Ok, I'll give this a shot - I'm not in your zone, so you would need to check on my suggestions to see if they'd work there. From your list I've done - abelia should do OK in the shade, but the blooms will be sparse and the plant will tend to get leggy. Clethra - also a nice small shrub with pretty yellow fall color, but the blooms are not showy,at least not here. They don't look like the blooms in the Wayside catalog, if you get my drift. From a distance you hardly know there are blooms on it. Mahonia -I love this plant, and it's done extremely well for me since I moved it to an area where it gets more sun. Leatherleaf mahonia is also an option and does well in shade. I have a different loropetalum, but they need part sun or will be very gangly.
Check out cleyera - many varieties, very glossy leaves with reddish new growth. Good in shade.
Aucuba Gold Dust or Picturata - nice bright variegation.
Carissa Holly - very dense - lighter green than most.
Holly Berries Jubilee or Dazzler - large bright red berries in winter. Dark leaves though.
Gulfstream nandina - no berries, non spreading cultivar which will stay more light green in shade, but has some reddish casts to it if it gets some sun. Beautiful airy foliage. One of my favorites.
Aspidistra - cast iron plant. Indestructible here - might not do well in your zone.
Best of luck - hope you get some more suggestions.

Thanks debndal - lots of good info to think about. Abelia is out after much of what I heard, I will plant it somewhere where it will get more sun. I do have Clethra elsewhere in the garden and it does produce lots of flowers for me even in dense shade. I will consider it again for this location.

I am curious about cleyera (Ternstroemia gymnanthera). It looks wonderful but it is a new plant for me. It looks very promising!

Mahonia is definitely on my short list. I never really appreciated it until now. I guess I didn't like the irregular habit but I think now I want to get away from the green meatball syndrome and have more interesting shapes in the garden.

I was somewhat biased against Nandina when I first moved here from the north - every parking lot seemed to sport those dwarf forms that lack the elegance that the species has. The leaves were so - contorted almost and the form so - meatball-like. I do have five species Nandinas that I moved from the front (can you imagine?) of my foundation planting along the sidewalk. They are now flanking my deck which is 8 feet off the grade. I'm fond of them for their airy quality, good fall color and fruits. I'm learning to appreciate them more though they are as common as mud around here. Does Gulfstream have the same airy foliage as the species? If so I can see a place for it.

So I think now I have good choices for the sunnier side of the entrance, the other side does get dappled sunlight until about 10am (which in the summer is about 4 hours of sun), my azaleas do very well there, and I had the large oaks limbed up and thinned last spring so more sun can get in.

For the shadier side, what about dwarf Mountain Laurel and dwarf rhododendron (there are cultivars of each)? Sarcococca hookerana (sweetbox) would be nice. Be aware that Prunus laurocerasus 'Otto Luyken' can get quite big or require a lot of pruning to keep in bounds.

Calycanthus floridus is wonderful, especially if you get the fragrant cultivars like 'Athens' or 'Michael Lindsay'; all parts of the plant are fragrant. Itea virginica is also a winner for me (also some great cultivars, including dwarf ones.

Loropetalum chinense 'Burgundy' will probably not hold as much burgundy color in the shade.

Good luck, I just did a similar re-do to my foundation plants in 2004 - I used mountain laurel, native azaleas, fothergilla, florida anise (too tender for you), mapleleaf viburnums and ferns. Shady perennials fill in the spaces: foamflower, rue anemone, partridge berry, ginger (hexastylis) to name a few. I like natives and we have a similarly woodsy lot.

linrose - the cleyera for me has been a good foundation plant. No pests, moderate to slow growth, easy to maintain at desired height. I have the cultivar Jade Tiara, it stays a bit shorter than most. The gulfstream nandina, in my opinion has even a prettier shape and airier, smaller leaves than the standard and stays shorter. No berries, and mine have not spread like the standard will by underground runners. I don't like the dwarfs much, especially the ones with the fatter crinkly leaves, but they do turn a pretty red in the winter when in full sun. If either does well in your zone, I don't think you would be disappointed.

