Vettin: This is an incredible list. It's way too big for only 10. I'll give you some items that stand out to me as either easy or special favorites of mine. Buddleia--butterfly bush--large fragrant clusters of small blooms. Can get to be large. I love mine. Campanula--if I lived where you do, I would definitly try some of these. The kind of fizzle in the heat here but I think they could work for you. Called "bellflower", they are beautiful plants. Clematis--I have several. look into these and take your garden vertically. They look great with climbing roses or beautiful by themselves. Coreopsis--called "tickseed", they look a lot like daisies. They are easy to grow and bloom very well. A great group of plants. Delphinium--I love these but can't grow them because they don't like my heat. I've heard of others in N. VA who do well with them. GET SOME OF THESE! Dianthus--carnations are in this family. They bloom well and smell great. The ones I grow are rather low growing and great in the garden. Digitalis (foxglove)--Nice tall plant with really pretty bell shaped flowers. They are tall and narrow and add a differnt look and texture to a garden. Edgeworthia--This plant blooms in winter with incredibly fragrant blooms that look a lot like Daphne. The Atlanta Bontanical Gardens have several. They are unique looking and well worth the garden space for the winter blooms. Helleborus--another winter bloomer. EASY plants that take no care and can spread so you can share with your friends. Hosta--a VERY low care EASY plant for a shady area. The clump gets larger and had to be "thinned" every few years but that means you can spread them around. Several of these varieties are nice. Hydrangea--look at the two arborescens. I like these. Beautiful huge clusters of white blooms. Iris--a great EASY plant. Don't plant them deeply at all--almost on the surface or they won't bloom or worse, will rot. I recognize two Iris germanica (bearded irs) as being rebloomers--they bloom in the spring AND fall--Lo How Sliver (white) and Sugar Blues (blue and fragrant). Get at least one of each of these and look up the others to see what they are. Lithodora--a very low growing plant with bright blue star shaped flowers. The foliage is dark green. I really like this plant. Osmanthus fragrans--I did not realize that this plant was hardy in N. VA. If it is, GET AT LEAST ONE! It's evergreen, slow growing, can get 15 feet tall but will tolerate pruning. I keep mine at about 6 feet. Mine bloom in the spring and fall with scattered bloom in the summer. The blooms are tiny and you don't really notice them until you SMELL them. The fragrance carries across the yard and it's incredible. This is one of my favorite plants (and it's not even a rose). Philidelphus--mock orange. Beautiful white blooms in the late spring for me. The frangrance is wonderful. Phlox--there are several different kinds listed. All are great plants in my garden. They give a good selections of colors and they are easy plants. Rudbeckia--black eyed susans--nice sunny cheerful plant easy and blooms for a long time. Salvia--good plants--easy and pretty Scabiosa--pincushion flower--I have butterfly blue and it is one of the best blooming plants I own. The little blue/lavender blooms--about 1 1/2 in. across come from early spring to frost. Easy, easy plant. It's kind of low growing with stems that stick up with the bloom on top. A very nice plant. Hope this helps. Remember, this is just my opinion and I am not in your zone. I also looked at the list quickly and may have missed something wonderful. Enjoy the sale. Take a lot of $ and a truck to carry everything home. Let us know what you end up getting.

Lrae- I am glad to see you back posting. I was thinking about addressing this section of front yard but it was not until after I had that stacked stone low wall put in early this spring that I could see how this front section would look. Then all summer, I have not been pleased with sections of it because as I had it planted there was not room for all the future daylilies I wanted to put in. So I decided to redo. Much of this sudden move to stasrt making room is because those Daylilies from MJ Meadows will come in September (8 so far) and I want to put them out in front. I also have been doing alot of thinking and planning on extending my bloom season to include August blooms. But I need a place to put any August bloomers before I could get any August bloomers. I plan on doing that back double row in late and extra late.

I just did this too. I dug down four feet to try and find soil. Instead all i found was sugar sand. I created a four foot deep, five feet wide by 90 feet long. I put in cardboard to keep the horse manure from washing through the sand and then filled the holes with composted manure. Then I bought some miracle grow gardwn soild that I am going to mix into the planting holes. I hope to keep amending this year after year. Don't know about clay, but I am sure amending the soil will hep.

You might want to check out Grace Rose Farms. They are an operation in SoCal that grow roses specifically for selling to florists as cut flowers. Individuals can also buy from their website, but most of their crop is for florists. I am sure all their varieties do well cut! If you click on a floral arrangement they will list the varieties that come in that bouquet. For instance, their “Brights Bouquet” has Princess Alexandra of Kent, Munstead Wood, Carding Mill, Evelyn, and Princess Charlene of Monaco.