I don't have any specific suggestion, but encourage you to contact your local Master Gardeners organization, a group of trained volunteers associated with the Cooperative Extension Service, for info. They would have first hand info since they are local gardeners.

You didn't mention the size of the area - are you looking for small shrubs or low growing flowers & groundcovers? If it's next to a driveway did you check the dirt to see if it's high pH? (One of my areas is high alkaline from all the limestone used around the foundation & under the asphalt.)

I've got a similar areas. Yews, itea and swamp pumilla dogwood does well. (It's also close to a walnut tree so it's got that issue too.) Daylilies may do well, ferns, lily-of-the-valley, and sweet woodruff. I have a beauty-berry I might move to this area depending on how it does in its current location.

Have you considered putting in some ferns? Most of mine get some direct sun at some point in the day (my summers are hot but very humid and usually quite wet). What I really like about them is how they slowly spread and how the deer seem to totally ignore them!