I can't believe you have a zone 7 there. In my shade I have;
Ligularia,Holly,Columbine,Pachy,Chocolate Eupatorium,Hydrangea,Kerria,Cranberry Bush,Ferns
With good soil and management they all do well.
I know where Oxford is - they should have sandy soil there.
Al

lesee...Heuchera, Tiarela, Heucherela, Brunnera, Pulmonaria, Astilbe, Galium, Vinca minor, Dicentra, ah.................+oM

I don't have much shade, but the few areas that I do have, have ferns, Lilly of the Valley, Bleeding Hearts (need just small amounts of sun) and potted impatiens for splashes of color.

My medium-deep shade (under Maple trees)...ferns, bleeding hearts, lily of the valley, Cranesbill Geranium, Jacob's Ladder and Balsam Impatiens.

Partial - medium shade...coneflowers, chrysanthemums, daylilies, iris, ajuga (sp), columbine, sweet woodruff, creeping jenny, goat's beard (I think).

Some things I may sacrafice a few blooms because of the amount of shade but the little touches of color here and there are worth it.

Copper

I have heuchera, astilbe, ferns, impatiens, begonias and Lily of the Valley in my fully shaded areas.

In my partly shaded areas (considerably more shade than sun) I've had great luck with mums, columbine, and clematis.

Copperlilac, how do you grow ferns under maples? With the maples' shallow roots, mine get so dry they barely survive.

Mostly shade: bishop's weed, ferns, lily-of-the-valley, sweet William, lady's slipper, hen-and-chicks, columbine, dicentra. This is a rock garden along either side of the walk-out basement. On top where the sun hits, it's all daylillies. I love this zero maintenance garden!

MadisonKathy said,"Copperlilac, how do you grow ferns under maples? With the maples' shallow roots, mine get so dry they barely survive."

I did build up the soil a bit under that maple tree...compost, bunny manure and leaves. I think that helped a bit.

The ferns I put in are still small. I don't know what type they are...but they're tough. We'll see how they do in 2006, I suppose.

I did water extra under the tree...that part of the yard is dry to begin with so even the hostas planted there needed the extra moisture.

I'm going to have to take notes. My yard is almost all shade. Algae even grows on the north side of the garage .
:( We also built a deck - never gave it a thought about creating MORE shade - we now have to wash the algae off the concrete under the deck now. Seems like everything is always damp. (and it's also kinda smelly on certain days ... yuck !)

Toomuchglass--why not create a fern and moss garden? No maintenance, and so pretty.

Sounds great to me !

I've got one--all ferns, rocks, moss, bishop's weed. I don't have to do a thing and it always looks great. I do have a few touchs of color: sweet William, columbine, hostas. It's a rock garden that comprises the 2 slopes leading out from the basement walk out below our front deck facing north. We installed the sloping rock walls to retain the sandy soil that was eroding terribly. As we placed the rocks we made planting pockets and plugged in native ferns we dug from our woods, along with a few spreaders like the bishop's weed and the stuff spread and filled the whole thing in. I wish all my flower beds were this maintenance free, LOL.

Constance.

Hellebores! They do better in bright than deep shade.

Hi Seneca,
What part of Wisconsin will you be moving to? There are a lot of great ideas listed here already, but beware if you are moving to northern WI. Some of them are not hardy here.
Catrina

In my deep shade I have tons of ferns, hostas, lily of the valley, lots of tigerlilies, jack-in-the-pulpits, a nice bleeding heart, and I put in colorful impatients that seem to thrive very well. I also have 2 hydrangeas and 2 rhododendrens I planted last year. I've tried japanese ferns and pinks, but they didn't do so well. I put in a holly 3 yrs ago, and it is doing well. I just keep experimenting with different shade tolerant plants to find the ones that like it in my shade garden. Good luck to you.

Hi seneca_

Can you tell us which plants you have that you would like to bring back? If you give us a list we can all let you know if we've had experience growing them here. What zone will you be in? You can many times push the zone by one if you are careful about placement.

It'd be zone 4 I believe... I don't have a list together. I'm wintersowing, so anything I can start from seed would be good for me to take. Doing columbines, that seems like a safe bet.