Campanula, Close to a north facing wall that gets sun from perhaps noon for a few hours in the afternoon, 'Ghislaine de Feligonde' does pretty well, blooming most of the summer with nice foliage. I grow it as a mounding shrub. On the eastern cliff edge of my back surrounded by forest with maybe 20 feet clearance, I grow hybrid musks pretty well, Cornelia, Pax who is new so iffy as a rec, and Buff Beauty. Those might please you. There also there is Reine de Violette; a noisette which will probably die, Lingo Musk; and you might like this one, Till Uhlenspiegel, a hybrid sweetbrier. TU is really healthy there. I also have Gilda, a hybrid multiflora, along that edge, and seems to be fine there. I like that rose, but don't know if it's a style you like. I remember Mad Gallica remarking that the setigeras are her most shade tolerant rose; i think she's in upstate NY. Sally Holmes might do okay there. If you are at all interested in mosses, Henri Martin or William Lobb might be okay. My HM gets only a couple of hours of afternoon sun, if that. My Pomponella is a sun lover here too. She gets shaded by some aggressive lah-de-dah dahlias in the summer and definitely resents them. I've found the hybrid multiflora/multiflora types seem to do well in less than ideal sun spots. Purple Skyliner is in the edge of a forested area and is doing okay. Do you like Lyda Rose? Would you want to try some rugosas? I think Wasagaming is shade tolerant; or at least mine puts up with shade. Both Therese Bugnet and Polareis/Ritausma seem to need sun, though. And then the albas - semi -plena might be fine in either place and a bloom form you might like. Do you dislike Madame Hardy? I'd also try hugonis or some of the other early yellows, just to see. My hugonis is a baby but too in a woody spot and it's doing okay. I read that Spanish Beauty/Madame Gregoire Staechelin is shade tolerant, somewhere. I think I also read it is not shade tolerant, so much for books, doncha know. But I'd be tempted to try it just to see; I've read you love that rose. Would it grow as a mounding shrub, do you think? I don't know about Duplex - I have mine in sun at the edge of the apple terrace. Honestly, if it were me, Campanula, I'd dig up or take cuttings of everything I loved and plant it just to see how it did. Otherwise, I'd spend the rest of my days wondering if it might not have worked after all. Courage, you will make it beautiful! Gean This post was edited by harborrose on Tue, Oct 8, 13 at 20:30

Hi Mary and all, I've got a LOT of plants growing along the north side of the house. Some are very low water and some aren't (though I try to keep them generally grouped to make watering easier). Here's a quick list of what I've got planted that is thriving (not just surviving, but looking great): These all get a lot of bright indirect light all year and just a touch of morning sun in summer only: Agave americana Squid agave (Agave bracteosa) Aloe saponaria Aloe brevifolia Datura meteloides Cast-iron plant (Aspidistra elatior) Callisia fragrans(like a fun, more-durable spider plant) Giant (or "white") bird of paradise (Strelitzia nicolai) Spider plants (Chlorophytum in the ground year round) Honeysuckle vine (Lonicera)a great suggestion from Judy B Slimjim bean (Phaseolus filiformis great delicate foliage and tons of small snail-vine-looking blooms) Pencil cactus (not really a cactus but a nice succulent, Euphorbia tirucalli plus tons of coleus and begonia 'Dragon Wings red' in pots. I'm sure other folks will share what they've got thriving on the north sides of their houses, but those are some plants off the top of my head that have done really, really well planted not far from the foundation of the north side of the house. Just keep in mind that I don't have any large trees nearby so it's pretty bright even without direct sunlight. Let us know what you select, and how it works out. Take care, Grant

