Can you suggest some shade shrubs/low trees that could be used in the bottom quarter of a huge, years-old pile of yardwaste and branches that is now a 20 foot cliff? I have started with some Vinca minor in the lower part but could use some ideas of some things to plant that might get 15 feet tall, evergreen, and grow in woods/shade or sun through trees.
The closest list I could find to meet your needs is one of evergreen shrubs that will grow in shade:
Japanese aucuba – Aucuba japonica vars.
common boxwood – Buxus sempervirens
camellia – Camellia sp.
gilt edge silverberry – Elaeagnus x ebbingei ‘Gilt Edge’
Euonymus – Euonymus fortunei radicans
Japanese aralia – Fatsia japonica
drooping Leucothoe – Leucothoe fontanesiana
Oregon grape – Mahonia aquifolium
Burmese mahonia – Mahonia lomariifolia
longleaf mahonia – Mahonia nervosa
holly leaf osmanthus – Osmanthus heterophyllus vars.
English laurel – Prunus laurocerasus ‘Mount Vernon’
Japanese skimmia – Skimmia japonica
evergreen huckleberry – Vaccinium ovatum
nannyberry – Viburnum lentago
Source: The Pacific Northwest Gardener’s Book of Lists, by R. & J. McNeilan, 1997, p. 46-47