soloman's seal, jack-in-the-pulpit, hepatica, foxglove beardtongue(it gets kind of tall), mayapples (some would consider this a ground cover, since it tends to colonize), dutchman's breeches.

Christmas fern, ebony spleewort, green and gold, partridge berry, false solomon's seal.

columbine spreads nicely and does well in dry shade.

wild ginger makes a nice ground cover and should do well in those conditions.

Thanks for the suggestions. Maybe I should clarify a little - by persistant I don't mean reliably perennial (although that's good) but lasting all summer and into the fall. I would love it if my mayapples would do that.

Asarum what? I tried shuttleworthii but it really doesn't like dry conditions. I don't think it's coming back. A. europeum wilts and looks sad but it doesn't die on me.

I keep planting columbines - vulgaris is persistant and perennial in my conditions, canadensis doesn't seem to like heavy soil.

Pachysandra - can the native take dryness?

Interesting question birdgardener. This is something I struggle with also. The Hellebores also provide winter interest which I find hard to replace so far with natives, besides ferns.
Heuchera villosa is the closest I've come up with. This is a large heuchera, tall white bottlebrush blooms in the fall,light green maplelike leaves all season, large 2 to 3 feet tall and wide, with a winter presence. I 've seen a purple leaved cultivar listed but cannot locate one yet. I purchased one called Caramel from Wayside last season with honey or ochre leaves but it's too new to tell if it's as nice as original.
I second esh ga's suggestions of christmas fern and partridgeberry. I have one area in dry shade using partridgeberry and labrador violet as groundcover sprinkled with christmas fern. Bloodroot and Jack in the Pulpit have spread nicely throughout. Although the flowers of Bloodroot last but a day or two the leaves remain through the summer as do the Jacks.
Tiarella wherryi and native bleeding heart also last and both rebloom.
I also have had no luck with shuttleworthii but found another native ginger called Little Echo at Atlock that came back. The Asarum canadense spreads
well but is not evergreen and wilts for me but pops right back if watered .
Native Pachysandra takes dry shade for me but spreads little.
Pixie

its not likely to find any one plant that is going to be persistant all year long... especially shade tolerant plants. In the quest for sun, most of your shady bloomers are going to be early - to maximize that sunlight before the canopy fills out.

I find the columbine, although it doesnt bloom all year, the foliage stays until fall.

Also virginia water leaf stays through fall - the leafs are variagated in spring and then loose their varigation through summer are just leaves in the fall.

Several asters are shade tolerant and fall blooming. NE aster tolerates quite a bit of shade.

Which is one reason why most native plantings are mixed plantings in order to get some color through the year.

These are persistant (you can see them all year, evergreen is another word for it?): Christmas fern, ebony spleewort, green and gold, partridge berry.

The wild ginger known as hexastylis arifolia is also evergreen. They changed the name from asarum for some of the gingers, the evergreen ones, I think.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:841971}}

Galium odoratum - sweet woodruff - is a fantastic ground cover for dry shade - and the deer don't touch it.

Some websites might tell you that it needs water. I have a patch in the woods on the top of the slope down to the road that has ever only had nature's water and it does fine, although during a prolonged dryspell it might become somewhat thin.

njtea, I like sweetwoodruff and have it, but it's not native and I keep it confined because it will spread. It's in my best looking shade garden with boxwood, bletilla, hosta, dicentra spectabilis, european ginger, astilbe, hellebore, cyclamen, yak rhododendron, mock orange: Eurasia come to America.

I've managed to tuck a few natives in there - goatsbeard, spring beauty, dutchmans breeches, mayapple (would that that lasted all summer), ferns, but let's face it - the foreigners carry that bed.

And for the really eeeevil dry shade there's lamiastrum -again policed and kept in bounds.

Esh, partridgeberry might be fun to try but I've read it likes cool ground and summers. Does it work for you in Georgia? That would be great. Please don't tell me you live on a mountain up in the NE corner. What was your source?

I think if I'm going to make this a beautiful garden, as opposed to primarily a collection, it's got to have the foreigners. With all the natives I can tuck in, sure. Most of which aren't really native to my particular patch of earth, anyway.

Christmas fern I have and could try to propagate - but it always looks stepped on. Ostrich fern never reaches its potential height without lots of water but it does stand up.

Above ground level, hmm. Some decidous native azaleas in warm shades, spice bush, magnolia virginia, maybe some fargesia bamboo.

Lisa

Nope, no cool mountain here. We're just about 30 minutes north of Atlanta and it is warm here. And when it's not warm, it's hot (like right now it is 82!. My source has been plant rescues in the areas nearby. It is doing quite well in the ground and various pots. I certainly don't baby it.

A show stopping ground cover is lycopodium digitatum (I think it has a different name now?). Running ground cedar is the one I have (also from rescues). It always evokes comments. Evergreen here. It doesn't grow very fast, but does spread.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ground cedar

esh, I like that ground cedar. Up here we call it club moss and it grows mostly in the pine barrens, which are pretty much pure sand. So let me ask - is your soil sandy? or Georgia red clay? (I've got heavy clay loam here.)

There are quite a few lycopodiums, another one I have looks like little tiny pine trees. I'm sure there must be some that look like mosses too.

Yep, we are Georgia red clay here with some "woods" dirt in the first few inches. Woods dirt being that good, several years worth of natural leaf mold worked in, kind of dirt. But once you get down about 2-3 inches, it's clay. This is a pretty shallow rooted plant, so I guess it's liking those first few inches, but I have found it on sites in pretty lean looking soil.

