Advice for shady border

[FizzyStream]

I am not a gardener at all but I need to fill a border about 4m long, 30cm deep and has sunlight from sunrise to about 10 am at this time of year only (almost completely north facing). What pretty, hardy shrubs could I fill it with?

Open to any suggestions not just shrubs but they need to be fairly robust as we have two football loving boys who aren't always careful despite me telling them to be.

30cm is pretty narrow, so you would either have to accept the shrubs overhanging, or be rigorous about pruning and try to train them against the wall/fence .

I'd go for viburnum, daphne and quince (chaenomeles), and between them I would plant vinca, geranium phaeum, and ferns.

Thank you @fernsandlilies I'd considered ferns and yes it is quite a narrow border. It's against a fence though so I wonder if any climbers grow well in the shade?

I have a north facing fence which currently hosts some veilchenblau roses (ramblers, grow like wildfire), a lovely clematis Montana and a honeysuckle. There's also a climbing hydrangea which is alive but slow - however I think it's normal for them to do nothing for a couple of years then take off.

I've got a climbing hydrangea on mine, but it's slow to get started; mine has been in about 3 years and it's only just starting to find its feet. If you were going to go for something like that it's probably worth paying a bit more for a mature specimen so you don't have to wait quite so long for it to look good.

For such a narrow border you probably want climbers with some pretty perennials in front of it, rather than shrubs, the border is probably too narrow for shrubs to ever be truly happy there. I know it gets a bad rep, but there are some really pretty varieties of variegated ivy available, either with a silver or a yellow variegation. I've got some growing in a shady north corner where truly anything else would struggle to grow.

In front of the climbers you could grow some pretty, shade loving perennials: snowdrops and bluebells for earlier in the season, and Japanese anemone and Solomon's seal for later on in the summer.

Thanks all, lots to have a look at when I go to the garden centre tomorrow. I do love climbers.

That much morning sun should let you have small fuchsia, which with feeding should give you flowers through the summer. I'd suggest just one, with a fern or two to set it off, then you can concentrate on anemones for the autumn and hellebores and all the early bulbs. In a bigger spot hydrangeas would do well, or a pretty hebe.