north side landscaping

need perennial for north side of house, zone 6, needs to drape over lawn to make it easy to have neat mowing line. I am sick of hostas! Hubby gonna stick me with more if I don't come up with better idea! Thanks for help.

Sun or shade?

full shade, maybe 3 hours right after sunrise, and again in late afternoon

Do you mean it gets 3 hrs of sun in the morning and again in late afternoon? Or it's in shade 3 hrs in the morning and late afternoon but sun in the middle of the day? Neither one of those situations are close to full shade so make sure you don't buy plants that require full shade--the afternoon sun in particular will not be appreciated.

the sun is on the area from sunrise 5:15 am to about 8:15 am and then again late in the evening just before sunset for the same amount of time, the weakest hours of sunlight. I do consider it full shade because of the time of day that it is out of the shadows. Is that correct?

The way it's typically determined is to look at the number of hours of sun. Typically 6 or more hrs of sun is considered full sun, 4-6 is partial sun, etc. Full shade means just that, no sun exposure at all. Since you don't have sun during the hottest part of the day your 6 hrs of sun probably counts for a bit less than full sun, but it's definitely not full shade. You can probably grow a range of things--things that need a ton of sun and things that really do need full shade may not do as well, but everything in between would probably be happy.

Part shade plants that can't take afternoon sun will do great there....tons of possibilites!!!!

thanks every body that broadens my search.

I have the same situation on the north side of my house. I planted variegated hydrangeas and climbing hydrangeas. They are doing very well. The few hours of afternoon sun does make the variegated hydrangeas wilt for a little while, but as soon as the sun goes down they perk right up.

When reading your post and the word "draping", I thought of a pretty plant called epimedium. It has a nice habit, spring flowers, and reddish leaves in spring and fall. The cultivar "Lilafee" looks nice. It grows well in shade and is hardy in your zone.

I also have epimedium, a different variety with butter yellow flowers, and I like it a lot. It's considered evergreen here, but by late winter, the leaves start to look ratty so they recommend cutting it back in early spring just before it flowers. It makes the flowers easier to see too and then a bunch of fresh new leaves come on. It spreads, but not too quickly. Have you already planted something?