There must be something about my garden in that I do not get the lushness shown in those photos - even though I have sandy loam soil, little foot traffic, dappled light... It must be the dryness from oak tree root competition.

Moss is the common denominator for me. One of these days I am gonna rip out all the under-performers and cluster them towards the center and let moss take over with maybe some violets sprinkled around for blooms.

Show stoppers for me are almost always: Impatiens (any type), Begonias (any, even non hardy rex begonias), and Torenias. I think begonias mixed with ferns looks sharp - something about the contrasting foliage does it. A good spotlight plant in my shade is any of the variegated Carex (sedges). I haven't found a combo they do well in but all alone amoungst the moss they catch your attention.

I love the combination of woodland phlox, foamflower, Celandine poppies, native bleeding heart, and Geranium maculatum. Any two of the above or all of them together.

I can only wait with impatience until my woodland gets full enough to have that cheek in jowl look that the more cultivated areas of my garden have, and those shots had. Beautiful!

Well, this isn't strictly a shade combo, but one i love is california poppies with woodland phlox in dappled shade/part sun. They play off each other stunningly well. Another that's part shade is I had a fuschsia species tulip that i planted in amongst some of the very purple heucheras and the newly emerging foliage of a stoksia, which was stunning. I posted at least one of those shots in one of the spring pix threads.

I had some iris cristata blooming beneath some bletilla this year and the colors zinged together, esp with the coral bells nearby and the fuchsia azalea close. They were all different shades, but related and similar in saturation, and it all was so pretty! I also have a carpet of woodland phlox that bloom beneath a pink mountain laurel, along with some strawberry begonia. Love that combo!

In nature, I love seeing trillium cuneautum with trout lilies, in or out of bloom. Subtle but very pretty. Also, celandines with bloodroot (they grow in proximity at Duke and it always catches my eye).

I guess my fav shade combo has been lamium and ferns. Especially the frosted lamiums. The frosted lamiums also shine at the base of one of my lilacs and the Flowering Maple (megapatomicum -(sp?). I also like the astilbe in bloom with the cranesbill foliage and the regular colocasia and caladiums are very splashy together. Not full shade but part, I like the pink evening primrose or toad lilies with a background of gold thread cypress. The variegated toad lilies really zings with that combo.

I'm working on creating a colony of mayapples. They seem to like it under my north side front porch steps, but haven't decided what might work well with them. About the only other thing that seems to like it under there is hardy begonias, but I don't like them under there and am afraid that the mayapples won't like it either.

root, what about some of that omeina impatiens that ralph's been distributing? Supposed to like moist full shade. If it's dry, try hellebores.

I wish I had digital photos of my previous home in the woods. I had a gorgeous little shade garden. In the background, I used tall ferns such as ostrich with some astilbes and tiarella. I used large blue hostas, then used the small chartreuse ones to meander through the bed around the large ones (like a stream). I had the punch of impatiens for colorful blooms. It was my favorite little garden along a path to the woods, but next to a high deck where I had lattice underpinnings to provide a backdrop. These days, I would add heuchera to the mix. There are so many beautiful heuchera. Miraculously, the deer didn't bother it for some reason. I really miss having shade! Full sun now.

Cameron

Sounds very lovely Cameron, my beds are a bit more cottage(ie)... Actually they're a lot more chaotic!! I'm always trying to stuff something new into them! I guess you could call my style "chaotic chaos"...... but once in a while something clicks together and looks pretty, lol...

Tammy, it tends to be moist if there's any rain at all. I didn't lose anything out of that bed last year and even had a couple things return that I've never had any luck with before... Jacob's Ladder and Black Cohosh. I did have to water a bit when it got bad. It's normally too wet to over winter anything that doesn't like cold wet feet in the winter, like elephant ears, but they love it there in the summer.

I was walking down Shelley Lake in Raleigh and saw a beautiful cluster of Mayapples along the walking trail. The pictures in that link made me think about that.