Joel, You have mail --- I have some aptenia. sguanzon

I think you would be fine with hydrangeas there. If salvias are too floppy, try some veronicas or agastaches. You might even be able to grow baptista (false indigo). I have a similar exposure in my zone 5 Iowa yard. Trees along one side, and then it slopes too, so it is a bit of an odd long bed. It used to be grass and mostly invasive Asian honesuckle shrubs. I have only been gardening at this house for 1 1/2 years, so I am still experimenting; plus I am new to this zone and previously lived in zone 9. I first considered this area part shade and planted accordingly. Now I see there are pockets of more and less sun. In this area the plants doing best are: Hostas--This surprised me, but I see them in full sun around town now that I have started looking. Not sure if it is the same for zone 6. Foam flower--this looks GREAT right now with tidy foliage and is still blooming. I had some red tulips behind the foam flower and they looked lovely. Columbines--flowering nicely with airy foliage. Agastache--the one I have has short white flowers, but blues are common I think. Overwintered and re-sowed abundantly. My soil drains well so may be why they like it there. Garden phlox--were small plants last year from Bluestone spring sale. SO far they are growing nicely but will see if they flop. Today the whole area seemed to be in so much sun! Daylillies--will see how they do this year Foxglove--sowed last summer, getting ready to bloom, seems to be good for them in this spot. Monarda, bloomed last summer and no flopping. Soloman's seal--in a shadier pocket, but still gets some afternoon sun. Doing really well right now. helleborus--one little helleborus which has been doing great so far this spring, to my surprise. When I realized how sunny the spot was, I thought I'd move this little plant, but it is doign well. Toad lily--these are growing nicely and had attractive late flowers last year. Lobelia--there are some nice blue lobelias available. low growing veronicas--doing very well and blooming profusely. Happy planting. :)

My best for shade is 'mermaid'. I know 'new dawn' does ok in shade, too. They both rebloom sporadically- but are hardly in bloom all the time. My first thought was i don't know of anything that's gonna bloom all season, work in aft shade, and be disease free, which is why i didn't post. Most of my roses are the old type that blooms once and that's it, but i do have a few that bloom again. My shade tends to be morning shade- so mine get hot afternoon sun. Morning sun is supposed to be better for roses, so maybe that is less of a factor than i first thought. 'Red cascade' might do ok, but i have mine in sun, so i'm not sure. It's probably the best rebloomer i have- it almost always has some bloom on it, and at times is solid with color. I'll be bringing some starts to the swap. All the roses i got that i didn't get from Betty i ordered from roses unlimited.

I posted this same response to another thread on shade gardening, but copy and paste is so easy, so... Solomon's seal grows nicely in full or part shade and the spring shoots are reported to be usable very similarly to asparagus. By one account in the book _Perennial Vegetables_, even preferable. The giant Solomon's seal variety (Polygonatum biflorum var. commutatum -- synonyms: P. commutatum, P. canaliculatum, P. giganteum) is more convenient for eating purposes because the shoots are much thicker than the standard smaller version. You'd have to pick quite a few of the smaller ones to contribute usefully to a meal since their shoots are pencil thin or maybe thinner. Other shade-tolerant listed in _Perennial Vegetables_ include ramps, fuki (aka butterbur), and wood nettles. The uncooked nettles, sadly, sting if touched, so would have to be located and treated with care. The book includes still others, but I haven't read through it with care outside of the plants that are suited to my colder climate. An article at http://hubpages.com/hub/Shade-Gardening-101 on shade gardening also lists ginseng, highbush cranberry, sumac (for 'pink lemonade' sun tea made from the fruits--other parts are poisonous and boiled tea is too bitter to drink). And then there's mushrooms, but I'm guessing you wouldn't be interested in that for someplace that also should have a strong ornamental aspect.