Oh, wow, you are doing with this part of your yard what I am doing with my WHOLE backyard. My yard is very small, we are in Coppell. Shade loving and woodsy - Turk's cap - especially variegated (will grow in sun, too, no problem), Elephant ears, spiderwort is cool, nice foliage and blooms late spring early summer. Grassy looking. Violets like shade and I think they really add to the woodland effect. I am planting wood fern, also known as southern fern, I think, here and there to fill in. Gold moneywort (also called creeping Jenny) is just a lovely groundcover that can take some foot traffic and is cool in its different shadings. Add purple shamrock, too (oxalis) - all of these things are small but perennial. Rain lilies are nice, too. And seriously, those airplane plants that everyone uses indoors are awesome! They return every year, make new babies and are a bright spot among the dark foliage. Oh, and Persian Shield is so pretty. Where you have some light you can do a couple of daylilies and I like Guara - it looks very woodsy but light. Asparagus fern returns for me every year but doesn't get overwhelming and it really gives another texture. My gardenia stays evergreen, but it hasn't done well and doesn't bloom, so I'm not sure I can help with the evergreen shrub. Rosemary maybe.. but of course you have to watch it since it will get so big. I'd love to hear other's thoughts on woodland schemes.

I was just reading High Country Gardens' catalog and saw one called Digitalis obscura, Narrow-leaf Foxglove. Described as: 18" x 12" wide, ( seed propagated). 2004 Plant Select winner. A rugged perennial species from the mountains of Spain. Digitalis obscura is very different from the woodland Foxgloves commonly offered. The brown and yellow bell-like flowers are extrememly attractive; the upright woody stems and evergreen lily-like leaves are also very ornamental. This might be what you have. What do you think? gld

merryrose, Aliska, I love redbuds, but some ? of whether they blossom in Maine--definitely grow and thrive, but blossom? I can't promise but you're in my zone. They're called Eastern Redbuds, must be for a reason. There's a lot of info and photos on the web. Your wooded area sounds wonderful! Here's one down the alley, I think I picked those very seeds the next day, dried them, husked them (easier than I'd feared), planted them, and many sprouted but I lost them the following winter when I didn't plunge the bottles into the ground. May try some more this spring. I'd like to get some on the boulevard on my street but don't know if the city would like it. It should be a suitable tree for that unless it hangs over the street and needs trimmed. I see somebody set something out there and put a wire cage around it. We did a block project to plant that boulevard many years ago. Life was so frantic then I didn't feel I could physically help but contributed a lousy 10 bucks, went further then. Now some trees have grown very tall and we've lost others. Most on the block but one or two have long since moved away or died. The next street north of me is similar, and theirs is planted better, shadier, and one neighbor looks like he's planted all sorts of things along with whatever trees are there. That first one wasn't the photo I had in mind. It's nice, too, forgot I had it so will put both in there. They're sure not red though, mostly pinkist purple.

Eduarda that picture is so pretty - to see that view in real life must have been captivating! I grow Foxgloves in partial sun - they get 4 or 5 hours of sun mixed with some shade through the day. I've bought a few plants over the years and they have done well. This year I winter-sowed Digitalis purpurea and it was easy to start from seed. They sprouted early and and I got tons of sprouts. I planted out 8 or 10 little seedlings in a partial sun, nice rich, well-drained bed created by lasagne, and we've gotten tons of rain this summer. The rosettes they are creating are enormous! I can't wait to see them next year.