Hi,

Let me give you a few ideas.

Walk around your neighborhood, and see what other people are growing. If you see something you like, don't be shy, knock on the door and ask what it is.

Try to find a local arboretum or botanical garden. Theres a bunch in North Jersey, Frelinghuysen in Morris County is my favorite. There is also the New York and NJ Botanical Gardens. Take a walk around and see what you like and don't like. You will probably have to go several times to see what is blooming at different times of year.

Take a trip to your local garden center and see what they are selling. If they sell it, chances are it will do well in your area.

You also want to consider whether deer resistance is a problem.

Some of the garden shows on TV often show a lot of interesting plants

ALso there are some nice pre-done plans on BHG.com. They are for a variety of different light conditions

Last not but not least.... All of these are nice, easy to grow plants, that give off lots of flowers and come back every year.

spring bulbs daffodills, tulips

Irises

Day Lillies

Echinacea

Rudbeckia

Coreopsis

Hosta, not really flowering, but lots of nice foliage.

Hope this helps

Dave

The easiest flower bed to maintain in my garden is a combination of daylilies and daffodils. The daffs bloom beautifully in the spring, they are then followed by the new growth of the daylilies, which mask the dying foliage of the daffodils in early summer. Then you get the daylilies to bloom. You could get a mix of daylily varieties in order to stretch the bloom season as long as possible. To make your life easy, you can order this combination from White Flower Farm; they ship it in the fall.
I added alliums (blooming onions) and irises to fill in the blooming period between daffodils and daylilies, as well as some zinnias that I replant each year to have flowers from late summer until fall.