How much shade? That will certainly impact on your choices, especially with shrubs. Some of my favourite perennials for part shade ( morning sun) include Aruncus dioicus (Goatsbeard), which will attain shrub like proportions within a few years, Solomon Seal, Actaea ( Cimicifuga) especially those with darker foliage, Martagon Lilies, Monkshood, and a newer one for me, Sun King Aralia, which lights up the shade. It will attain shrub like proportions as well. Of course, hostas and ferns are a must have too! Annabelle and Incrediball hydrangeas are also good for shade. Have fun making some choices.

Fun to plan a shade garden, I find it’s a lot about texture! Some of my favourite so far are

Abiqua Drinking Gourd hosta

Sum and Substance hosta

Love Pat hosta

Lady’s mantle

And if you have room for it, meadow sweet 'Queen of the Prairie' is stunning! Spreads after a few years.

On my wish list - 'Incrediball' hydrangea.

If you have any part shade, oriental lilies like this, but like peaty/acidic soil. 'Casablanca' is doing ok for me so far.

the word shade means little ...

it would be better.. if you tell us how many hours of sun.. and what time of day...

general location might also help

ken

It is the only part of my property that I can consider shade. Morning sun, no sun after 12-1PM depending how far along you are on the border. East side of house against the house and a boring looking side because there are no windows. Just looking generally at what people love in their shade gardens in a 4B type zone.

That's one of the reasons why I'm looking for new suggestions - thugs. Funny how something can be well behaved for one garden condition for one person and "too much" in another. It seems cruel to criticize a plant that grows too well when you really do like the plant otherwise.

I did actually evict Filipendula from my full sun garden because it was taking over there. My goatsbeard became very tall and wide in full sun too and I craved another rose anyway. Guess it's the clay based soil that helps filipendula and goatsbeard to do so well in sun. I'm thinking of evicting my Annabelle hydrangea from my shade/part shade garden for the same reason. She takes over everything., including the hostas and the gravel path. I've already removed 2/3 of her and still have a substantial size shrub . I'm scared to try an Incrediball for the same reason. When I asked a local garden centre they said it wasn't old enough a variety to be sure she wouldn't shoot roots everywhere like my Annabelle does. Annabelle is probably in the most shaded area as it's the northeast corner of the house too. (But my neighbours is huge on the south lawn anyway) Also because after years of dedicated picking off the leaf roller worms the worms still come back so faithfully and are a chore to remove and affect the blooming.

I'm considering a quickfire hydrangea for part way along the border to help hide two propane tanks, at least from the street view (Road is south side of house) I already have a Quickfire hydrangea on the south side of the house, and imagine it should be at least as well off on the east side of the house.

I do have some monkshood and will likely move some into the back somewhere. For some reason foxgloves don't seem to grow well in that flower bed. Perhaps it's too dry being so close to the house? Odd because I must have about 35foxgloves that self seeded in my sunny bed last year, were a spectacle, and are still showing colour now.

Thank you for all the suggestions folks. Nice to consider new options.

My must haves are hosta, hydrangea, thalictrum and ferns. With astilbe and ladies mantle close on their heels

For vertical specimens that do well in shade and survive zone 4b consider various tricyrtis or toad lily varieties, plus the already mentioned goats beard, astilbe, thalictrum, and actaea (fka Cimicifuga). For some color, the reliable Rozanne geranium does well for us in 2-3 hours of morning sun only. I also wouldn’t be without a fern or two in the shade garden, some favorites are Japanese shield fern and Japanese painted fern. Have fun designing.

Thank you oursteelers & ckerr007 for the reminder of thalictrum/meadow rue, I forgot how much I love it's lacy leaves.

Mary, have you tried Bobo hydrangea? For me it's a much smaller sizes hydrangea & it gets lots of blooms. It struggles a bit to survive for me, perhaps it might do better for you in zone 4b.

Coral bells/heuchera is also very nice & long blooming, I have a few growing in shade.

Ckerr007, I love Geranium Rozanne! I didn't know it can survive in part shade.

I actually have 3 bobos, and I do like them. I exoected them to be a bit taller. Mine are only about 2 feet tall after 3 or 4 years, but perhaps after a few more years.. Essentially they are the same height as when I purchased them, just a little wider./more branched. They are in sun though. Not sure that makes a difference in height or not. Also have Little Lime and I like the way she colours from limey white to clean pink and she is in mostly sun too. Will have to see how she fills out in time. In the meantime making cuttings of both varieties and have rooted babies of Quickfire and Fire and Ice. That's why Quickfire may go to hide the propane tanks.

