If you are still looking....I recommend that you use bigroot geranium. (geranium macrorrhizum) I am in Menasha Wisconsin and had to remove hostas from my front sidewalk garden under and near silver maple trees...which made my hostas diminish over the years. I took my bigroot geranium and planted it in that space and today it is a beautiful and lush. This plant is not invasive, it survives easily in dry shade, normal shade and even full sun. It handles winter salt from our driveway with no problem at all....much of our driveway snow gets shoveled on top of our geranium garden areas. This is a plant that can be mowed down once it's established, and in 2-3 weeks, you'll have nice fresh leaves. Some people do this after it blooms, I do not. It's blooming right now in my yard, the bloom color is fushia. Even though it's very pretty, I actually love the foliage and would be fine if it didn't bloom at all. This plant has fixed this problem area for me and turned it into my entry into a place of beauty with many compliments. Extremely easy to plant/transplant, the roots are pretty much above the soil, so you just grab some, and plant it below the soil wherever you want some more. I started an area in the spring, using little parts of the roots and by fall in my first season it was nearly covered...the next spring, it was pretty much full and I am just grabbing little pieces of it and planting it in other areas as I want it. Did I mention that this is nearly evergreen...it's one's of the first things to start greening up, well before the lawn and the daffodils...maybe about the time of crocus. It has a lovely pine scent when you touch it and often turns a bit red in the fall. It's my favorite, I can't believe more people don't have it...or that it's rarely seen in our local nurseries. Very hardy. If it goes where you want it, just break off those roots and put them somewhere else!

Thanks-I made sure to label my photo's for future.

Judy, In my estimation, nothing could be prettier than that old shade garden standby, _Aucuba japonica_, the "gold-dust plant." It's a gorgeous evergreen shrub that should stay within your five-foot height limit. However, I do think with the passage of many years, _Aucuba_ can exceed five feet. If it gets too tall, just clip a few limbs to use in floral arrangements. As you probably know, _Aucuba_ is easily rooted in water. At my house, I have a clump of five "gold-dust aucubas" at one end of the wrap-around porch. The clump of "gold-dust aucubas" is separated from a solid-green, narrow-leaved aucuba by a couple of tea olives, an August Beauty gardenia, a clump of _Musa basjoo_ (Japanese Fiber Banana), a _Musella lasiocarpa_ (Golden Lotus Banana), a 'Mine-no-Yuki' sasanqua, a 'Seventh Desire'sasanqua, and a creeping 'Fragrant Pathways' gardenia, plus a few root hardy tropicals, e.g., curcuma, _Alpinia japonica_, and Mioga ginger. The solid green, narrow-leaved aucuba came from Woodlanders in Aiken and is a beautiful, shade-loving shrub that should stay within your height limits for many years. Another fine shade plant that I've used in the foundation shrubbery is _Fatsia japonica_. It is marginally hardy in Zone 7B, but my plant has survived several winters so far. It makes a dramatic architectural statement, and with time, can grow to a large size. It produces other-worldy off-white flowers in the late fall. They're similar to the flowers produced on mature English ivy but much, much larger. The flowers will produce bluish-black berries if they survive the winter. However, the fruit-stalks on my plant were done in by the thirteen or fourteen degree Fahrenheit low they were exposed to a couple of weeks ago. _Danae racemosa_, or poet's laurel, would be another refined shade-loving plant that will stay well within bounds. It is extremely slow-growing and hard to find in the nurseries.

Mad gallica and Bill, the last time I tested my soil was about 10 years ago and it was 6.0 at that time. I've already decided to do another soil test this year. We'll see if that has anything to do with it. Our neighbor across the street has a great Rhododendron in front of his house that is huge and blooms wonderfully, and he does absolutely nothing to that shrub. So, I'm not sure what the difference is. I have neighbors with five mature Silver Maples within 5 to 15 feet of my lot line on two sides and another neighbor with a London Plane, a White Pine and 7 Spruce trees within 5 to 10 feet of my lot line on another side. And I have a small 1/4 acre lot. We make our own compost and add it every year and spread a lot of bark mulch too, save neighbors leaves with our own and chop them up and mulch with those, use the sprinklers in dry spells. I just think the surrounding trees are sucking the moisture and the nutrients out of the soil. But, maybe the PH could be part of it. The azaleas that I've had the longest have grown and bloom every year and are in the front. My kids gave me 'Girard's Fuchsia' azaleas and a 'Nova Zembla' Rhody for Mother's day the last few years and I planted those in the back in the dripline of the Maples. They did bloom the first year, but they are looking like the leaves are sparse and not as vigorous. The Rhody lost foliage and has a number of bare stems. It has new growth around the base, though. They're just not thriving the way they should. Thanks for mentioning the PH....good idea.