Posted: 12/07/2012 at 13:23
If your soil is acid, you could try camellias which come in a range of flower colours, including red. However, to get the flower buds formed properly, you'd need to feed and water in July, August and September. Hamamelis Diane has rusty red flowers in Feb and they are perfumed. There are red fuchsias which should cope well and some of them are really quite hardy. Berberis thunbergia would give you reddish foliage and berberis darwinni would give you green foliage with yellow flowers.
Potentilla fruticosa shrubs come in forms with red, orange and yellow flowers. Hemerocallis cope well in shade and there are forms with deep red flowers, brick red flowers as well as oranges and yellows.
Daffodils would also enjoy this aspect and there are many forms with orange trumpets or orange tips. For gap fillers, try annual calendulas.