If you think beyond flowers, you can have a lot of "color" in full shade. Heuchera foliage comes in many diffent shades, including peach, yellow, and burgundy. Lots of yellow foliaged things grow in shade, including Hakonechloa, Tricyrtis, Lamium, perennial geraniums and columbine. There are dark purple/black foliaged Cimicifugas, dark leaved Viola labradorica and Heucherella "Burnished Bronze." There are new annual coleus that are so amazing with color and patterns. Ferns with silver and red or purple in them light up an area. Brunneras and Hostas add blue, as well as Phlox divaricata.

sure it can

my home faces north and i have a 4'x 30' flowerbed

i've got several of those things listed above as well as elephant ears, astilbes, hydrangeas, ferns and hostas

theres all kinds of plants you can use........i even have some lillies that do well in dappled shade