What is a good ground cover and/or plants for shady flower beds?

Asian Jasmine

Monkey Grass ...even has a pretty little blue/purple flower

For additional color you could plant Caladiums (a bulb which will come back every year) or impatiens, which are a pretty green plant with brightly colored flowers. Coleus would also work well.

Both the impatiens and coleus should be available as "starter" plants so you can see what you are buying.

here are some evergreen shade grndcovers that will bloom:

vinca minor "bowles vinca" - blue flowers in fall

vinca minor "jekyll's white" - white flowers in fall

liriope muscari variegata - purple in summer

himalayan sarcococcoa

nonblooming groundcovers for shade:

pachysandra

asiatic jasmine

lamium

selaginella

all are about 1$ per 2" pot

or 7 to 8$ for a 1 gallon pot

some cheap shade loving shrubs:

cleyera

aucuba

camellia (needs a little sun)

hydrangea (needs a littlle sun)

rhododendron (kinda expensive)

cast iron plant

a dwarf variety of japanese maple

evergreen ferns (autumn fern, arborvitae fern, christmas fern)

or you can go to a reputable garden center (i would go to Mcminville) and ask them to show you their perennial shade groundcovers. i would use perennial groundcovers surrounding an evergreen shrub on each side because they will give you color year round and you wont have to replant as you would with annuals. also other shade pernnials that are non-groundcovers are hosta, astilbe, or dicentra (bleeding heart). another good pernnial evergreen is lenten rose( helleborus). hopes this gives you some ideas.

Hostas. If you know any friends that have some large specimens you can ask if you can divide the plant and take some home. It grows bigger and better each year and it makes a wonderful accent to a front porch. (It also flowers late in the summer.)

I like Red Dragon Sedum. It establishes fast and it's evergreen. In the fall it turns a really bright red. It's winter hardy, and chokes out weeds.

Moss roses are always cool. They are low lying and have a variety of colors available. They also spread so if you are under a strict budget just buy one for each spot and soon they will fill it in. Plus it is kind of cool to watch them in the morning when the flowers open up.

I plant impatients. They come in all pretty colors like purple, pink, red, salmon,Lavendar and they are very hardy plant +beautiful and they love the shade..