Trees and shrubs aren't my strong points, but I know that tulips won't last long in a north-facing yard! They need full sun (south or west-facing) There are scads of shade-loving perennials that you could plant around your trees. Hostas, lamium, lily of the valley, monkshood, periwinkle (Vinca minor), siberian irises, ostrich fern, bleeding heart, solomon's seal, snow-in-summer (less invasive in the shade), auricula primroses, bishop's mitre (epimedium), astilbe, jacob's ladder, martagon lilies, heuchera, more hostas. . . all of the above are hardy to zone 3a. (I'm in Edmonton and have a shade garden). Good annuals include lobelia, pansies, ivies of all kinds, coleus, caladiums, your houseplants (bring them back inside before it gets cold in the fall), impatiens, begonias. . . One tree I'd get if I had a yard would be a mountain ash. I'm pretty sure they can take shade, and they've got amazing year-round interest with their reddish bark, unique leaves, amazing fall colour, and berries that feed the birds all winter. They also don't drop their berries nearly as much as crabapples, so you don't get the mess. And I second the suggestion for junipers over cedars. A juniper will simply do WAY better for you. Calgary has some really great nurseries though, so you could also go visit some and ask for their suggestions. I know that the chinooks offer, shall we say, 'unique' points to consider. =)

I am on the 8b/9a border, and a few of those suggested plants are very iffy for winter survival here: bougainvillea, ponytail palm, jatropha, and plumeria are all likely to die without significant winter protection. However, you can overwinter a potted plumeria in a dormant state in a cool, dark (but not above-freezing) location such as a garage. Potted ponytail palms can be easily overwintered in the house, since they are happy in the dry heat. There are also many plants on that list that will reliably survive the winter, but will defoliate or even die back to the ground in the cold. Some of them are plants that are evergreen in central/south Florida (hibiscus, passion vine, etc.). You asked for perennials, so maybe you don't mind winter die-back, but I thought I'd mention it. If you want something evergreen to add some height and structure, you can use Indian hawthorn (as Carol mentioned above) or ligustrum. For a deciduous shrub or small tree, crepe myrtles (mentioned above) are great. If you get a bigger type and let it keep most of its crown growth (no coppice pruning, a.k.a. "crepe murder") it will eventually make a nice tree and give you a partly-shaded area to plant under. Knockout roses (mentioned above) grown in full sun will reach 5'-6' or more in a couple of years if you don't cut them back too aggressively. If you keep them cut back, you can maintain them at 3'-4'. They will defoliate briefly in the coldest part of winter, but generally don't drop their leaves until the hard freezes hit - so often they are green past Christmas. For edible landscaping, the blueberry bush (decidious) can be attractive. It has white flowers in spring, of course followed by the tasty berries. The dwarf Sunshine Blue only gets 2'-4' tall and has pink flowers. Blueberries love sun, but you have to maintain an acid soil. For an unusual color on a bigger shrub - IF you are willing to mulch very well and water regularly - loropetalum will do great in full sun. It has beautiful purple foliage and the brilliant pink flowers in spring are a bonus. My next door neighbor has some beautiful ones, and there are several apartment complexes and shopping centers that also have lovely ones that get all day sun. I am not kidding about the mulch and water, though - they will die or look terrible if you stick them in full sun without adequate mulch and moisture, and I'd wait until fall to plant them. They will need the cool months to get their root systems established before facing the heat next summer. Their foliage is much denser if grown in full sun, dense enough that they can be pruned into shapes - rounded top shapes are popular around here. The native saw palmetto or the king sago (cycas revoluta, which I believe Carol mentioned above) can be an effective backdrop or centerpiece for your perennial flowers, too. They are almost bulletproof. Ornamental sweet potatoes are a pretty ground cover to weave among your flowers. While they are not supposed to be hardy, mine have come back after the last two winters. Mine are out in the brick mailbox planter exposed to dawn to dusk sun along the street. However, the grocery store sweet potatoes I planted with them (some that had sprouted after I failed to cook them soon enough) have grown even more vigorously. I leave them in the ground all winter. One last thought: I bought some pretty purple African Daisies from HD this spring. They have done really well, repeatedly blooming in sun and poor soil with no deadheading. They were labeled as perennials, but since I just got them this year I can't report on their actual hardiness yet. Good luck!