debndal - I will look into cleyera more closely. And the Gulfsteam nandina.

esh ga, what dwarf cultivars of rhodies and Mt. Laurel are you using? I think Cherry Laurel is out given its propensity to grow huge. Sweetshrub is definitely in - if I can find the cultivar 'Athens' it has a white bloom I think - I don't know 'Michael Lindsay'.

esh ga - do you have any photos of your new foundation plantings? I would be most interested to see what you have done. I really haven't moved past the shrubs yet and need to look at perennials next. So many of these plants are new to me even though they may be commonplace in the south.

Thanks all!

linnie

I have the mountain laurel 'Elf'. It is so petite! I've heard that 'Minuet' is also good. I don't have any dwarf rhododendrons, but Monrovia has one called Rhododendron x 'Scarlet Wonder Dwarf' and there are apparently others.

'Athen' has a yellow-green colored bloom. Call around to your better nurseries. 'Michael Lindsay' has the usual red bloom. Apparently both spellings of Lindsey/Lindsay seem to be found.

I do have some pictures, but not on line. Email me through GW and I can send some to you.

Here is a link that might be useful: 'Michael Lindsey'

Up where you are try PJM Rhodos. I like the purple foliage in the wintertime, and the early bloom (for Rhodos). I also like Dora Amateis. A rarer Azalea with some fall color, and semi-deciduous, is the Rhododendron yedoense poukanense. It is lavender in bloom. I never met one I didn't like. Blueberries have great fall color. So do Oakleaf Hydrangeas. Bottlebrush Buckeyes are glorious in bloom, but need to be on the sunnier side. They are not for real shade; they don't read Dr. Dirr's books. Try the Witch Hazels like Copper Beauty for winter blooms. Some are fragrant too. I might be wrong, but I don't think you can grow Ternstroemia in your zone. In captivity Mountain Laurels spot badly in the shade (similar to Black Spot on roses). They can handle alot more sun than people think, however. Fothergilla is a great idea. Plant in front of a dark background like evergreens or you can miss the pre-leafout white blooms. I would make sure Cimicifuga get into the perennial mix. I really wish they would grow well where I live! Oh, and I almost forgot - Pieris are beautiful in shade.

Hi all, I'm revisiting this post to let you know how my new foundation bed has come along.

Here are some photos taken after the installation

All in all, 38 different plants went into it with a total number of plants at about 114, and this is just the left side of the front door. The dogwood was existing, everything else is new.

So far I'm thrilled with the results, But I've had to correct some mistakes I made, like mulching too close to the plants. After the rains finally came I noticed some wilting, a sure sign of crown rot so I pulled the mulch off of all the plants. I lost a few Dicentra and a couple of anemones before I took action, but that's not too bad. Heucheras are famously susceptible so I made sure they were OK first.

I'll check back in later with progress reports, and to tell you about the renovated bed to the right of the front door - I took some chances there.

That's absolutely BEAUTIFUL! What a stunning home! You can be so proud!

Have no understanding of your zone at all...will all these plants disappear under snow in winter and pop up again next spring?

The path between the beds makes for a very nice effect. Looking forward to the right side ....

Socks - thanks! As for snow, we typically get one "big" snowfall a year, one or two inches, which melts in a few days. All of the plants are either shrubs or perennials so will all come back next year. I do have some evergreens for winter interest.

esh - I like the path too - it was our first attempt at laying stone, but it was a lot of fun - like piecing a puzzle together. We used a sand base to set the stone and a mallet to sort of shape some of the stones to fit. Originally we placed sand between the joints but there was too much slope and it washed out in our heavy rains so we replaced it with fine bark mulch. I hesitate to use gravel because I've had bad experiences with it and the mulch blends in with the mulch in the beds. Anyhoo, the path serves two purposes. One, my dog likes to race out the door and cut the corner to the field when I let her out in the morning, thus trampling my plants, and two, it breaks up the large planting bed making it easier for me to weed and water and creates a visual break as well. As the garden grows outward from the house we will eventually extend the path toward the backyard.

