hey any of the foo foo dogwood are questionable in my z5 .... in my experience anyway ... the riversii beech is very slow growing very dark .... and very nice ... you know my feelings on the tricolor beech ... purple plum is nice color.. if you can ignore all its other problems .... ya know.. frankly.. your quest for a perfect year round tree is near impossible .. IMHO ...almost all trees have their glory season .. and then for one reason or another.. start declining ... i am having a hard time with your demand that it be perfect and glorious the entire season.. everything i have.. that you list.. looks ratty sooner or later ... except maybe the copper beech ... but even that tends to have a dark color that is variable by year ... your collection should be large enough now.. that you should become a little more zen in your approach .... and plant things that have a 'season' .. and when it looks ratty.. you have others plants.. with other seasons ... e.g. should i get rid of all my iris.. because they only bloom for a week or two.. and look crumby the rest of the summer.. NOT!!! ... so why would trees or shrub choice be any different ???? ken

@Bella rosa -- Clematis can be extremely frustrating that way. They are often mislabeled, AND the appearance of the blooms is very sensitive to environmental conditions and health of the plant. There are several varieties, for instance, that will bloom with doubled blooms at some times and singled blooms at other times -- and flower color on younger or stressed-out plants is often paler than on older or healthier plants, something that can be especially obvious on the striped varieties. Give yours a couple of years before you make any conclusions about its "true" appearance!

Well, this question would be right up my alley as that about all I grow. But manly aroids. So probably Alocasia and Colocasia forms would be my favorite as well as Xanthosomas. Oh and philodendrons and Anthuriums Cyrtospermas lasias urospathas monsteras syngoniums. Oh and then the hardy ones petasites ligularia rhubarb gunnera. As you can see I need help. Their are just so many and so little time.

amysrq, thanks for your reply! I'm glad your tomatoes outgrew this. I just de-mulched mine and threw the straw on some poison ivy! Also removed half the plants, including soil (that was hard -- they had already made beautiful strong root balls), and replanted with some extra tomatoes that I still had in the cold frame. Did you get normal fruit from yours, once they started growing again? I notice that mine have pretty much stopped growing altogether. The flowers that were there a week ago are still there and are not developing at all. sigh... usually I start getting tomatoes by the end of June. I guess this year I will be lucky to get enough to freeze any. Did you figure out the source of the herbicide contamination on yours? Was it the Mainely Mulch? From now on I am using only the products of my own yard for mulch. What a shame that the most powerful country in the world doesnt choose to protect its citizens from the reckless acts of greedy corporations.