Fall Gardening

I have a dilemma. I told the president of our condo association I would get some plants in the ground on our property. I'm not a complete black thumb at gardening. My personal gardening philosophy is buy stuff I like for the environment I am planting (sun vs shade), stick it in the ground and see how it goes. If it flounders, move it somewhere where it thrives. I've been successful with this so far.

The area I need to plant is sort of weird. It's a bed about 1 1/2 feet deep by 12 feet wide. I and other homeowners would like a mixture of evergreen so it's not completely bare in the winter with great color so spring through fall is a treat to walk by and look at every day. I still don't think it too late to plant some spring bulbs. We might even get some use from mums at this late date.

The area in question sits under an oak tree and get's dappled sunlight. It get's its share of full on sun and shade and faces east.

Do any of you out there have suggestions on what I could plant? I love dahlias but am not certain if they would do well there and I would have to wait until the spring anyway. Plants that have done well there are daffodils and primroses. That is all that has been planted there by others so far.