my first real shade garden?

I am looking forward to renovating a garden to become a shade garden due to the growth of the surrounding trees. In the winter and spring before the leaves pop out the garden is in full sun. I am curious what effect the sun will have on my soon-to-be new shade plants such as astillbe, hosta and ferns. I do have bulbs plants thoughout and they seem to be doing fine. Should I plant spring blooming sun loving plants there as well?

Hi Jeannie
My shade garden is all deciduous trees, so in the spring it's sunshine. You can plant early spring bulbs - daffs, crocus, specie tulips and the like, but the leaves will be out by the time they are done and it;s surprising how fast early spring sun turns to late spring shade. A lot will depend on how tall the trees are that make your shade. The taller the trees, the more open the shade is and the more tolerant of partial shade the area will be. There are quite a number of native woodland plants that grow in open shade, hostas, astilbes and ferns will grow in deeper shade. There are a lot of neat ferns with various foliages that go really well in the shade. Give them a try, too.
Try a few spring bloomers and if they don't do well, you can always move them. That's one of the neat parts of gardening, I find.
Good luck. It sounds as though you're doing great.
Barb

Great advise, Barb. Also, don't forget helleborus for winter flowers and toad lilies for late summer flowers.