VeganGirl,

Both of the situations you remarked on are correct. The north side of the house is generally the colder side and so you would tend to plant more cold hardy plants. Conversely,
the cold can also be used to your advantage. If you live in an are with late frosts, planting on the north side of the house could keep your plant from flowering to early which would be killed by the frost. In my town of Flagstaff, we have to worry about the late frosts and so I try to plant many fruit trees on the north side of the house to keep them as dormant as long as possible.

I hope this helps.

eden, thanks for clarifying that! We have late spring frosts too, up until the end of May, so even though there are peach and apricot varieties that are cold-hardy, the frosts always kill the fruit. We rarely get plums wither. Unfortunately we live in a frost pocket. But we do manage to get apples and pears most years.

I have a Daphne odora there that does well. It also has sharp drainage because it is elevated 2 railroad ties above the driveway. Campanula pocharskyana also likes it there, and Cyclamen hederifolia.

hemnancy, I have a C. pocharskyana. Maybe I'll get some started there. It would probably make a nice ground cover under the shrubs.