Ive a shade garden with many colours. You can get astilbes in white and in shades of pinks. Veronica candelabras are blue. Coral bells produce dainty pink sprays. Sweet woodruff produces white (but is invasive). I also like bruneras which give tiny blue flowers. Primulas also produce pinks and yellows. Coneflowers will work in part shade conditions. Another clematis could also make things interesting.

Some nice ideas above. Others to consider: Lady's mantle, Solomon's seal, pulmonaria, sweet white violet, ginger. Epimediums are hardy and lovely plants in the shade, producing tiny flowers in spring that hover over the foliage on thin, dark, almost invisible stems. These are gems you can appreciate only from up close, so I plant strategically. Tiarella. Cimicifuga racemosa for the back of the bed. Hardy geranium can take part shade, as can some daylilies and tradescantia ('Sweet Kate' has not been invasive in my garden). I love the fern-leaf bleeding heart, dicentra eximia; it blooms longer than the d. spectabilis, reblooms in the fall, is native to our area and somewhat deer resistant. Foxglove and great blue lobelia can provide some strong vertical accents, and the great blue lobelia is great for native beneficials and pollinators. Don'f forget to add some "bones" for winter: Leucothoe is a nice low-growing broad-leaf evergreen that does well in shade. Some deciduous, flowering understory trees & shrubs are redbud, fothergilla, clethra alnifolia. I'm sure I'm leaving out lots of good plant material. Oh, and spring bulbs ... they're usually finished by the time the leaves of deciduous trees are casting any significant shade, and I wouldn't make it through winter without my snowdrops.

I see you're in zone 4, whereas I'm in 7, so I would advise checking the winter hardiness of the plants I mentioned.

Hi LL!
I agree with most of agardenstateof_mind said. Except I would be careful if buying Epimedium, as there are many kinds that are not hardy in z4. And the golden 'Sweet Kate' spiderwort isn't hardy for you (mine hasn't done great even). Tiarella are wonderful, and I love the Polygonatum (solomon's seal). Does good in dry shade. The flowers (pendulous white bells) are not flashy, but I love them.
Brunnera is also a great shade plant. Very hardy. Has sprays of forget-me-not like flowers in spring. The cultivar 'Jack Frost' has silver variegated foliage.
Perennial Geraniums are one of my favorites. Many kinds do well in shady spots.

I should have starts of most of those in the spring, so let me know then if you are interested. ;-)
CMK

Thank you all for your input!

Ianna- Veronica candelabras sound interesting. I have some coral bells, but they're the red ones that like more sun, but my Mom has the purple leaf ones with the little off-white flowers. I would love to add some pink ones.

Agardenstateof mind- sweet white violet sounds pretty and ginger? The kind you can use for spice or another kind? Also, how hardy is great blue lobelia or is it an annual?

CMK- Any plant with little white bells sounds like a nice choice. Perennial geranium-is that the purple flower I saw on your picture? That was a very pretty flower and I'd love to have a start of that. Brunnera sounds pretty too. Let me know when it's a good time to transplant next spring, I'd love to get some starts :) Thank you!

gardenstate, we have epimedium in my zone - which really is a US zone 4. The purple ones are called heucheras which I have plenty of.

BTW, I also have rhododendrons in pink colours.

I would love to do rhododendrons and azaleas in the shade garden, but I can't plant either one. They're very toxic to horses, as are mountain laurel and yews. While the horses are in the pasture, it's right up by the house and I don't want to take any chances that one of the younger ones might get out and munch through my garden :)

Since I also have nieces, nephews and several barn kitties, I also try to stay away from foxglove, lily of the valley and anything else highly toxic. Between non-toxic, deer resistant and zone 4, I seem to have an ever narrowing selection of plants. Even then, I don't seem to have room for all the ones I'd like to try :)

LL- Some toad lilies and lenten rose are hardy to Z4. I like the toad lilies because they are blooming now. Lenten rose blooms very early in the season. Some fall blooming anemones are good in Z4. Ligularia is also really nice in the shade.

Do you get much snow where you are? Or can you see evergreen perennials during the winter. European ginger is a nice evergreen. Z4 may be pushing it though.

I think the above are deer resistant (I've never had any deer eat any of mine) but I don't know about toxicity. I wonder if there is a link between what deer don't eat and toxicity???

Thyme- I have read that there are many toxic plants that deer seem to avoid, like foxglove. I don't know how true that is, since I don't plant many toxic plants. Deer (and horses too) seem to avoid several weeds in the pasture and fields. Usually adult horses only eat "bad" weeds if they're cut up into their hay, not out in the open field. However, younger horses, or any animal that is too hungry, might try plants they would usually avoid. One article I saw said that horses have died in many areas around the country after "helpful neighbors" decided to feed them left-over trimmings from oleanders or yews.

Lenten rose sounds interesting. What is ligularia? Also, does anyone know if bleeding hearts (fern-leaf or otherwise) are toxic? I've seen mixed reviews on this. Thanks for all the suggestions!

Hi LL!
There are different levels of toxicity depending on the plant. Many common things are posonous, but only if ingested in large amounts. Then there are other plants that are highly posonous in even small amounts. Helleborus (Lenten Rose)and Aconitum (monkshood) for instance.

Yes, that blue/purple flowering plant in my pic is indeed a perennial geranium. I won't have that exact one to give you, but I do have plenty of others, plus some other things ;-) I will e-mail you with more info soon!
CMK

You may find the website linked below helpful. You can click on "Find - by common name" for info and pictures, or on "Commonly Affected Species" and choose the animal you are concerned about. Unfortunately, dicentra (fern-leaf bleeding heart) is on the list of plants toxic to horses.

Great blue lobalia (lobelia siphilitica) is native to the lower 48 states and Canada. It is a perennial and will self-seed (unless you deadhead) as well as grow small new plants at the base. Lobelia cardinalis is in the same family, but has clear, bright red flowers that are very attractive to hummingbirds.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden has a good article on epimedium at http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/plants/2007sp_epimedium.html. Epimedium and heuchera are different plants; epi's are in the berberidaceae family of plants, while heucheras are in the saxifragaceae. Do a google search for some photos of these little gems.

Hellebores (Christmas and Lenten rose) are great plants, providing very early bloom. There are some great cultivars out now, but I especially like the foliage of the helleborus foetidus, which provide a strong, healthy mound of dark green leaves through summer and into winter ( well, here, anyway).

I have one native ginger in my garden, and one Asian. The Asian variety has a nice silvery frosted pattern on the leaves, but there's something special (for me) about having the native variety. You will have to check, since some varieties are tropicals.

You do have a lot of factors to take into consideration in planning your shade garden. Do you have a botanical garden or horticultural park nearby? Either of these might have a horticultural library, which would be a real help to you. If your state has a native plant society, they may be of some help, also your County Extension office. By the time you are finished with your research and planning, you may be able to tell us about a few great plants you've discovered that we've overlooked!

Here is a link that might be useful: Cornell U., Dept. of Animal Science, Plants Poisonous to Livestock