With a lot of shade, you will want to concentrate on texture and contrast in the shapes of your plants to give your landscape interest. If your shade is from trees other than evergreens or live oaks, you will be able to plant some cool season flowers like pansies and spring blooming bulbs such as daffodils and leucojum (these resemble lily of the valley which I am sure you are familiar with being from up north, but they don't have the scent). If you live in Collin County, they are having a bulb sale and here is a link with information on bulbs. If not, the flier does have some nice pictures with descriptions so you will know what to look for for spring blooming bulbs.

Anyway, back to varying textures and such. Think of southern wood ferns with purple leaf oxalis or native coral bells - Heuchera 'Americana'. You have finely cut leaves next to smooth or rounded leaves and even different color of foliage. There are varieties of sun coleus that will do well in the shade in the summer as annuals to give you more colorful foliage. Impatiens will also grow in light shade for warm season color as annuals.

Also check out www.txsmartscape.com for ideas for plants that grow in the shade. It has a plant search engine where you can tell it you want plants that grow in the shade, drought tolerant, etc. Even consider the shrubs that are planted along your foundation as a background for these other plants. They should offer an evergreen color in the winter as well as contrasting texture to your other plants.

Here is a link that might be useful: Collin County MG's Bulb Sale

Perfect! Thank you so much for the information!

You're right. You need some color and some plants that attract birds, hummingbirds, bees, butterflies, etc. I don't know where you're located, but most of Texas lacks much rain, so I'll give you an url for xeriscape gardening.
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/xeriscape/xeriscape.html

I see you are in zone 7...but where are you?

Is your shady garden in year-round shade, or like mine sunny after the trees lose their leaves?

Are there pine trees in your yard or some that you can see from where you live? You may have more acid and had more shade bloomers available.

Do you get any direct sun?

Here are a few plants that I have in part sun / bright shade
salvia garantica, pink-plume plant (I put it in a pot and bring it in for winter)

Mona Lavender: not a lavender at all, but will not survive the winter.

caladiums...again an annual

camellia (ask what your local nursery recommends)

I love hydrangea endless summer and Alice Oakleaf hydrangea

Persian Shield annother favorite...but an annual for us unless you bring it in.

Sun coleus: the more sun you have the bigger they get...but they don't have to be big to be pretty...another annual.

I love the look of varigated ginger in the shady garden...almost looks like streaks of sun...another annual

Brizzy,

Welcome to year-round gardening! For colorful and very reliable shade plants, consider American Beauty berry (aka French Mulberry) and Turk's cap. The beauty berry has deep green foliage and lovely pink spring blossoms which turn into purple berries in the late summer/fall. Turk's cap is a red flower that attracts hummingbirds, and is very reliable. Just because you have a sprinkler system doesn't mean you have to use it! And please, don't ever put it on automatic--we have too many people who water during rain storms because their timer told the sprinkler to turn on!

Thanks, again, for the continued suggestions.

I'm not sure how much sun the front of the house gets once the leaves fall. This will only be our second winter here, just outside of Fort Worth (northeast.)

We're originally from Michigan. And, trust me. I don't water any more than I have two. Water is expensive down here. I'm used to paying about $45 ever 3 months, and now we pay roughly $80 EACH month. So no, I don't overwater. And I baby the new lawn, so I never water it until it tells me it's thirsty.

In Michigan, the greenhouses sell everything dirt cheap at the end of the season - annuals, perrenials, shrubs, you name it. Anything like that down here?

Yep,we have end of year sales!You gotta ask Carolann about deals. She's amazing at finding them!!! Welcome to TX. I'm a transplant from CA. I'm in SW Fort Worth.
Turk's Cap is a lovely xeric,native TX plant that does fantastic in shade. I have it in red,white and pink. They also have a varigated variety. It says zone 8 but I grow mine now problem in 7b. PJ

Here is a link that might be useful: turk's cap pics

Justicia carnea ("Brazilian plume") is a gorgeous perennial for shady areas. Mine is a medium pink and although this is its first year, I already love it. I think this particular one is supposed to be a 3'x3' mound, but they range from two to six feet tall at maturity.

Oh, and if you are willing to do a little watering (or if there's an area that naturally gets a little more), impatiens can't be beat for brilliant annual color.