Northerner, I always think the same thing. But I think my being so close to Lake Ontario puts me in a kind of microclimate, or at least changes the manner in which temps affect plants in Fall and Spring. We had a freeze warning last night, but I didn't cover anything (not even the buckets of lettuce, although I did put those in a corner close to the house). Everything looks as green as it did the day before. I also wonder if everything being so moist from all the rain we had over the weekend helped keep them safe. I DID make sure I didn't plant anything new yesterday, because I wasn't so sure they'd make it, moist soil or not. (That's good to hear about the Euphoria marginata-- this is my 3rd year WSing them and the first year I have sprouts. Must've just got the right batch of seeds this time, or something.) Linda.

Annie, you know how much I love your garden, watching this latest transformation is kind of pulling at the heartstrings, it has me thinking of my grandpa's cottage garden by the sea. Seeing your garden brings back some very cherished memories I have of us strolling down one of the garden paths, the scent of roses, lavender and pinks wafting through the air. Birds and butterflies flitting about, a quick detour off the path to the shrub with the bladder-like seedpod to pop a few. I can't think of the name at the moment, it has yellow flowers. At times I wandered around his garden alone taking in the simple beauty of it all, looking at the Foxgloves and Canterbury Bells, picking up acorns thinking they looked like pixie hats then lying in the grass watching the bees work the lavender hedge that edged one part of the garden. Then feeling my eyes getting heavy I'd head off to the old horsehair leather couch on the sunny end of the porch for a nap, in the background the sound of the surf in the distance lulling me to sleep. Sighhhhh, such happy memories. Annette

Thanks for the generous suggestions, everybody. bubba62, I'm concerned that you're right about bletillas and hellebores (especially the caulescent ones) not getting enough sun to flower in areas like what I'm working with, and neither genus has a lot of ornamental value without flowers. Iris japonica is an excellent recommendation and a good example of exactly the kind of tip I was looking for. It's a plant that I've never grown in my yard, but that I've always admired elsewhere. I think it will provide nice semi-evergreen foliage, occasional flashy flowers, and kind of a spreading groundcover effect, even in dark shade. Cool. I also agree with your assessment of Illicium henryi as a choice selection, but unfortunately, I don't know of any nurseries around here that offer them in anything larger than 3-gallon pots, so I'll probably have to stick mainly with my old standby, I. floridanum 'Halley's Comet.' Tricyrtis, Saruma, Asarum, Disporum, Disporopsis, Speirantha (my favorite), Trillium, etc., etc., etc. are all worthy suggestions, but for now I think I'm going to focus just on larger, more substantial plants as I lay out the structure of the new beds, and then go back later and fill in the gaps with smaller little perennials like those. jeff_al, I agree completely about Pachysandra procumbens, although I find its slow spread almost as frustrating as the aggressively rapidity of P. terminalis. Still, a better all-around choice, and I've put it on my list. ncdirtdigger, leatherleaf viburnum is another great example of exactly what I was looking for with this post. It's another plant that I have never grown and had sort of forgotten about, but I have seen it prospering even in very heavy shade. And I think it's really pretty, too, although I've known some people to be repulsed by the droopy, wrinkly texture of the foliage. Aucubas were already on my list, but definitely worth another mention as indispensable elements of the deep shade landscape in this part of the country. I'm not sure if winter daphne will get enough sunlight to flower in any of the areas I'm working on, but I love it so much that I think it I'll give it a try. If nothing else, I know that it's one of the few shrubs that won't be bothered at all by the extreme root competition that it will face from the maples and sweetgums in the wooded portion of the new beds. birdannelady, aren't fatsias terrific plants? I can't imagine having a dark, shady garden around here without it. I've already bought and planted two in my new beds, and may get more as the layout continues to evolve. Which variegated osmanthus do you have? My usual go-to favorite one is 'Goshiki,' which is gorgeous in light to moderate shade, but loses a lot of its color in heavy shade. Maybe other variegated varieties are better-suited to these conditions. What kind of acanthus are you growing? I like acanthus, but I don't really think of them as plants for dense shade. But I don't have a lot of experience with them, and I haven't really experimented with them very much. You're also exactly right about competition from tree roots being as big a problem as the shade itself. And I too have faced the catch-22 of the situation where each and every thing that we as gardeners do to provide good conditions for the roots of the plants we plant (soil amendments, fertilizer, supplemental watering, etc.) also end up promoting the roots of nearby trees to invade the hole and compete with your new plant. Some trees seem to be particularly bad (magnolias, river birches, and the worst: red maples), but most trees pose this problem more or less. It's a conundrum that I've never solved if you have any tips about how to cope with that paradox, I'd love to hear it. Nonetheless, I'm a big fan of edgeworthias, too, and in fact I bought one the other day for the new bed. Hopefully I can find a spot for it where it'll hold its own. Anyway, thanks again for all the help. I've begun acquiring some plants, but I continue to add to my list of others to consider for inclusion. In a lot of cases, I think the thing to do is just to find which plants will work there through some trial and error. But if anybody has any more suggestions or tips, please keep 'em coming. I really appreciate it.

The structural engineer said they fixed all the issues so I closed on the house on Feb 1st. Structurally I have confidence in the home as it was looked over by a very meticulous city inspector as well as a structural engineer who did end up finding some things on top of what the city inspector found. The finishing work on the inside was done very poorly however. I blue taped the hell out of the house during the walk through. There were paint runs on the trim pieces and stair railing. There are some arched and crooked ceilings where they should be flat. My hardwood floor creaks because it is not flat in some areas. There's a blue halo on the ceiling where it meets the walls, might be from the painters tape. I had a toilet that felt too close to the side wall and there was plenty of room to move it over a few inches. There's too many cosmetic issues to list but I blue taped them all. They fixed few of the cosmetic issues but removed all the blue taped. They said I had to close because they had the certificate of occupancy. They said any remaining issues would be taken care of under the home warranty. Many of the cosmetic issues I can learn to fix myself and I know I'd do a much better job than what they would do. Some other issues however I'm trying to get fixed through them. Like the toilet being too close to the wall, I came to find out there's a code requirement for how close it can be to a finished wall and mine was closer than code. The builder tried to tell me the distance was measured from the studs and not the finished wall but I had already looked into this heavily and knew it was from the finished wall. He agreed to move it 1.5 inches which brings it within code. I'm not sure what to do about my hardwood not being flat. The house is level from one end to the other but within that there are high and low points. The variance is between 1/4 inch to 1/3 inch in a 2-3 foot space and is noticeable without a leveler. The builder says this is "industry standard" and normal. I might be able to get it fixed if I prove it's not, but not sure how to go about that. Are there inspectors I can hire? Would I go with this builder and do it all over again? Definitely not. And they probably wouldn't want another home buyer like me I'd imagine.