Terry, here are some thoughts that come to mind... 1. If you can arrange a trip out to the Long Island nurseries you should find the junipers mentioned there. 2. If your purchasing has to be on-line then order only from www.lazyssfarm.com. A top notch nursery that babies its plants and customers. You can send them a e-mail explaining that you plan to train junipers on trellises and you need plants with a number of leaders and they will work with you. I just skimmed through their on-line catalog (drool) and note that they carry Juniperus chinenses 'Blue Alps'. Perfect for your needs. Retains its green color all winter. All container grown plants can be planted at any time of the year. 2. Because the junipers are not fast growers suggest that you intersperse them with pots in which you could grow deciduous shrubs that are attractive in the winter months. The following are available at the same nursery, Salix alba 'Flame', Viburnum carlesii (fantastic bloom fragrance) and Lonicera x Mandarin PP#11,083. The latter is a beautiful all summer blooming vine to be trellised and is considered invasive but you are growing in the concrete jungle so it should not be a problem. This assortment plus five junipers plus pots of annuals should be a good beginning for you. See how this works out. 3. Take some time to study the Winter Sowing Forum. It is an easy method which will allow you to grow annuals inexpensively. 4. Strongly suggest the following. You will need some method of securing branches and vines. The most permanent, easy to use type that I have found is a heavy duty, single-wrap Velcro. Strong, durable, attractive, almost unnoticed, sold in a green color, holds through hurricanes as I can attest. It will probably be easier for you to order it on-line from www.homesew.com. Another customer friendly company.

That looks like it hortster although other pictures I found of it online have me doubting it. Maybe when it flowers it'll be clearer. At least I know it's a Euonymous. Thanks for your help.

I haven't had much luck with Emerald gaiety...mine grew more as a small groundcover / creeper and never did much of anything - perhaps the crown gall disease was to blame -but I chucked them all. I do have two Sarcoxie Euonymus on my property - one in full sun from midday on, and the other in full shade. They both have done well for me with the exception of scale on the one in full shade last year. In full shade, I've seen no blooms but it hasn't established as long as the other has. The full sun Sarcoxie gets a beautiful carpet of purple flowers on the groundcreepers, but it took a good 4 years to get there. It branches both vertically and horizontally along my 4 1/2 foot fence. I trim the branches at fence height, so I don't know how tall this plant will actually climb on an arbor or trellis. It's a nice evergreen branching habit along my fence. This was one of the first plants in my yard as a newbie, and I couldn't be happier. No problems with scale in the sunny location (keeping my fingers crossed). Unfortunately, my new rescue dogs like to pottie where the branches creep as a groundcover, causing dieback in those areas, so I didn't get the flowers this past year.

Welcome, Kellycrash! You have a quite attractive house. Thanks for including the photos; it makes it much easier to offer intelligent comments. You've gotten great advice so far - evergreens for continued interest in winter, plant for the size space you have, areas against the house tend to be dry. The advice to keep this area relatively simple is a good one too as it is a small area. I'd probably plan to use some of the plants you use here elsewhere in the garden to provide some continuity. I would suggest working out a plan for the whole front of the house and perhaps the whole front yard right now. If you don't, each small part is likely to reflect where you are as a gardener at a particular time and not necessarily gel well as a whole yard. Figure out where you are likely to want to walk and how you will use it (kids' soccer field? just decoration? future patio? etc) before starting planting. You don't need to plant the whole thing, but at least get a feel for how you want it to look in the long run. Drive around and look at plantings for houses similar to yours and evaluate them - decide what you like or don't like and what will work for how you will use the space. Get books out of the library that have pictures of whole house landscaping, again to decide what look you like. Worry less about particular plants until you've decided on the big picture items. I'd also probably mulch the whole cleared area now with an unobtrusive mulch (not dyed) so that weeds don't get started while you plan. I'd also really check out your amount of sun carefully. If you have more than 4 hours (noon to 5 instead of 1 to 4) you may be able to grow many sun-loving plants and shade lovers would find that much afternoon sun to be too much. Once you have done that, then find plants you like the look of that which will suit your conditions of part shade, probably acid soil (though your new concrete sidewalk may leach lime for a while), and whatever your soil texture is (sandy, clayey, or whatever.) 3 1/2 feet is quite narrow to keep plants both off the base of the porch and off the walkway. I'd try for plants that grow narrowly upright rather than have to fuss with pruning them away from both the walk and the porch lattice. You have a tough situation - narrow and somewhat shady. It's a shame that the walkway isn't 2 feet farther out as it would give many more options. As far as your specific plant ideas so far: I like that you have found plants that will look attractive year round, with evergreen and/or variegated foliage for when there isn't bloom. Here is a webpage link to copy and paste for Blue Barron rhodie. http://www.westonnurseries.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=plants.plantDetail&plant_id=37 Since Weston Nurseries is the breeder of the plant, I'd take their zone 6 seriously and not try this plant in such a prominent position. If you put it off one of the porch ends where you have enough depth for several layers of plants, if it has a bad winter, the other plants may help to camouflage this. To help find alternatives, linked below is a rhodie seach database. If you want a similar one for azaleas, click on 'plant data' on the same page and go to 'azaleas' If you use the multiple parameter search you can put in your hardiness info (-15), your height info, and the description will tell you if it is more upright or spreading. You can then do a general web search to find info on width. Purple Gem might work for you and many of the hybrids and selections of R. yakushimanum (commonly called Yak rhododendrons) like 'Anna Hall' or 'Ken Janeck' should stay small enough for quite a while since they are relatively slow growing. You could also check out Leucathoes which are another evergreen, some with variegated leaves and many stay small. I have both small spireas and the two small Deutzias (Chardonnay Pearls and Nikko) in half shade, and both bloom well. Both look rather twiggy in winter. You could consider one of the smaller and more shade tolerant clematis on a narrow obelisk. If you get a type 3 prune (something like Justa or Savannah don't get too tall) you will cut back the dead vine to 6 or 8 inches in the fall and have the ornamental obelisk for winter interest. Here's another search page, this one from Clematis on the Web. Leave blank any categories that aren't important and just put in height and pruning type. http://www.clematis.hull.ac.uk/new-clemlistsearch.cfm If you decide to do this, I can give you some reputable mail order places that have more varieties than most local nurseries. Another option is the selection of a native honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens 'Major Wheeler'. Some groundcovers that play well with other plants and are happy in part sun (to wander around the feet of other plants): Veronica 'Georgia Blue' or 'Waterperry Blue' Cranberry - perfectly happy in average soil and is evergreen Some perennials that should stay within bounds, look good all growing season, will be happy with afternoon sun, and you may be able to get at plant swaps, though you might have to buy: daylily mounding perennial geranium (not the geraniums grown in pots) Heuchera Siberian Iris I like the idea of planting bulbs there, since it would give you flowers early in the season. I love planting reticulated irises for early bloom and daffodils for midspring bloom. Here is a link that might be useful: rhododendron database search