Mayapples, coral bells, trilliums are tiarella are all interesting ideas. The Mayapples don't get very tall and make a compelling groundcover, the coral bells are colorful, and there must be a hundred different tiarellas, many with foliage that is interesting enough even without a flower! Not sure what to think about the trilliums.... My understanding is that they tend to go dormant in the heat of OK summers???
Will Gingers survive OK winters? We had two days of -1F low temp for a few hours in my neighborhood.
Any favorites among the ferns?
If I yank out the ivy, what would you recommend to stabilize the miniature berms?