Here in the Bay Area, there are about eight Sunset climate/gardening zones. Depending on which one you're in (and it's possible to live right at the boundary of two zones, so other local gardeners may need to help you on plant selection), you'll select slightly different cultivars and plant them in different locations. Take a look at Sunset's Western Garden Book for climate zone maps. Most independent garden-supply stores/nurseries have reference copies, and I know that my local library has a circulating copy. Happy gardening! in el cerrito

Yes, Jeff (regarding the ternstoemia). Me, too. It's one of the plants that I would like to see another picture of. Any chance of a couple of close-ups of #18 (Japanese Cleyera), ljbrandt? Same with #1. I've wondered about that one being a Helleri. Say....does anyone think that #1 might be Abelia? All of those long little stems.... Ljbrandt, I'm going to suggest that you leave the Crape myrtle alone. It was a very bad specimen to begin with; more like a nursery cull if you ask me. It 'might' have been salvageable as a teensy weensy youngster. However, though it is almost always suggested that crossing and rubbing branches be eliminated, I would hesitate to do so on this tree. What you'd be left with would be very awkward looking, indeed. To say nothing about how stressful the removal of that much mass is to the overall health of the tree. I'd like to see the upper branches of this tree. Have the original owners topped it (whacked it down) at any time? If not, it might not be bad looking, after all! Don't go crazy with your pruners! The worst thing you can do is whack things off before understanding how, when, and why...and IF something should be pruned. For now, go ahead and remove all of the growth coming from the bottom of that Ligustrum (#5). You want to maintain a trunk just like a pretty tree. Remove any stems that have died, too. A pair of sharp hand pruners for this job. Looks like about a 5 minute project. Same goes for that ornamental whatever-it-is. The pretty pink flowered tree you mistook for a dogwood on your photo album. ALL of those long stems coming from the base of the plant need to be removed. The wrap holding the stake to the main trunk MUST be removed. Poor little thing. That long line of Euonymus needs to be sheared. I hate what gas powered or electric shears do to plants, and would get a good pair of long handled shears to keep on hand. Good job on the grass! Keep us up to date on your progress! Before and after pictures are fun.

Neem breaks down in a couple days. The copper is kind of toxic to everything living. Bayer fungicide kills frogs. If birds eat the frogs it will kill the bird too. The bayer will work but will kill your soil . If your soil is killed you need synthetic fertilizer. I like Jjpeace post about as little chemicals as possible and shovel pruning. If the leaves are wet longer than 6 hours the spores can do the damage. Ohio State horticultural dept says the spores can come from the mulch onto roses. Try using a mulch recommended by the Ohio state University mulch study. There are other mulches better than wood bark . Ohio is close to you. They have done a study on diseases on roses and the wood mulch. Feed your soil. I put down a few inches of yard waste compost. I mulched with shredded leaves the past few years. Half the plant is above ground. It is important to consider the below ground half of the plant also. The soil is 50% solid and the other half is air and water where organisms live that control the ecosystem. Half of the plants are for you.(The Roses). The other half of the plants should be for the soil. (Legumes vetches clovers is ok). Healthy soil and health roots would give you a healthy plant. It is better to grow a healthy plant. I grow soil. Soil grows plants. This forum used to be full of gardeners who used the Lasagna sheet mulch method.

It looks like everything isn't getting enough water. The amount of water a plant needs is highly dependent on the soil that it's in, and how much heat/sunlight it gets. That soil looks like it's very fast draining so you may have to water more than 1 time a day, and for longer periods of time (try to keep the flow low). The perlite mixed into the soil makes it drain really fast and the roots dry out shortly after the soil does. I have a lot of plants in containers and I use an automatic watering system for them. They get 10 minutes of water every morning from 1/2 gph emitters for 1 gal containers, and 1 gallon emitters for the 2-3 gallon containers. Anything larger than that and I use variable emitters. In summer, I change it to 8 mins, 2 times a day. You can get one of those timers for your hose and just leave it on real low for a few mins each day for these. As far as if everything is savable, everything except maybe the first picture has a really good chance of being saved, and that first plant might be savable but I'd give it a lot of shade for a few days and definitely give it regular and long watering.