Aucuba japonica is an excellent evergreen shrub that survives well in dry shade, even the shade of a shallow-rooted red maple tree in my yard. I have one cultivar with solid green leaves ('Rozannie'?) and two with variegated green/yellow leaves ('Mr. Goldstrike' and 'Picturata'). New plants are easy to propagate from soft wood cuttings collected in August - November, and they root well in water. The thick waxy evergreen leaves are attractive all year long. I would highly recommend Aucuba for zones 6b and warmer, although the severely cold 6b winters of 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 and were very stressful.
http://garden.org/plants/searc...
