I am starting to think that hybrid teas, even the older ones, are not as much work to keep clean as the dense shrubby OSO EZEs and the Knock outs. wIth the HTs you just look to the hygiene, air transfer and spray them with old fashioned Sulpher Lime and dormant oil in the winter. With the twiggy new shrubs you can accumulate all kinds of fungus and stuff but they keep blooming and over grow the yellow leaves. They have to be opened up and cleaned up or they infect everything around them. I really believe this. You really cant strip their leaves off; its suicide. Here in coastal NJ we are in black spot hell, fungusamongus every spring. The nights are cold and wet. The days can get warm with big drops in temperature. Humidity all year. I have rugosas but keep them far away from other roses because they are great mildew traps. I like all of them. Some that I think are excellent for us in cold 6B are Autumn Sunset, Queen Elizabeth, New Dawn, Sea Foam, Cecile Brunner, Heritage (prone a little to bs) popcorn drift, and the newer Kordes. I have found great Maidens Blush gets some, but its worth it, so does Sidonie, but I love it. Sun, spacing, food and hygiene (pick up the leaves) are the keys.

Cleveland select pear - Noooo o o o o . . . For many reasons it really isn't a great tree. It's invasive in native woodlands in much of the country (something you said wanted to avoid), the blossoms smell dreadful, and the wood is prone to winter damage. Here are some pears near me after a wet autumn snow. I had a few broken lilac branches, but none of my trees other than some of the scrappier white pines had broken branches, and I saw no other trees that were severely enough damaged to need to be removed as these needed to be. If you search these trees on the tree forum you will only get a very few positives vs. many many negative comments. The dogwoods I mentioned in the post yesterday would be much better choices. My Kousa dogwoods have color that rivals the pear and mine has been healthy until last winter's -22 (at least) killed the buds, though it is still working on leafing out now. That shouldn't be an issue for you. If you do go for the crabapple, do a web search to be sure it is a disease resistant variety. As far as the holly - I much prefer holly over yew. I can't grow it here without winter damage, but at least some varieties are hardy in your area. Be sure you get an appropriate boy holly to pollenate your females to get berries. China Boy is supposed to be appropriate for China Doll, but I couldn't find specific hardiness info on China Doll. I think the combination of holly and Hydrangea will be handsome, with the Hydrangea providing summer bloom and the holly providing winter green along with berries for the first part of the winter (before the birds eat them.) I don't know what you mean by barn stone, so I can't answer that part. Where ever you plant the hedges, be sure they are set back far enough so you can see oncoming traffic as you pull out of your driveway.

A raised bed makes the garden look like something that belongs there. At a basic level, a raised garden looks neat, especially if you are starting out. It gives your eyes a clear separation between weeds/lawn and veg bed. Placing cardboard around the outside of the box extending one foot outward and topped with generous amounts of wood chips works to keep weeds at bay... otherwise they'll be growing wild alongside and into the raised garden, greener and happier than most. I have used relatively thin wood of cedar, and they last 2-3 years easily. A raised bed of 8 inches needs some reinforcements to stay upright. If you "Google Image" "diy raised garden beds" you'll quickly get a good idea of how you can do this with either a drill/wood screws or nails and a hammer. You do not need to fill a new garden bed to the top with top soil and compost. You could fill it a quarter or halfway the first year, and just keep building it up over the years. If you do decide to buy compost, you may want to check out the compost first hand before you order it, see how broken down it is, and what their practices include (organic, etc). If you are thinking about starting a compost pile for the first time, you can just pile up leaves without having to think about it. Your grass seeds will definitely germinate in the future, and you can save yourself some hassle and not put grass clipping in your compost. A compost pile consisting partly of kitchen plant scraps is more likely to attract animals than a pile of leaves. You may want to ask your neighbor what kind of chemical products they've used in their garden before coveting their bags of yard waste for your compost pile. For a compost container I recommend the Geobin compost system... Some state governments (MD) give them out for free in certain states, otherwise they are cheap and flexible (resizable). I have a few of these and they work great.

Cynthia I actually saved the post in a document for future reference. For some strange reason it won't let me post the pics though. per Nippstress zone 5 Nebraska "Jen, I have yews in the front of our house that were there when we moved in that I use as backdrop for that bed of roses. Mine faces north so these have to be the very cold hardy and shade tolerant roses in my case. I like the look of the trimmed yews contrasting the dark green behind the roses, and during the summer/fall you don't notice the yews much at all. In winter and early spring, the yews make a much-needed green foundation for the picture window and at that point, you don't notice the roses at all. I also have a cottage-style garden, so during rose/perennial season it's the usual color chaos in front of the yews to calm down during the quiet seasons with just the yews. Here's a huge Jack's Wish rose in front of two of the bushes during prime time: Explorer roses, at least in my case, and quite a few Austins and Meilland roses are doing fine in those locations too. They're both also part shade locations, particularly the east side, so they might not bloom as much as elsewhere. So, since I have my location list open here, I'll list what's on the north side of my house, some of which you can see in the yew photos. This also happens to be one of the few beds I try to limit the colors, so there's an emphasis on white, apricot and burgundy (go figure - the latter two colors of course are harder to find in hardy roses): Easy Elegance (many of these are planted in multiples): All the Rage, Calypso, Coral Cove, Snowdrift, Sweet Fragrance - these are totally reliable bloomers in this spot all summer Kordes: Coco, Floral Fairy Tale, LavaGlut, Mandarin Ice, Mango Veranda, Queen of Hearts Freelander, Summer Memories,- also all very reliable bloomers except maybe Coco who's only occasional Austins: Carding Mill, Lady of Shalott, Queen Nefertiti, Susan Williams-Ellis, Tamora Meilland: Abbaye de Cluny, Alba Meidiland, Bolero, Coral Drift, Coral Meidiland, Passionate Kisses, Peach Drift, Canadians/Explorers: Campfire, Quadra (a lot more Explorers on the East side) - trouble free and easy bloomers all season both Other shrubs: Carefree Celebration (Radler), Elizabeth Stuart (Massad), Gentle Persuasion (Buck), Imagine (Clements), Lady Elsie May (Noack), Marylene (Interplant), Milwaukee's Calatrava (Tadler), OSO Easy Mango Salsa (Warner), Paloma Blanca (Buck), Prairie Sunrise (Buck) - except for GP, MC and OSO Easy all of these have been in this spot for 6-8 years and are reliable round the season Other: Jack's Wish (a Kirkham HT rose that's in my top 10 roses of all time - Long Ago roses is propagating from my cuttings - you NEED this rose), Peach Delight (miniflora, only OK here), Pink Abundance (Harkness - by far the weakest in this location), White Gold (Cocker floribunda that does rather nicely) Hope that helps. Cynthia" sharon