Pacific Northwest Gardening: Understory for (Sitka?) spruce, 1 by Pistil

Pistil wrote:
Hi 13T-
I have a big Pine tree, limbed up so I can sorta walk under it. Dry shade, slope, clay and builders rubble. I dug out the ivy choking it. I spent the winter reading about what to plant that would ultimately be easy and drought tolerant. I wanted mostly low plants, purple and yellow theme, with some orange accents. Mostly spring blooming with some interest other times. I spread 6-8 inches of purchased "soil" on top of the pine roots, and planted in it. Here is what I finally came up with:
Dryopteris felix-mas 'Barnsii' Barnes narrow male fern (then I found Tokyo Wood Fern on sale at Lowes so I am trying it instead).
Tellima grandiflora 'Forest Frost' Fringecups
Iris foetidissima var lutea yellow flowers, big orange-red seed pods
Iris cristata 'Abbey's Violet' a tiny thing!
Epimedium pinnatum var colchicum
Hemerocallus fulva 'Flore pleno' (not available at nurseries, but I found a DGer to trade me for it). Thuggish in sun but dry shade tames it, supposedly.
Heuchera villosa 'Autumn Bride'
Geranium x 'Samobor'
Polypodium scouleri the Leathery polypoidy fern, a PNW native, miniature fern, very drought tolerant for me here.
Hellebore Winter Jewels series 'Golden Sunrise' it's been blooming since January!
Geranium phaeum 'Lily Lovell'
Alstroemeria 'The Third Harmonic'.
then it seemed sort of bare so I added on the spur of the moment, Hosta "Great Expectations, and two yellow Digitalis species from dry places in Europe, as an experiment.

Some of these suggestions were from books, others from mail order websites from PNW growers. So many seem seem odd for dry shade, like the Alstroemeria, but a reputable mail-order grower in California says this variety does well in dry shade. So far everything is doing fine, but I have been watering until it gets established. I plan to put up a little DG photo essay once it fills in. If you need any more info about any of these plants, or where I got plants from, just ask. For once I was quite organized and it's in my file.
I was interested in natives, but not exclusive. The polypoidy fern is native, I already have had them for 3 years, totally trouble free. Fringecups are native, but this is a cultivated variety that is supposedly more drought tolerant. I investigated natives, but most were taller like Smilacina racemosa, at 3 feet tall. Oxalis oregana (wood sorrel) is low, but might be invasive ground cover,so I was afraid to plant it. However if you have mobility problems maybe it would be perfect-plant one and let it go, then put the chair on top!

So, I can't guarantee these will do well, because the garden is new, and pine vs spruce might be different. Just don't plant ivy!
Mary