I had pretty much the same as you did under red and white oak, black gum and cherry.My false solomans seal and dwarf iris did well and of course the vinca.everything did abt as you said.
i did'nt water alot.
I noticed my grape hycynth(not spelled right)leaves are coming up.
Have you had any rose bushes do well in the shade. I've got one thats doing good and two others i'm not sure about yet.
vickie

Don't worry about your daffs in the woods. They don't need to be fed and they don't need to be watered to survive for YEARS! They simply go dormant the end of June and return the following Jan-Feb. (Actually they prefer to be dry while they are dormant.) The only thing that slows them down is getting too crowded. They have to be dug and thinnned about every five years or they will stop blooming well, although you will still have plenty of foliage. I have some in my woods that have been there for 25 years. I had about the same experience as you had with other shade plants in my yard under Red Oak trees. Had to water the hydrangea the most as I hate wilted leaves. Hostas bloomed but blister beetles are worse in the heat. My cinnamon ferm died back, but it does every summer. It will be back next spring. Same for the native maidenhair. The astilbe disappeared. Don't know if it will come back, but I hope so. Same with the Hellebore. The varigated Solomon Seal is next to the Hydrangea, so looked good all summer, but the native a little further away died away. It will come back though. I have lily of the vally under a redbud tree which has been there for 20 years. I don't water it but it gets a little run off the house. Had to water the azaleas and rhodies often, as well as the camellias but they are blooming now. I have a couple old fashioned spirea that I water and some that I never water and they've lived for over 20 years but don't bloom as well. Same for forsythia and mock orange and Kerria--Have some I never water except for the first 2-3 years. AFter that they're on their own. Have others I do water so I won't lose them all. I have a row of daylilies in shade under a black walnut that I never water and they always bloom well--10 years now. Same with tigerlilies under a redbud tree--get morning sun. Our native spring ephemerals--bloodroot, woodland phlox, dwarf iris, anemone, columbine, hepatica, trout lily, Dutchman's breetch's all do fine without water in the summer as they simply go dormant and revive the next spring early. And I never water liriope or vinca minor and both have survived for 15 years. Also have a row of bearded iris in shade under oak and walnut which I never water and which bloom but not as well as those in the garden which I water once or twice over the summer, but also which never get fungus or rot. I have a sedum that I pulled out of the woods years ago that survives without added water and blooms in June. If our summers stay this hot and dry we're all going to be xeriscaping I think. Good Luck Dorothy @ Mulberry Knob

Dorothy, Thank you for the nice list of plants! I've sifted through the shade chapter of the xeriscape book put out by the denver water department. Most of them are not suited to our hot summers, but I found a couple I might try. One that looked interesting was mahonia repens. In the Oklahoma books mahonias are mentioned but they don't seem to be as drought tolerant here. Have you tried them?

Have you tried heuchera? They are beautiful plants. Colebrook had a nice selection this spring and I didn't buy any.

I put in a couple of forsythia this spring and they seem tough. I did water them, infrequently and deeply, and hope they will get established. I can't afford to keep watering like I did last summer. I haven't tried hellebore but I plan to. Agree with the old fashioned spirea; you can't kill them, even in the clay and sandstone. In my first post I said nothing grows under red cedar. I was wrong. I forgot about spirea.