Shade Loving Shrubs/Plants

I have a lovely south facing garden. The house gets soo much light it's great unfortunately, this means that the view of the north facing fence is not so great.

I am looking for some spectacular shrubs/Plants for a north facing fence.

At the moment i am favouring Skimmia for the display of berry's. I have planted 2 of these so far. I also have Aucuba Japonica, but fear that this is a slow grower and is not satisfying my impatience.

I am quite keen on Hosta's and have a few of these. Fatsia is not my cup of tea (too big).

Does anyone have any ideas for some medium sized shrubs for a northernly aspect? :confused:

 

A few that come to mind from my own experience.
Hydrangeas! They don't need to be the boring old things Here are a few of mine, just to point out the available variey:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mihara-kokonoe-tama/sets/72157606267457858/
Helleborus phoetidus is not as bad smelling as the name suggest, and is a real beauty, evergreen elegant foliage, pale green flowers. SOme think green flowers make no show in the garden but I assure that when this plant blooms in the middle of february it is absolutely spectacular. It is definitely a larger plant than the usual garden hellebores. It can be grown from seed and it is worth making a good patch of it. It is short lived but it self seeds.
Azaleas do very fine in shadow. Some varieties are not very attractive, in my opinion, just too many flowers over the foliage, the whole plant becomes a blob, but there are truly lovely varieties.
Ferns of all sizes and shapes, evergreen or not will thrive.
Cimicifuga racemosa "Atropurpurea" is a very beautiful perennial, it grows tall enough to hold her own among small shrubs. The foliage is superb and it blooms very prettily in september.
Abelia could tolerate shadow or not. It seems to be a moody plant, some do well some don't.
Eucheras are small plant but they do very well in deep shadow. They maynot bloom but it's the foliage you want, any way. They look stunning under taller plants, especially the dark ones. They deepen the shadows, like Kajal around a woman's eyes.

 

On a north facing fence you can grow variegated ivy, climbing hydrangea, roses like New Dawn, almost any pyracantha, honeysuckle etc

 

Hi Hoody,

Would recommend hydrangeas like Ivory has, and especially favour Ivy if you have the space, but also would add astilbe deutschland with one of the vibrant reds ,

 

Hi Hoody I've put a link here:

http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=17042

to a good website for finding plants u just fill in your requirements and it comes up with a host of suitable plants

HTH

 

Have a look at this site, Beth Chatto is an expert on shade gardening

http://www.bethchatto.co.uk/slp.html