With so much shade I'd go for shade tolerant groundcovers and plants. I don't know plants of your area, but i can't imagine any type of grass would want to grow in that much shade. And hooray for shade! Many options in zone 6 and I would imagine many in your zone as well.

> "more than 4 hours of direct sun."

That falls within the designation "...or part shade" in plant descriptions, which gives you thousands of possibilities in nearly every category of readily available plants, including flowering plants. Just know that the designation refers to plant growth, not to number of flowers /frequency of (re)blooming, both of which correlate with amount of sun. You will get good flowering on plants that are known to flower well in your amount of sun; future commenters here can recommend based on their experiences in zone 8b.

May I request that you always keep native plants in your thinking.

Hydrangeas can take some shade