I have lots of shade and some of the plants that do best for me are Cicmicifuga, Ligularia, Pulomnaria, Astilbe, and of course, Hosta.

Linda

My experience in those conditions has been it's not great for ligularia or astilbe.

Lamiums, vinca, and pulmonaria do well in a similar micro-climate in my yard. Also a spreading geranium and false solomon's seal.
Let's see... and a shade rue, bloodroot, ginger, some ferns. There's a shade phlox, too.

How about a sprinkler?
Any of the Solomon Seal/False Solomon Seal do well in shade.
Uvularia, Jack in the Pulpit, Aralias, Actea, Violas. Lots of things like the shade. And can be a good reason to get outside for a few minutes to tend to them.

The Previous Owners, in full drought, had hostas, vinca minor, and spirea on the north side of the house (with large maples, further west, adding more shade).

I want to throw out there, that after having had experience with vinca on a 'larger' scale, I would not plant vinca anywhere! There was a small patch of it in the yard at the house where I live in Michigan (moved from MN) and it has spread. It's over much larger areas now and tends to choke out everything! We pull as much of it as we can every spring, but it just can't seem to be controlled.

Iris cristata is beautiful and once established can take dry shade. The leaves are graceful and lovely and look good all spring/summer/fall.

The many epimediums would be a good choice, I think, along with the suggestion of geraniums (macrorrhizum, maculatum, and others).

Gary

Cut down the damn maple tree. It's just another form of 'weed'.

What maple tree? We can't grow them, as often as I have tried they die! we are dealing with a collection of Oak, Pine, Elm, and I don't know what else.......it's a tree line......about 2 acres worth of trees on the north side of the property. Dry and outside my office window......I would to look at something other than trees once in a while.