Researching shrubs and perennials

I am back in the mode of researching new shrubs and perennials.  I love to look through books, magazines and sometimes catalogs for ideas.  Catalogs are iffy since too often their pics are overly stylized and touched up and bear little resemblance to the real thing.  Plus very few offer real info as to where plants actually grow.  So I sit with the Sunset Guide to Western Gardens on my lap along with whatever else I am reading so I can narrow down thoughts to realistic ideas.  I bought several new plants last spring at farmers market that have settled in happily either in front or in the back sunny garden.  Now I would like to find more perennials for the shady garden.  One I want to try is Alchemilla Mollis which has chartreuse flowers.  I am also thinking about shrubs again, after reading Gardening for a Lifetime this week.  I keep going back to fothergilla and enkianthus.  I have tried enkianthus to no avail, but have come to realize that bareroot plants and very small container grown plants, unless annuals, need a year or so of coddling in a gallon pot.