Down To Earth Garden Club

That is a hard one because most perennials bloom for only a short period of time. Astilbe is a good late spring blooming one that comes in shades ranging from white to deep rose. There is some variation in the blooming time so you do get about a month of blooms.
If the shade isn't too deep daylilies will bloom. That would give you a really wide range of blooming times as some start in June and others bloom well into August.
A late summer-early fall blooming shade plant that I really like is aconite or monks hood. It has a fascinating history too. http://www.paghat.com/monkshoodnapellus.html

Thanks lav and lisa.  I have planted impatiens before but they end up looking SO very spindly, which I had attributed to lack of sunlight.  is this so?

I may look into some daylilies.  Thanks!

I wanted to give my 2 cents on this one also suggesting impatiens, but I couldn't get registered-thanks Lavender. I like to plunk annuals in with perenials. I can control the spreading and I can try new plants after reading forums like this. The colors choices for impatiens seem endless anymore.

Although you seemed satisfied with the answers that you got ,I was chafing at the bit trying to figure out how to do this.  If It`s all the same to you I wanted to tell you some plants I`ve tried. I don`t know how shady your  lot is but here are some that like dappled sunlight. Brown eyed susan,primrose,spiderwort,forget me nots,nicatinia,Hardy japanese anenome, balloon flower, and bleeding heart. For deep shade I`d go mostly woodland plants but there are not too many really showey ones. I plant daffodils, bloodroot,and trillium.

I'm not sure about the echinacea. I have some up at the edge of they yard where they get some shade and they never do bloom. They are a sun lover. I think the brown eyed Susan's might be a bit more tolerant. The ones in the embankment garden next to Penn State bloom with some shade from the tree that is in there.

There is an article from our newsletter on the new coral bells that have come on the market recently. It is entitled "Something for your Garden". They do well in dappled shade and the leaf colors on the Dolce series are beautiful. Lowe's has them. They also had a purple one that was almost good enough to eat.
Right now they have Siberian bugloss which has a pretty silvery leaf. I'm hoping it goes on sale soon. I kind of got carried away on the coral bells.

I don't know about fuchsia. There seem to be different varieties that are more sun tolerant than others. I think that a little shade never hurts a potted plant. They are growing in unnatural conditions and really can't be expected to take bright sun.

The hostas are in bloom now. The white one that I got from "muddy paws" has the most gorgeous white flower. It looks like a small Easter lily.