dsteg would argue with you whaas ... that KC summer night heat and humidity are much different.. and that is why you and I can do some conifers.. he cant .... which is also part of why they are quizzing the hort.. who seems to have lost interest ... or has a real life.. outside GW ... regardless... i consider viburnum to be a run it over with the truck plant.. and dont know what difference latitude would make ... i have the variegated one.. which is brilliant bright yellow and green splashed in full sun.. and the same plant in shade.. is grey and green splashed ... the ONLY downside on this plant.. is the scent of the flowers is called 'dirty diaper' ... lol ... i also have mohawk in full sun ... and its fragrance is sublime ... though i dont know its shade vigor ... [i also wonder if there is this one.. and another named mohican.. or are we using two different names for the same fragrant plant???] p-man.. frankly.. no shrub EVER STOPS GROWING ... e.g. i have seen lilac as big as a hundred year old house ... its all about ANNUAL GROWTH RATE ... and how fast it gets bigger than you want.... and rejuvenation pruning ... if you think you can plant and forget any shrub forever .. you must have a branch of de nile running thru your KC .... you are right to be looking for dwarf version of the monsters.. but dont get too hung up between one that claims to only grow 5 feet rather than 8.. or something like that ... choose the best plant.. not a size 'claim' to fit a spot ... ken ps: my first house was next to a funeral home.. and there were 30 year old viburnum blocking the view.. they were just below the lower power lines [probably the phone and cable].. 20 feet tall?? ... and 40 to 50 feet wide.. and that is what 30 years will get you with a shrub.. some of the branches were 4 to 6 inch diameter ... since they were not on my property.. they were beautiful... lol .. Here is a link that might be useful: probably bigger than you might want.. but really cool ...

Yeah..congrats on the new house!! How exciting getting to plan a new garden!! Good Luck!! I don't have most of the ones you have..I have Evelyn and it's the first year..it's about to bloom. All of my Austins get well over 8 hours of hot unrelenting sun...except out front where shade gives them about 6 daily. So far the only rose that seems to be more work is Gertrude(which she is anyway)...all of mine seem to love the hours of sun and the heat remarkably hasn't burned anything. I know nothing about planting the pots. I just made sure that the area I planted in was prepared well. We are getting a break in the heat this week...but..our indexes were above 105 for 2 weeks...Austins seem to be happier than everything else. I water just at the roots and try never to get water on the leaves...seems to be working!! Hope this helps some!!! :))

We live in a townhouse type apartment in the mid-south area (close to Memphis, TN) and are experiencing a very similar problem about which I posted on here last week. Our living room is on the ground floor and the two bedrooms are upstairs. We keep our thermostat set around 70º F. Around 2 PM or so, the temp inside starts going up. By around 5 - 6 PM, it will be around 76 - 78º F (depending on conditions outside). About a month ago, when we first noticed the problem, the temp inside would get up to 83º F. We reported the problem and to make a long story short, they replaced the thermostat, the outside A/C unit, and the evaporator coil. Once they finally replaced the evaporator coil, I finally noticed that the air coming out of the vents felt cold (until then it just felt a little cool). However, this still has not completely fixed our problem as it still gets up to about 77 - 78º during the late afternoon. We have a patio door that faces west which contributes to the heat. The hottest room is the upstairs bedroom that has a western facing window. The temp will not come back down to 70º F until sometime during the early morning hours. I sent a letter to the office about this and they told me that they are going to contact the main office (I assume they mean the company that actually owns the complex) and ask them what else they can do, I think such as get a bigger unit. However, they said that they doubt they will allow this.

Thank you, Lilyfinch! I have been gardening for almost 10 years now. Until then, I lived in apartments and did my best with containers. So I had a lot of pent-up energy when I finally got some land to play with. I'm most inspired by English gardens, especially cottage-style perennial borders. It's not a perfect match for the humid Maryland climate, so I had to make a few adjustments along the way. I'm so happy you like it! Here are my favorite before-and-after pics. When the yard looks especially dilapidated in late summer, I remind myself it used to be so much worse :) Taking my first steps: Five years later: This is an old pic, so you can still see my dear Jubilee Celebration in the upper left corner of the patio.