In addition, this garden ONLY gets evening sun, for about 4 hours.
Thanks Again, Heather

4 hours of EVENING sun could hardly qualify for the shade garden, more likely part-sun plants will thrive there, but given your sandy soil you have to water them regularly...

I have sandy soil and have a dickens of a time with astilbes, the soil just dries out too fast even in shade with amendments. Don't understand about you failing with Hostas and Bleeding hearts though. I grown foxglove successfully and there are plenty of our native asters that will do fine. Evening-late afternoon part sun is the hardest I think, because it is the hottest. I would like to hear from others what grows well in that situation around our zone.

I don't know if these are hardy for you, but they can stand somewhat dry partial shade: daylilies, asiatic lilies, helleborus foetidus, lamium (groundcover), liriope, some sedges (others need moisture), vinca (groundcover), and even some spring ephemerals such as trillium, once established. Hope some of these might overwinter for you.

Julia

I have found Hardy Ageratum will grow in dry shade. As a matter of fact, it will grow in sun, part sun, you name it. It is drought tolerant and can become invasive if not controlled. I understand some people consider it a weed, but I think it is pretty and easy enough to keep under control. Blooms in late summer/fall which brightens things up. Daylilies and Liriope work for me also.

I have had trouble growing daylilies in both poor soil and mostly shady areas. One or the other they will tolerate quite well, but a combination of both is very hard on them. The foliage on my daylilies in that situation grows up every year, but I have never had a bloom on them, or even a scape, and they do not mulitply and grow as large as the ones I have in sun and/or good soil. On another note, for some early season color, columbines do tolerate shade well, and you might also try jacobs ladder, black eyed susans, purple coneflower, eunonymous, rhododendron, and azalea.

Ferns might work too. Many of the Dryopteris and Polystichums tolerate pretty dry conditions. Although usually that's in dry acidic soil; I don't know whether sandy soil is acidic. Soil pH might have something to do with other successes and failures too, I suppose.