Your site by the retaining wall and among the groundcover sounds pretty ideal for daffodils and arum. Daffodils like full sun while they are above ground (your tree will be bare of leaves then). They don't mind the shade during the summer, because they are dormant under the ground. You need to know that Arum Italicum Pictum is grown primarily for its beautiful, white veined foliage in the winter. The flowers are brief and not especially showy. It goes dormant, completely disappearing, shortly after blooming in the spring. A seed stalk appears in late summer to early fall that has bright red berries, followed by the big leaves that last all winter. I love it. I am NOT certain it would be winter hardy for you. I'm also not certain the leaves would be tall enough to show through your ground cover. The bulbs are not cheap, so be sure you know before you order them. You will have no problem finding white and orange daffodils. I cannot recommend varieties for you since you are so much farther north than I am, but this information shouldn't be hard to find. A free source would be your local Cooperative Extension Agent, or the website of an agriculture university in your state. When you choose the right kinds of daffodils, they will "naturalize", which means not only do they return faithfully year after year, but they multiply, so you have more and more of them with each passing year. You can let them clump up, or, you can dig them up every so often, break the bulbs apart and replant them. When you are just starting out, try to plant at least fifty. More is better. Don't plant them in straight rows, and don't spread them out too far. Plant them in groups of at least 5 to 7 bulbs, about six inches apart. After they bloom, LEAVE THE FOLIAGE ALONE. It needs to grow for a couple more months or three, so that the leaves can feed the bulbs underground and form the baby blooms for the next year. This is why the groundcover idea is so good. The dying foliage will be much less noticeable. There are many reputable bulb dealers. I use Brent and Beckys alot, plus McClure and Zimmerman. Old House Gardens has varieties that can be extremely difficult to find. They are also extremely expensive. Always see if you can find what they have somewhere else before you ante up. (You can find at least some of what they carry other places. And for MUCH less $.) You can also buy bulbs very inexpensively at Wal-Mart and their kin in the fall. As long as you know what varieties are good in your area, there's no reason not to. You will save a good bit of money, although mail order bulbs are usually larger. REad up on when your best planting time is, and buy your bulbs as close to that time as possible. Early is always better than late. Your bulbs will be fresher. Watch this forum come fall. There is always alot of activity as people swap information and advice on good varieties and good companies. I expect that people in your zone start planting bulbs in September or October.

To be more specific, I am not looking to trade plants for seeds, or cuttings, unless they are rooted well and growing already :) I have plenty of thornless blackberry plants myself, and in the raspberry department, I would be interested, but in red and golden. Also looking for other fruits, trees yes, and other's as in Goji berries, etc. I'm really open to most fruits that I don't have as i love to try new things. In the fig department I do have Texas , but would love to try others. I also have quite a few arctic Kiwi so that is something I don't need. Thanks everyone .

Those pictures are the 'before' to my recent bed widening project. The plants were competing a bit too much for light once the lilies started to multiply, and the air circulation wasn't good enough to keep powdery mildew off of the phlox. Now the daylilies are spaced farther out in front of the lilies and phlox. In the very front, I added new layer of amaryllis with low growers like moonbeam and verbena underneath. The soil here in the Mississippi Delta is known as Mississippi Gumbo Mud, and is unusual enough that engineers from all over come to learn what is involved in building roads and buildings on top of it. It's pretty much pure silt and clay from eons of the Mississippi River flooding. It's about the worst draining stuff you can imagine, but after you rototill in a couple of feet of compost, it's fairly awesome.

I have a bunch of stuff growing under the canopy of my trees. It seems that this year my live oak is really competing for nutrients. My boxwoods,ligustrum, liriope are very clorotic. Even my columbine is struggling. I chalk it up to the drought. I planted Suspensum Viburnums two years ago and they seem to be doing very well, almost no chlorosis. They are more attractive and have a bolder foliage than most of the traditional foundation shrubs. http://www.floridata.com/ref/V/viburn_s.cfm My plumbago is also doing well. Sago Palms perform well in dry shade. Cast Iron plant does well in deep shade. Last year, I bought this really neat plant called a Beschornia. False Red Agave. I spotted them at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens, in the succulent exhibit. And it was like, "What's That??!!" It's beautiful. I've got three of them. They look very tropical..Like a giant evergreen spider lily. Extremely drought tolerant. They're from the Sierra Madre. I managed to get mine from Rainbow Gardens. However, I don't know if it is something that they normally stock. They got their's from the person that supplied the Botanical Garden's. Beschorneria prefers shade. Yuccado is selling Beschornia seedlings. Here is a link: http://www.yuccado.com/displayone.php?ytitle=Beschorneria x 'Ding Dong' seedlings Beschorneria is very popular in Europe, but for some reason hasn't caught on here. Here is a picture of one in my yard. It's newly planted in the right hand corner. To the left is also a newly planted Mediteranean Fan Palm. In the very far right corner of the photo, near the house, I have one that is blooming. The link photo shows one in bloom. Here is a link that might be useful: Beschnorerias in an Irish Garden