When I first saw this article I immediately thought of Epimediums.
I have two that are fantastic.
Frohnleiten is a larger leaf and I consider it a tall spreading variety.
Beautiful delicate yellow flowers in spring. This plant solves a "short soil" problem around an old tree trunk.
Great in dry or moist shade, creeps into some lilies and is a nice interplanting.
Barrenwort (Epimedium 'Frohnleiten')




Here is the second one. I would call it heavy blooming and sturdy. It grows next to and in to a path.
Epimedium Lillie
Bishop's Hat (Epimedium grandiflorum 'Lilafee')

I love my epimediums. I forgot all about them as shade plants until I saw your thread Jo Ann.
Here are some of mine:
This one is tough as nails and evergreen.


I love the blooms on this one, and the winter and spring foliage color. Even in the summer it keeps a touch of the lovely bronze color


This one is new as of spring of 2015, so this will be the first year for blooms. I hope it blooms this year.


I would love to find Epimedium grandiflorum ‘Tama-no-genpei’ and Epimedium grandiflorum ‘Purple Prince’

Lynn, check out Garden Visions http://www.epimediums.com/ they have both - they are two of the ones that I ordered last year - easiest way for me to find them on the website was under the "Find Plants" -> "By Color" -> "Lavender/Purple flowers"

Thank you Terri, I will go take a look.

Lynn Love the Red barrenwort.

oh cool--I hope that two Epimedium threads counts for double

Oh my! I just took a quick look at the link you posted! Wow! I'm sure I'll be adding more of these to my gardens this year.

Rose: They have such nice intrest.
Spring teeny flowers and as the summer goes on the leaves turn bronze and burgundy.

I didn't realize there were so many different ones! Love the foliage on some of them. Do they do well if planted in the spring or are they something you should plant in the fall?

Some are evergreen and others are deciduous. I prefer the evergreen varieties. I do have one that is deciduous though and love it.
Either spring or fall planting are good. Most of mine were planted in the spring.

I ordered mine during the winter months last year and Karen shipped them at the end of May/early June. I think she also ships in the fall, but I'm not sure if one is better than the other.

I am looking for a place I can get them in March, which will give them plenty of time to get established before our drought starts in July. Even then I will give them water the first year, after that they are very good at fending for themselves.

Edelweiss Perennials has a great selection, Lynn, including some beauties in the $8-12 range, which are hard to beat in today's market.

Thank you Zuzu, I forgot he carries epimedium. I have many of his hardy plants.

I love his plants. Edelweiss has been my favorite mail-order nursery ever since it started offering mail-order plants. The alstroemeria and gentiana selections are also impressive.

Yes they are. He specializes in the alstroemeria. He used to do sempervivum that he imported from Europe, but discontinued them. I got his last plants 2 years ago.
The entire family are wonderful to do business with.
In fact I think my first two epimedium came from them many years ago.

Edelweiss! Yes

I just checked the Edelweiss website. They do have some beautiful plants but there shipping is pretty high. Two plants would cost over $17.00 to ship!

Many times I can have him bring them to a local plants sale, and not have any shipping to pay.

Then that's a good deal for you! I don't think he'll have any local plant sales in my area, do you? Oh well...the other link has some beautiful ones and shipping is pretty reasonable.