Pacific Northwest Gardening: My garden under a big pine, 5 by Pistil

Pistil wrote:
Spring 2016 Update.
Garden under pine is doing fine.

The lady ferns are surviving, not thriving.
Tellima grandiflora \'Forest Flame\' surviving, not great but keeps going I will keep it.
Iris foetidissima var. lutea has settled in nicely, no blooms/seedpods yet.
Hosta \'Great Expectations\' died out totally, too dry for Hostas.
Iris cristata \'Abbey\'s Violet\' spreading, does not bloom much, slugs like it.
Epimedium pinnatum ssp colchicum thriving, clouds of yellow flowers
Hemerocallis fulva \'Flore pleno\' doing great, maybe too great???
Heuchera villosa \'Autumn Bride\' doing fine, always looks a bit thirsty, discheveled, should have planted closer together.
Geranium phaeum \'Samobor\' looks dreadful, I should put it out of it\'s misery
Geranium phaeum \'Lily Lovell\' looks bad, not as bad as \'Samobor\'
Polypodium scouleri struggling
Digitalis lutea survived, I planted two more, one made it through winter. I want more.
Digitalis trojana never came back
Hellebore Winter Jewels strain, \'Golden Sunrise\'. Thriving, I planted more this spring, from a sale.
Alstroemeria \'The Third Harmonic\' This year has really taken off. I can\'t wait for the blooms.
Intermediate Bearded Iris \'Midsummer Nights Dream doing great, blooming well twice a year!
Bergenia \'Winterglow\' added 2014 Struggling a bit, but does bloom some.
Euonymous fortunei \'kewensis\' doing fine in a bad spot
Sedum \'Angelina\' spreads like crazy, I plan removal. Never gets the orange color shown in photos., but would be a very useful solo groundcover for this type of place.
Erythronium \'Kondo\' is doing just terrific, the dangly yellow blooms are exactly the same yellow as the Epimedium. Goes dormant in summer, minor slug damage only.

On the whole, the garden is doing fine. I do not bait for slugs or use other poisons, with the exception of the last two years I sprinkled Preen around. Not this year.. The last two years I tossed some slow-release fertilizer there, but not this year. I water, sometimes and not much so it is super dry in summer. The pine needles are a natural mulch, but some plants get kind of buried. The Epimedium allows the needles to filter through so always looks good.
Because of the dryness, shade, and pine needles, there are hardly any weeds. The ivy and Bindweed are gone. For low maintenance yardening, plant pine trees!
The pine tree never suffered from the load of \"Planting Compost\" I put there, this worked out well.
If I had to do it again, I would probably plant native ferns, and leave out the poorer performers. This would leave me with plenty of plants, mostly yellow or orange flowers though.
I would plant:
native ferns even though they get big
Iris foetidissima \'lutea\'
Epimedium pinnatum ssp colchicum
Hemerocallis fulva \'Flore pleno\'
Digitalis lutea
Hellebore \'Golden Sunrise\'
Alstroemeria \'The Third Harmonic\'
Intermediate Bearded Iris \'Midsummer Nights Dream
Erythronium \'Kondo\'
Alternatively, just do a single groundcover, using the Sedum or Epimedium, and possibly the Euonymous (jury still out).
These are photos from a few weeks ago, spring flowers done, but it gives the general picture now.