For the life of me I can't get heuchera to live more than a few years let alone grow for me. I've tried from seed (those lasted much longer than purchased plants) and small plant and large plant. I've tried probably 5 different varieties including the ironclad Palace Purple and I've tried several different locations, sun and part shade some better drained than others. It's a mystery to me. I've never tried this particular bed though so maybe well drained part shade would work? Feels like a lottery ticket though. Oh well, still fun to discuss possibilities.

I wouldn’t try to grow panicled hydrangeas like Bobo and Little Lime in half day shade, especially since shade is at a premium for you. They do really well in full sun in northern zones. Instead if you want a Hydrangea look at the arborescens types like Annabelle, Mini-mauvette, Wee White, Invincibelle Ruby, etc. Also, if this is an area where you

Look at some of the smaller mountain laurel/Kalmia latifolia if they do well in your area. They do fine here and we get into 4b temperatures most winters.

You will have a difficult time finding Rhododendrons that are both hardy enough and small enough to fit a bed that is 4’ deep. Many of the really hardy ones have genes that lets them grow large relatively quickly IME.

For herbaceous plants, I like Hosta June a lot. Crested iris/Iris cristata has white or purple spring blooms and simple healthy foliage the rest of the season. It will slowly spread but isn’t a thug at all. Variegated Solomon’s seal is another favorite than will spread slowly. A third slow spreader with bright gold foliage is Japanese shrub mint/Leucosceptrum japonicum Gold Angel. In spite of the name, mine isn’t woody and after something close to 10 years is about 3’ wide without having to do anything to control size so although it is in the mint family, it doesn’t spread like bee balm or culinary mint. The native columbine, Aquilegia canadensis is a favorite for easy growing and lots of bright late spring blooms. I also have found that many Geraniums do well in half day sun.

I also like Kalmia, however in my garden I have noticed they are very thirsty. Just an FYI

Oursteelers, it must be due to different climates. I haven’t watered mine since the year they were planted, at least 10 years ago. Our levels of rain along with my summer temperatures seem to suit them. They do need acid soil.

babs, could be. Mine are ridiculously thirsty, right up there with astilbe for me

Mary, not sure if you’ve already tried this, but I’ve noticed my heuchera have done better with more moisture instead of less.

Yes, I had neglected to mention Solomon's Seal, Hellebore, Epimedium and Geranium phaeum especially 'Samobor'.

I also like Epimediums but have been a bit underwhelmed by Hellebore because some struggle a bit with our winters. They don’t seem to make a lot of progress. Another shade favorite is Phlox divaricata. And as others have mentioned Actaea has lovely late season flowers and is easy, but I dislike the foliage scent, so put it where you won’t be brushing against it.

More interesting suggestions. I wish I had the problem of rhodos growing too large. Babs, I did grow a Rhododendron roseum elegans for about 12 years in that particular garden. Loved it. Started with a nice large plant as a gift and it never grew more than 3 or so feet wide or 3 feet tall. In the end ice damage broke pieces off so badly it died. Since then I bought a few other small ones to try in that bed - PJM and Nova Zembla and they had been allowed to grow too tall and unbalanced for the weight that a major pieces fell of one over the winter. Now, that's after me having pruned them for stability after purchasing them. It seems a lot of them are not pruned /groomed/ grown for a sturdy foundation framework when you buy them. I bought a new Roseum elegans, small this time (and better branched than the PJM and Nova Zembla) and pruned it back even more to grow more bushy and branched with the weight better distributed. It's not in tha border but on the other side of the path so I may be pushing the sunshine factor for this one, but it does get shade after 3 PM and it's a bit more protected from winter winds than the majority of my property.

One more note. If this is in a spot where the roof dumps snow, you want to choose shrubs that can be hard pruned if they are seriously damaged in heavy snow or ice years. For instance, in one of my east facing gardens, we end up raking the roof onto this spot in heavy snow years, so most of the shrubs are suckering and will regrow quickly from being pruned to the ground when needed, such as Hydrangea arborescens and Summer blooming spirea.