I grow Siberian iris in part sun/part shade and they bloom and grow without problem. There are Cimicifuga (AKA Actea) such as 'Brunette' with dark purple/maroon leaves that do well in part shade, and have white spires of flowers in late summer. Some folks have found them fussy, but I've not had problems. They are quite deer resistant. There are some varieties of clematis that do well in part sun/shade - I'd google for clematis & shade or go to Clematis on the Web and either search or see if there is a list of shade tolerant clematis there. I have one (I think 'Blue Angel') that grows on the east side of my house, and only gets morning sun, though high, bright shade the rest of the day. It is flourishing. I also had a clematis 'Venosa Violacea' which is purple & white that grew well & bloomed in the same part shade garden as the Actea & Siberian iris until the voles ate the roots last winter. :>( Here is a link that might be useful: Clematis on the Web

In the last few years deer lost their last vacant lot in the neighborhood and I had to experiment to see what I could keep in my garden. Our deer will leave basil and other herbs alone. They leave chrysanthemums, snapdragons, irises, daffodils, butterfly weed, melampodium, little firecracker zinnias and gomphrena alone, stepping over them to nibble on a remaining rose bush and lilies. Creeping phlox is safe, but garden phlox is a treat. In dry shade hellebores and euphorbia flourish. Cyclamen bloom in the fall and have ground covering foliage in the winter. Purple shamrocks are left alone. Dragon wing begonias bloom all summer. Liriope grows like crazy. As for shrubs, deer leave my azalea and my camelia alone, preferring "prune" the nearby knockout roses. They also ignore my striped zebra grass. My hollies were removed before the deer lost their habitat. Most of the deer repellant products have to be reapplied too often for Arkansas where we may get daily rains. You miss a day and your garden is gone. You might ask at local hair salons. I've heard that human hair is a better deterrent than dog hair. Yes, our deer laugh at the neighbor's mastiff. They even watch us watch them through our patio window.

Hmm, doesn't look like my previous post got posted, so here goes. I'm also in NJ and we've been in our house for 2 1/2 years. Half our front yard and another garden bed are filled with pachysandra because they are under the tall pine trees we have here. They spread faster than we want them to. In fact, without us even realizing it, they created their own soil out of fallen leaves and spread over our driveway about 18 inches since we've been here. It was like a thick carpet we had to cut through and roll up to move it back into the garden bed again. It is beautiful to look at, but very difficult to get rid of. Their roots are very thick and everywhere. If however, you would like more of it, you are more than welcome to come and dig some up in our yard. We have lots and lots to share.

Yes, N. spruce is "usually" not browsed on by deer, and is a very fine and imposing conifer. I think you should look for sources other than Arbor Day Foundation. For whatever reason, that just has not been a very good source for most folks. Meanwhile, and especially if small size is not unacceptible, there are numerous other options. One that I like very much is itascagreenhouse.com. Most of their stock is in "styroblocks", strofoam trays such that you are actually planting a plug, not a bare-root seedling. Here's what I see as your issues: 1) Deer..........one way or another, you're going to have to deal with them. Even if you find some species to work with that don't seem to be browsed, eventually a buck is going to come along and just demolish a tree or three, and most likely, your favorite ones, rubbing the fuzz off of its antlers! Believe me, this will happen. Some kind of fencing or diligent use of the spray-on antifeedant products are going to be necessary. 2) Light requirements. Most conifers do their best in full sun or at least light shade. There are exceptions: Hemlock (Wooly adelgid problem out by you guys), balsam fir (Very shade-tolerant but rare in commerce-Itasca's got em), Thuja occidentalis-the species tree, not the various cultivars, although one cultivar-"Hetz Wintergreen" is quite species-like. But these too will do better with more sun. Yews are fairly shade-tolerant but well, they're yews! Other than such rarities as Taxus canadensis, I don't get too excited about yews! 3) Watering. I don't get too bent out of shape if I'm working with tiny transplants such as seedlings. We planted 6000 last spring up at our N. Wisconsin tree farm, never watered them, and with timely rainfall, nearly all survived. 4) Small size of transplants. That one is up to you. Working with seedlings has a number of advantages-easy to plant, less watering concern, low cost, wide availability, etc. You just have to be patient. Now here's what I've observed, once again at my tree farm: The oldest stuff we planted went into the ground up there-fairly decent soil though quite a bit of sand and very stony-4 growing seasons back. Now these are fast-growing species, but I've got hybrid larch (Wouldn't work in your shade_ that are in excess of 12 ft. tall. Norway spruce are right behind them. We had a lot of rain up there last year and I kid you not, some of my Norway spruce grew 4 feet! So don't rule out starting small. The growth rate may surprise you. Another possibility that would be somewhat shade-tolerant is white pine. I've got a bunch of those too and they're doing well. Finally, check with yoour county conservation service, they are typically a wealth of info and a source of a variety of small transplanting stock. Or just do a search on seedlings and get ready to be buried by hits! Hopefully I've given you something that helps. Get back if you have more questions. I've done a ton of this stuff! +oM