Wintergreen, Gauthera precumbrens(sp?) is a great all season plant. It is evergreen, flowers in the spring and has red berries it holds all winter long (and make a nice winter snack!) It just needs acidic conditions (like an azalea) and might benefit from an organic fertilizer like holly-tone.

Other good ones are Galax, shortia, dog hobble, Sweet Fern, bay berry, Comptonia peregrina and partrige berry.

Actually, sonce you are in NJ, there are a whole host of really nifty heather-like plants native to the barrens, like sandwort and strange dwarf and succulent type plants. Some of them almost remind me of alpine vegitation. If I lived there, then I'd want to grow as many of those as possible. I'm sure a quick search on the internet about the NJ pine barrens could should you what I'm talking about.

Sorry about that, Birdgardner, I didn't realize this was in the Natives forum!

Striped pipsissiwa (Chimaphila maculata) also called striped pyrola is a lovely evergreen with variegated leaves and gorgeous, waxy cream spring flowers. It grows native around here and I have seen it at its best both in mid Pennsylvania dense woods and sandy woods on the North Carolina outer banks. Slow grower but super hardy.

George

The foliage of Chamelirium luteum (Devil's Bit) stays all season; in fact, it's somewhat evergreen. And what about native Cimicifugas? Also Mitchella repens, partridge berry. There's also a native aconitum, though I don't know the species; I had it for awhile but then it developed verticillium wilt as have all my non native aconitums. Also persistant through the season are Tiarellas.

I have a very dry shady spot and two natives not mentioned so far that I have growing there are Geranium maculatum and Phlox stolonifera(I think my variety is 'Sherwood Purple'). The geranium is not as vigorous as normal, but it still looks fine. The phlox does extremely well. I have a feeling in a moister spot it would be sort of invasive. I've read that it wants moist soil and dosn't like it dry. Believe me, it is not moist where I have it growing.

RE: "There's also a native aconitum, though I don't know the species; I had it for awhile but then it developed verticillium wilt as have all my non native aconitums."

FYI, The native is a wetland species which likes alkaline soil. Also, I've been trying to acquire this plant for a while. What was your source?

Lonnie

Did anyone mention Bearberry or Bunchberry? I just got a waterloo garden flyer and this is the first time I noticed them promoting and recomending native plants and those two were on the list.

Has anyone mentioned the other Bleeding Hearts (Dicentra)? D. exemia and D. formosa are natives (hooray). (D.luxuriant looks about the same, but is a "garden origin" plant) - I've grown these in quite dry shade... ofcourse they'll be happier with some moisture, but get used to dry soil. Also, they bloom off and on all summer long, not like D.spectabilis, the showy Bleeding Heart

My understanding was that D. luxuriant was a hybrid of D. eximia (East coast) and D. formosa (west coast). In my experience it seems to be sterile. I've always thought people are better off picking the species native to their coast as both are spectacular without any modification at all.

Also regarding previous messages above about Lycopodiums, I've noticed that in many ways these species are given a blanket "hands off" from most native plant enthusiasts and relatively hard to find in the nursery trade. I've even heard that some states have put blanket prohibitions against selling them. Just as views on growing native orchids are finally changing, I do wonder if there could be a similar revolution here. There are so many lovely Lycopodium and it shouldn't be hard for someone to do the garden science to figure out how to responsibly propagate and grow them. Unfortunately, I suspect that anyone who tries will catch the same amount of criticism that the first people who debunked the whole "all orchids need a special mychorihza" myth.

Hi-
another suggestion, although it sounds crazy really, is jewelweed (impatiens capensis); although it's listed as OBL/FACW I have some in a tough dry shade area that has shocked me by it's success. I watered it sometimes the first year but not since, and it lasts most of the summer once it comes up. It's not evergreen (it's an annual), but even my ferns aren't evergreen in this tough spot. You might be able to grow jewelweed longer than I can, since I am farther north (MD zone 7)

Ah, eroush, did I mention the deer problem? Dry shade AND deer.

Seriously, I put some jewelweed in dry shade, and deer aside, they did grow but they have this weird habit of making fertile seed pods without flowers when they are under stress.

The seed pods are lots of fun, and jewelweed is certainly worth a try here and there - easy to get rid of if it doesn't work. A bit tall for a groundcover.

I'm late chiming in on this discussion but I moved to the Eastern Shore of MD and found coast leucothoe growing very well on our property so we added more of that. It is a very attractive shrub, with white spring flowers and is evergreen in our climate. The leaves get reddish in winter. Very underappreciated I would say. I believe it does well in shade or sun but please check it out.

Soloman's Seal(Polygonatum biflorum)does nicely in my dry shade garden. Stays all summer long and turns a lovely yellow-gold in fall, with purple berries. Zig Zag goldenrod does well, too, though it's aggressive. Chelone does well. Foxglove Beardtongue(penstemon digitalis). As mentioned above, ferns, waterleaf, and white snakeroot(Ageratina altissima)do well.

For ground cover, I like Virginia creeper. In my experience, it actually grows faster with a bit of sun. But it will grow just about anywhere and I think it's attractive at least three seasons. And it has berries for birds, etc. in the winter.
Martha

I was surprised that no one else suggested virginia creeper too. It would make a wonderful ground cover, but will want to climb as well-- a little triming will hed it off. much easier to control than english ivy. and no where near as dense. will do well in shade and sun and won't compain about dry either, nice red color in fall nice berries for the birds.

i found some in my nature area last fall, so this year i'm coaxing it to grow up my hickory tree. It sould be ready to shoot up by next year-- i just make sure it doesn't get stepped on, pulled out or grow the wrong direction when i coax.
diggerb