If anyone cares, here is the plant palette I used:

Shrubs-
Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum
Juniperus chinensis 'Old Gold'
Calycanthus floridus 'Athens'
Spirea japonica 'Lemon Princess'
Clethra 'Hummingbird'
Sarcococca hookerana var. humilis
Itea virginica 'Merlot'
Cornus alba 'Cream Cracker'

Perennials-

Anemone 'Max Vogel'
Astilbe 'Ostrich Plume'
Brunnera 'Hapsden Cream'
Clematis 'Bourbon'
Dicentra eximia 'King of Hearts'
Heuchera 'Amethyst Mist'
Heuchera 'Plum Pudding'
Heuchera 'Silver Indiana'
Heucherella 'Strike It Rich'
Hosta 'Blue Angel'
Hosta 'Fragrant Bouquet'
Hosta 'Francee'
Hosta 'Guacamole'
Hosta 'Halcyon'
Hosta 'Minuteman'
Hosta 'Royal Standard'
Hosta 'So Sweet'
Hosta 'Sum and Substance'
Lamium 'Anne Greenaway'
Lysymachia
Polemonium (variegated) 'Stairway to Heaven'
Pulmonaria 'Mrs. Moon'
Tiarella 'Stargazer Mercury'

Ferns-
Athyrium felix-femina 'Lady In Red'- Lady fern
Dryopteris felix-mas - Male fern

Creepers between stones-
Pratia pedunculata - Little Star
Leptinella gruveri - Miniature Brass Buttons
Hydrocotyle sibthorpiodes - Vaiegated pennywort

It looks great-I really love your plant choices! Some of the plants that were suggested, I'd like to second. When I ripped out the horribly overgrown Japanese hollies in my front foundation bed, I used 3 'Winter's Star' camellias as a base. I love them, they're open & arching, not too formal, but the blooms, single pink/white that almost looks like a wild rose, are gorgeous, blooming when not much else is, & the evergreen foliage is great year- round. I'd also try to squeeze in daphne (close to the entrance, because of the amazing fragrance), osmanthus 'Goshiki' (slow growing, but stunning), oakleaf hydrangea (maybe a dwarf variety). I've also just planted a dwarf loropetalum, 'Daruma', we'll see if it overwinters for me in 7a & another itea yunnanense, which was evergreen for me last year. These are small plants purchased from Lazy S's Nursery.

I have some nandina along the back fence, western exposure, but at the nursery, there's another variety, I think it's filifera, that I lust after. I just need to find a more shelterd location for it. Also, I like aucuba, aspidistra, rohdea japonica (which my neighbor thinks is an evergreen hosta), trycyrtis, epimedium, hellebores, & heucheras. Hope you're enjoying your new plantings!

Hi again!
Well, here's the other side of the foundation - not as striking a change as I had to work around two existing Japanese maples, 6 evergreen azaleas - 'Renee Michelle' and 'Glacier', two yews and 7 Helleri hollies. I decided to keep the yews that were away from the foundation and had a nice soft form, and some of the hollies along the sidewalk for edgers, also the variegated Liriope was existing.

The biggest change was removing all the overgrown hollies and yews by the house wall. I added some other shrubs - but planted them much farther out from the wall to allow for growth and air circulation. I can now access the windows and my water spigot. The plants I added are:

Shrubs-
Kalmia latifolia 'Olympic Fire' -2
Leucothoe fontanesiana 'Rainbow'
Pieris x 'Brouwer's Beauty' -2
Aucuba japonica variegata - 3

Perennials-
Helleborus 'Royal Heritage'
Hosta 'Sagae'
Heuchera 'Amethyst Mist'
Lysimachia
Tiarella 'Stargazer Mercury'

This side of the foundation is shadier than the other so I limited my palette somewhat. I will probably add some flowering edgers around the liriope and hollies for color. The main foliage colors now are the burgundies of the Japanese maples and the heucheras, the chartreuse/golds of the liriope, the variegation on the aucubas and new foliage on the azaleas, and the dark greens of the hollies, yews and hellebores. The Rainbow leucothoe adds interest with its tri-color variegation in the darkest corner by the front door.

