Here is an idea prompted by your willingness to have potted plants. Would you be willing to have those pots somewhere sunny at first and move them to the shady location as they begin to bloom? There may be many more options this way.

I have a very shady area that this far north, still gets about an hour of summer sunshine, very early in the morning. After that, essentially nothing. There are lady fern, bleeding heart and coral bells there.

On the north side of an earlier home, there was about 1 hour of sun very late in the day along with that morning sunlight. Besides the coral bells, I had columbines and bergenia. I also planted Torenia and Salpiglossis there. They bloomed but were not very showy. NonStop Begonia did better but didn't have a very long bloom period. (That would be one I think would work well in a container that could be moved from the sun, to the shade.)

Steve

Hi LanaBear,

Are you looking for perennials? If so check out:

Hosta - a kazillion varieties!
Hardy ferns - several possibilities
Geraniums, some can be invasive (not the "red" annual "geraniums" which are really Pelargoniums!)
Solomon's Seal, Polygonatum - I like the variegated one!
Jacob's Ladder, Polemonium
Globeflower, Trollius
Primrose, Primula
Bluebellls, Mertensia virginica
Bleeding Heart, Dicentra - Old Fashioned (spectabilis - summer dormant!) or Everblooming (formosa)
False forget-me-not, Brunnera
Dead Nettle, Lamium maculatum, groundcover, I like 'Pink Pewter' which has soft pink flowers!
Bergenia, as Digit mentioned

Tall ones that might need staking or caging to help with the wind!
Thalictrum
Meadowsweet, Filipendula
Goatsbeard, Aruncus

There are more but those are some of the ones I like! And I'd recommend planting them directly in the ground--with improved soil if you have some sort of Colorado Clay!

All my columbine and coral bells get at least some sun, ranging from an hour to several hours, but they are supposed to be "shade plants," and it sounds like it's working for Digit!

If you just want to stick some annuals in pots, Digit mentioned a couple of them and there are also Impatiens, Lobelia, Fuchsia, Pansies/Violas, several different kinds of Begonias, Coleus, Browallia, and probably more I'm not thinking of--I'm not much into annuals!

Hope that at least gives you some ideas!

Welcome to RMG,
Skybird