Any advice what would grow well in low light?? We wanted to plant
miniature conifers with a mix of heathers but I have just read that
heather likes lots of sunlight. Would heather stand any chance in low
light, we just loved the almost luminous colours and texture etc of the

heather.
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Conifers also need good light; In my experience, a conifer planted in
shade will at best not thrive and at worst start to die off.

I can't think of any shade-lovers that would give you the colours and
texture of heathers and conifers, but here are a few suggestions of
plants that I know will do well in shade, including some plants with
silver variegation, which can really light up a dark spot (although too
many different ones in a small area would be a bit much).

Sarcococca hookeriana var. digyna. I thought this would be a boring
shrub, useful only for its winter fragrance, but in the colder months
all the leaf margins turn a rosy pink and it looks very attractive. It
has tiny but powerfully scented flowers.

Fatsia japonica: huge, shiny evergreen leaves. Attractive cream
flowerheads. In a small space, a large-leaved plant can work very
well.

For ground-cover, try Lamium cultivars. Lamium galeobdolon
(silver-patterned leaves, yellow flowers) has turned out to be a thug,
but there are other, slower growing and more attractive ones, such as
'Herman's Pride', 'White Nancy', 'Beacon Silver'. Pachysandra
terminalis 'Variegata' is another pretty ground-cover plant.

Many yellow-variegated plants, such as Euonymus fortunei cultivars,
just go green in shade, but the white-variegated ones, such as
'Harlequin' and 'Silver Queen' do very well in dense shade under shrubs
in my patio. They will also work well as climbers if planted against a
wall.

For walls: Parthenocissus henryana - a deciduous, self-clinging
climber. It has purple-backed leaves (new growth also purple) with
silver veining, and turns red in autumn. Variegated ivies (again, not
the yellow ones) can look stunning.