It's difficult to get a good overall picture but here's an attempt:

It's beautiful! I hope you post follow-up pictures as it matures, I'd love to see it in three years.
Enjoy!
rt

That's lovely. The contrast in foliage is beautiful.

Something you might like with the choices you've made: sky pencil holly. They stay very narrow (about a foot across), have leaves like helleri and give you a chance to put a contrasting shape just where you want it to stay.

Time for an update? :-)

pm2

Hello again all, yes thanks pm2 - I guess it is time for an update! After a late spring with much rain and cold in March, we are starting to dry out and get some sun and warmth. The daffodils are right on schedule, with the dogwoods maybe just a few days behind normal. The blooms are still a bit greenish but in a few days the hillsides will be glorious with white. The redbuds have been out for a week or so now, I just planted one in the front yard, even though we are surrounded by them in the woods, I just love them. There are bluebird eggs in the box on the top of the hill and today is in the 70s so all is right with the world!

Because we've had such a long cold wet spring it's been hard to get into the gardens, especially with our clay. I dug out cannas I wanted to divide yesterday and they came up with clods of wet clay attached. Still a bit early to do serious digging. The front shade bed however was easier to dig because of all the compost I added last year so I did add some early color that it really needed. 'Chattahoochee' phlox and 'Woodside Gold' columbine went in to replace the anemones I lost last year to insects. The combination of tiny light pink flowers of pulmonaria, the baby blue of the brunnera, blue with a purple eye on the phlox, and pink and purple columbine make a lovely spring show. I had to watch where I dug however because some of the hostas are so slow to emerge and I risk digging into them. I have to remember to plant some bulbs around them so I don't forget where they are.

As to the shrub changes, I moved the Itea to the woods garden after I realized it would take over and sucker in this small garden space. I replaced it with a Chamaecyparis Gold Mop which grows very slowly and will provide that gold foliage I'm looking for. The Sarcococca is kind of sitting there, it looks like it got a bit of tip burn, this area gets winter sun so it may not be happy with that. I never did get the flowers in January, unless I missed them. The Calycanthus is forming flower buds, I can't wait to see, and especially smell them. The clethra is still thinking about leafing out, it is alway late to do so. The spirea and the cornus are leafed out and came through fine, the loropetalum suffered some leaf dieback, but I just picked off the brown leaves and it is now leafing out to the tips. I may have lost the flowerbuds but I don't know yet, this is a new plant for me so it might just surprise me yet. I may have to move it if it gets too big which I'm finding out may be the case. I had to remove the large Foster's holly at the corner of the house as it was too close to the foundation and was beginning to heave and crack the brick so I lost some midday shade. I may move the loropetalum there and replace it with a shrub cutleaf japanese maple or maybe just some perennials. The Old Gold juniper is close by and will probably need the room eventually. I didn't know what to expect with the loropetalum as far as hardiness or size so I just plopped it in and am waiting to see. It's a great plant, the leaf color is terrific and if it blooms I'll get a great mass of bright pink.

On the other side I had success with a large Kalmia Olympic Fire but a smaller one I planted next to it is not looking great. The Rainbow leucothoe is suffering as well, I did know they are fussy as to conditions so it may get the heave-ho. The pieris are doing fine as are the acuba. I lost all my azaleas to the Easter freeze last year, I had hoped they would bounce back but I'm going to have to dig them out and replace them. I did get rid of a large yew and replaced it with a Viburnum 'Conoy' which made it through the winter in fine shape and is forming flower buds now. It kept about half its foliage over the winter. It should eventually take the place of the yew and the strugging kalmia. I may add another one instead of replacing the three Glacier azaleas I lost and just replacing the Renee Michelle azaleas in front of it. By far my greatest joy has been the hellebores I added around the two Japanese maples. They have doubled in size and have been blooming since February. Last year they kept blooming into the summer and the foliage is evergreen. I can't say enough good things about them.

