I think its a great list. I'm copying it!

I had an unnamed lobelia that may have been Monet Moment til the voles ate most of that bed. It was great and flowered lasted a longtime. The color was electric but worked well with its neighbors.

I have not heard of Phyllitis. Sounds very cool. I just googled it for zone info and found one Z6 reference and two Z5's.

I'm only familiar with darmera peltata and rodgersia, and they're both great plants for part shade. My rodgersia isn't the same variety, as far as I recall; actually I have a couple of species (R. pinnata, which is what Fireworks is, and R. aesculifolia, maybe more ...) and I like them all.

The photo of darmera doesn't do the flowers justice. I first spotted mine in bloom when I was checking to see if it had survived its first winter. The flowers looked like globe alliums - not sprays of red but tight pink balls on fat stems. My guess is that WFF's photo was taken later in the season, when the leaves were mature, so you could see the plant itself better. By the way, I've killed a few of these, they really like a soggy spot, which I don't have. My current plant is in a sort of trench I dug out for it, to catch runoff from the surrounding garden.

LOL - World Wrestling Federation? World Wildlife Fund? I am laughing because I see the same mistake over and over. The fingers must do this automatically!

Fun picks. I always like to see what other people pick when given a free rein. I will have to investigate when I have more time.

What a nice bunch of plants, with both interesting and varied foliage as well as some lovely and unusual flowers. I don't have experience with any of the shade garden varieties, so I can't help much, except to say that I've grown a couple of kinds of cardinal flower, both straight species and named varieties, and all were quite short-lived. Maybe let some of them go to seed so there is continuation.

Are you looking for color matches to your butter & sugar iris with your two yellow plants? The Amsonia has blue flowers and only has that lovely golden foliage color in the fall. The fine-texture of the foliage should be a good contrast to the iris and Trollius foliage when they aren't blooming, so it will be a good multiseason combination. I really like the color of the Trollius blossoms, so much more appealing to me than the more typical orange.

Have you gotten a catalogue from them yet? I haven't, and since I haven't ordered for many years, I wonder if I've fallen off their mailing list. It's always beautifully put together.

nhbabs - The Amsonia will actually go between the butter and sugar iris and a baptisia. I'm not sure if the blooms will be at the same time, but if they are the whole area will be a nice blue and yellow combo, I hope. The foliage contrast was an added bonus once the flowers are gone.

Have you received the catalogue. It was very nicely done this year.

Thank you all for the input. I'm excited by the list and can't wait to finally flesh out my shade garden this fall. I'm a little worried by the high water requirement for some of the plants, but it's not a big section, so I am hoping I can keep on top of it.

Lisa