In article , Suja
wrote:

Pam wrote:

Since the planting you describe is pretty much entirely herbaceous
perennials, I'd consider adding something a little more evergreen to provide
winter interest. Perhaps some Iris foetidissima, additional heucheras, an
evergreen shade grass and some EG ferns and maybe a hellebore or two?

Well, the plan was to add some broadleaf evergreen shrubs for winter
interest. The problem is that I can't add anything to the list without
dropping something (total of about 60 plants, so I really have to
restrict myself some so this doesn't end up looking completely
haphazard). Any suggestions for shade tolerant grasses? The only thing
I could think of was carex (no liriope - I *hate* it), and its structure
doesn't really appeal to me.

Suja

One problem with adding the larger shrubs last is you'll disrupt or have
to entirely remove the low-growing perennials after they've worked so hard
to establish their root systems, & some of them will hate that & will take
a long time to reestablish their own roots. I'm not as much a grass fan
(though I do love lily turfs), which is why I suggested wintergreen &
lingonberry for their continuing winter presence.

Pam's suggestion of Iris foetidissima I would second -- I assume she knows
it'll do as well in your zone as in ours. I have two varieties, the
regular red-berrying one, & a yellow-orange berrying-one from Heronswood
(using the term "berry" rather loosely). It can be slow to establish but
that just means you have a large swordblade evergreen of considerable
beauty & none of the bright berries for the first three or four years,
unless you obtain an awfully big specimen to start with. I do like
liriopes, but if your problem with it is L. spicita can become weedy &
aggressive, you might ponder L. muscari "Lilac Beauty" which remains a
tight evergreen clump (I suspect both these liriopes would suffer winter
tip damage in your zone, but don't have personal experience). I'd still
rate black mondo grass more highly (Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens').
These photos of mine are a couple years old:
http://www.paghat.com/mondo.html
It took a while, but eventually these little clumps began to spread. Young
plants erupt about a foot away from the parent & form their own little
clump. If I don't like exactly where they spring up, they don't mind being
moved, but for the most part they make good choices for themselves. And so
far as I know, they are not going to have winter tip damage even in zone
6a.

-paghat

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/