As for the ferns, the lady ferns are up and the male ferns are thinking about it. I'll probably move the lady ferns to the woods garden, they are just so fragile and in late summer get a bit tattered, so not the best choice for a front garden. The male ferns were sturdy and held up well last year, but are a bit uninteresting. I'll probably replace them with Japanese painted ferns this year. I have quite a few in my back garden and they have done very well and provide that purple color I love. They are a bit more spready though where I could use some more height.

I snapped a few photos yesterday of my fav plant combos in the shade bed. The dogwood is the crowning glory!

Heuchera 'Amethyst Mist' and lysymachia

Pulmonaria 'Mrs Moon' and 'Silver Indiana' heuchera

Heuchera 'Frosted Violet' and Hellebore 'Royal Heritage'

Heucherella 'Stoplight' and Asian ginger

Pulmonaria 'Mrs Moon' and lysymachia

Unfurling leaves of 'Minuteman' hosta

Columbines

Edging tapestry

Phlox 'Chattahoochie' and Pulmonaria

That is beautiful!! I need a dogwood.

Beautiful pictures, linrose! It's all coming along nicely.

But as someone that lives near the Chattahoochee River, I'd have to say that the Phlox's cultivar name is 'Chattahoochee'!
What a beautiful plant.

The garden has grown in a bit more now that spring is in full swing. The hostas are up and the clematis is blooming. That 'Chattahoochee' phlox (sorry about the misspelling - I guess I was thinking hoochie-coochie!) is still in bloom! It is a beautiful plant and quickly becoming one of my favorites. It is a naturally occuring hybrid between the natives P. divaricata var laphamii x P. pilosa.

I'm really amazed at the 'Bourbon' clematis I planted in a slightly sunnier spot in the garden. The color is not to be believed. I was a bit skeptical on how bright is may be compared to the softer colors of the rest of the garden but surprisingly it complements the bright pinkish purple undersides of the heuchera leaves perfectly. I don't usually go for such an ostentatious display but I love it! It's a patio clem so it only gets about 4' high, I had an obelisk that was sitting around with nothing on it, so I stuck it there as an afterthought. That clem was sitting in the bargain bin at Lowes so I rescued it. I thought it had perished but it surprised me.

I'm going to have to move some things around as the shrubs grow in and those 'Sum and Substance' and 'Blue Angel' hostas take over but I do that to all my gardens anyway. I need that instant gratification of a full look right away, especially in the front. I even started to doubt myself, thinking there may be too much going on in this small space but I kinda like the tapestry look of it all. I'm good at second-guessing. Luckily it's easy to change things around when you are working mostly with perennials and small shrubs.

I stuck my camera out my bedroom window to get some overall shots that look pretty cool. You can get some of the "tapestry" idea from these birdseye views.

And some overall from the ground.
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Bourbon clematis - knockout color!
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I'm still working on the other side of the front door. I've removed all my dying azaleas and replace two of them, and added another Viburnum 'Conoy' and some more hellebores. Everything is a bit tiny right now but I'm not going to overcrowd it as this area is mostly shrubs. It's a work in progress. I'll be back with updates!

Linda

Hey Linda

What can I say but awsome!!!!!!!! You rock!

I just love seeing this ongoing transformation. You have the garden touch, for sure. Everything is stunning...I love it.
Keep giving updates please.

Thanks guys! Here's a couple of shots of my big hostas in this bed, now that they've grown in.

Sum and Substance
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Blue Angel

This has been a great year for the garden.

What a change! So much more interesting and attractive, and I love the stone pathway - very inspirational!

How do you keep track of all of those scientific names? I am happy just to know the common names of my plants.

Absolutely inspirational! I'd love to know how it has grown in the last two years - time for an update!