LibraQueen81 I'd put a Witch Hazel Pallida in the most sunny location you can. It gets large and fragrance will carry better than many others. If zone 6 or higher, it sounds like a potentially great location for Hydrangea (add more compost dug deeply if on dry side). Hydrangea have extremely long bloom season, wide range of colors and leaf textures (not yellow or orange though), and you will see them from a distance! Fast growing and easy to propigate on site to fill the space (try ground layering). $10 - 30 can fill a 6' space in 3-4 years if plant right and match light needs. Added a few internet photos to get you thinking. The last one was from our former house along the front of our shady yard. Only 1 - 2 hr direct sun daily. Hydrangea aspera 'Macrophylla' and two Hygrangea macrophylla 'Mathilda Gutges' are there, along with 7' Orepet Lily 'Con D'Ora. Best part is with most macrophylla Hydrangea you can shift colors with pH adjustment or Aluminum Sulphate addition. The photo above is a start of the same deep cobalt blue Mathilda above in the the new yard with uneven garden lime addition. Colors can be anywhere between deep colbalt blue, purple and saturated pink. So you can balance colors ranges ... or change your mind later, without replanting. 'Selina' can be deep pink to red and bronze foliage. Need to fill space? Our giant Hydrangea aspera (labeled 'Sargentianum' but not verified) was 12' x 12' and in almost complete shade, but bright and open. Would get double the bloom with just a little more light. The leaves are 12" long and you can see them at a distance.

Sorry, I forgot to say that the male should be flowering at the same time the females are flowering (when you can take a branch), in order to get berries. Any male in about a quarter mile will also do, although closer is better. If there are hollies in your neighborhood that are very berried in most years - almost no hollies have berries around here, after the extreme drought and heat of the summer - then there probably is one or more males around. In general, one male will do for 4-8 females, although they DO have to flower at the same time! And some varieties of holly do tend to berry very heavily one year and lightly the next year.

Folks, I’m not sure what all this conversation is about treated pinus radiata bark is about. I buy Orchiata bark (trademark name) made from New Zealand’s pinus radiata trees — it isn’t treated if you mean chemically though it’s aged to get rid of pathogens but not composted which causes it to break down too fast. I have it in pots 3 years — and it looks brand new — still firm. It is 99% bark (the outer part of the tree) — you don’t want the inner part of a tree (like is used for lumber) because it will just rot down too fast. Orchiata bark is approve by the American Orchid Society and has been in use the Japanese for decades. And I don’t know of anyone (at least in the US) that puts their phals in peat moss. Decades and decades ago, we could get German peat (I believe it was called white peat) but it isn’t anything like Canadian peat moss you use in the garden to lower pH for hollies, azaleas, etc. I wish we could get it but it’s just too cost prohibitive for the amount to ship here. It was nice and chunky. My favorite was osmunda but that’s ship has sailed. On the fir bark like redwood, even cedar and cypress — when it was really in use decades and decades ago (think 60-100+ years ago) there was still some old growth around which was very dense. For anyone who has ever gotten their hands on these old woods and compared it to a piece of new — you get the difference. Even pine lumber from 40-50+ years ago — was heavier than the stuff we get today. Those old big trees had been growing several hundred years. It’s like white oak was used to build most boats — but the oak of today has the same issue — too light, not dense enough and rots easy. Note Orchiata was owned by the Besgrow company in NZ and is now owned by Daltons. It look on the website and you will see what grades they are — the fine and medium stuff is for seedlings or more terrestrial orchids. I use power plus and or super for my cattleyas.Super for my vandas, and power or power plus for my Phals. I like coarse to be able to water often and not rot roots and I have mine in net baskets. The recommendation is too not mix stuff like other bark or sphagnum because it will breakdown in 6-12 months and then you have wasted the Orchiata which should last 7-10 years. It is initially pH adjusted with pulverized limestone but you need to add more in about 6 months. This is the only bark I have used that you don’t need to soak — can use it right out of the bag as long as it’s fairly fresh and stored correctly. It shouldn’t be stored in the floor or the ground nor sit around for several years. If you soak before hand, you will soak the limestone off. Bark must be pH adjusted because it is about 4 pH (gets lower the older and more broke down it gets) and orchids want around 6-6.5 and not below 5.5.

Holly, thanks for posting the email for Classy Roses. They don't list the email on the website, just the phone number, and I can rarely get the time in the day to call so it doesn't get done. They are taking the opposite approach of deliberately hunting down roses that aren't offered elsewhere to offer as well as taking custom orders. For that kind of uniqueness, I'm happy to pay premium prices, and I was happy to pay whatever was reasonable for our dearly departed Vintage and Uncommon Roses. Paul, thanks for reminding us about the multiple costs involved in running a rose business that have to be passed along to the consumer in some way. I remember Paul Zimmerman at Ashdown posting an analysis of why his shipping costed what it did and how he didn't even break even on the shipping costs, and that's useful information to have when making decisions. The added personnel and storage costs of producing the gallons however makes Heirloom's decision even more puzzling to me. Why sink twice as much time, energy, and storage into producing the gallons for 2 years when they can move out inventory more quickly within one year at more industry standard pricing if they continue to produce bands? If a propagated rose doesn't sell, that's yet more non-returned expense sunk into that gallon if it sits around, and bigger pots to store and maintain as well. I do have a rose or two that's available that I'll probably pay their premium gallon prices for, but that doesn't make sense for the run-of-the-mill varieties for me. Incidentally, Heirloom is having a sale of up to 30% off selected roses (6 pages of roses) that clearly are the band plants they're moving out of their inventory. These are quite reasonably priced if you get beyond the $50 free shipping - I ordered 5 roses and stayed under $100 for the total bill. If we want to make the argument that band plants are viable products for Heirloom, we can speak with our wallets while the bands are still available. Cynthia