanging over and it was so long and heavy, that it would dip to about 2-3 feet off the ground in a storm. We deicided to cut it back before it came down unplanned and took out half my shrubs with it. We tried trimming it back as little as possible but now we are unhappy with the stump that it left that has very little regrowth on it, so we are planning on cutting it back further to another joint where a good size branch is heading in another direction. Some of the other overhanging branches can also be trimmed, but the problem is, that the neighbors planted their trees, right up against the lot line. One is about 6 feet away from our fence and the other is less than a foot away, so half of the canopy of the tree is over our yard. I am sure trimming back the trees will help but some of my dry shade is going to stay dry shade no matter what I do. [g] I do have some good news though. In the beginning of the summer a neighbor two yards over cut down a tree. I thought it might open up more light for us. I just got around to checking it out. I was out in the yard all afternoon yesterday and I saw direct sun hitting the back of my border along a good 4 fence sections, from 2pm to 4:30pm! I was so encouraged by that. That is going to help my shrubs a lot!

Light filtering shades have a few degrees to pick from; the smaller the holes, the more light is filtered. I had chocolate brown ones in a former house that had a southern exposition in the master, and 3 sets of french doors, lots of heat and light were coming in, I loved that I was able to walk in the room and still see the view, yet not have so much heat generated. We got used to sleeping with light in the morning.