Hi There, Would love some help in choosing the right plantings for our garden that is on 2 sides of our new in-ground pool. The gardens are along the south and west sides of the pool, and have different amounts of sunlight/conditions.

Here are the details:
Access into both gardens isn't very easy since the pool coping is directly beside the gardens themselves (planned that way, I love that look).

South Garden - 5' x 34', mostly shade (maybe gets 2 hours of sun in the mid-day), directly below a huge evergreen tree in my neighbours yard. Pic below:

West Garden - 4' x 25', mostly sun - shade only in the late afternoon when the sun goes down past the fence casting a shadow. No trees nearby. Pic below:

Here is the wishlist:
Low maintenance.
Plants that don't drop too much "crap" that will need to be cleaned out of the pool all the time.
Plants that don't take over and require a ton of maintenance to keep under control.
We would LOVE it to look tropical, but of course are limited due to our zone (6b) - pesky winter.
Would like something a bit taller in the back to add some visual interest to the otherwise bland fence!
A lot of green with a hint of colour (pink, white) is what I would prefer.
Although the two gardens have different conditions, I don't want them to look completely segregated and different, so need some ideas for plants that could survive in both to tie everything together.

Ideas so far:
Lots of hostas and ferns in the south garden especially (since it is shady).
Stripey grasses/bamboo for the height.
Large hibiscus (hardy hibiscus shrub) in the west garden since it is sunny and these are perennials.
I like the way sumac looks (kind of tropical), but I know it sends shoots and wants to take over - anything else out there that looks similar but is a slow grower??

Thanks in advace for any help and suggestions!!