We are dealing with good, if acid, soil here, and zone 6 climate conditions - and since I have those same conditions in my own yard I know that anything that works there will work here. We are also dealing with a homeowner who has a few considerations of her own.
She loves Coreopsis 'Moonbeam' - it's what got her interested in having a garden in the first place. So I was delighted to find it not entirely unsightly. She also loved variegated and purple foliaged plants. And she loves to sit on her front porch in the evening to watch the world go by, so a few plants for evening enjoyment are needed here.
Starting with the shady side, the first plants I chose were hellebores. The glossy green foliage stays green all winter, and they are the first things that bloom in spring. I plant these in a semicircular drift around the birch and dogwoods, and bring them as close to the bench as possible because their downward facing flowers invite close inspection. Behind the birch I add Christmas fern, which is evergreen and adds a nice texture in front of the stone wall. Since the hellebore foliage is rather architectural, I want something evergreen with fine foliage for contrast. Creeping phlox answers the description, and the pink candy striped variety will blend well with the pink tones of most Helleborus orientalis. It also creeps quite well, so it will eventually carpet an area with spring bloom, as you can see in this picture. At the same time I add more ferns in front of the rhododendrons next to the house, since this corner is still somewhat shady.
To contrast with the ferns on the opposite side, near the house, I add a hosta with gold edges and green center to that corner. The area gets sunnier here, and gold foliage is more sun tolerant than most. The hosta will go dormant in winter, but the ferns and rhododendrons will provide enough interest to make up for that. In front of this I add a drift of purple coneflowers. These, too will go more or less dormant, but they leave interesting seedheads all winter which the birds appreciate. And birds are an element of considerable interest in a wintergarden!
A drift of several Coreopsis 'Moonbeam' fronts these - another plant with only an interesting skeleton come winter. These could be interplanted with a bronze-foliaged winter blooming heath to provide pockets of color and shape during the winter season.
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