I also admire the eremurus. I wonder if they would grow here in California, or if they prefer cooler climates? I am looking for a few more spiky plants to contrast all the mounding plants in the garden. I have some white foxgloves for spring but would like to find some other spiky ones for summer and for fall. Hollyhocks rust badly here so they won't do. I've tried several varieties. Delphiniums die out fast for me, even the Dowdeswell kind. They are less than annual here. I actually planted two dwarf columnar junipers for exactly that purpose, 'Pencil Point'. Not only will they give me a couple of nice exclamation points in a few years, but they also introduce a good dark green. One of the things I learned from visiting the White Garden at Loseley Park was just how important good greens are. I think I knew that before, but I know it better now. I enjoyed all four of the guided tours of Mottisfont, learning a lot from each and every one. Joan Taylor's tour in particular taught me a lot about their design considerations. I do wish I had it on repeat so I could go back over it again and absorb more! Folly

I see the original post is over 14yrs old, but last post was 7days ago so clearly others are like me and still reading this post. Sad the OP never commented what they ended up doing. I'm in a similar situation but the area I'm looking to fill isn't near the house. Have deep yard and apx 10yrs ago planted a maple apx 7-10ft from our back fence that was supposed to be a fast growing tree but has only grown maybe 2-3ft tall in that time and mere inches in width. Talking to the place originally got it apparently had poor choice in where planted it as we planted it in the natural drainage section of our yard and we get a lot of runoff from the houses that sit higher then us. However being in Texas its dry more often then its wet. When it is wet its like the original poster posted can be wet/marshy for close to a week. Tree farm had some recommendations for the maple, my preference of their recommendations is to move it to a drier part of the yard. We have the room to do so would just bring it closer to the house and an established red oak we have and has handled the water well. Not looking to "fix" our drainage issue. Its doing what its supposed to keep the water from building by the yard and have a french drain that carries the excess water between the houses. The only thing the water impacting the maple does is impact this maple and make the grass a little swampy for a few days after heavy rains. Just looking for a tree that can handle this "temporary swampiness" and also our largely hot & dry climate and clay soil. Would like to put something in the hole digging the maple out of so asked the guy looking to have do the work for recommendations and he recommended Bald Cyprus, River Birch & Sycamore. In researching these three I found Weeping Willow which he said could also work. Which is why I'm posting here. Pretty much between the River Birch and the Weeping Willow. LIke the long growing season of the Willow, but think prefer the look of the River Birch. Didn't rule the Sycamore out but don't care for the seedlings it will drop as the red oak already makes a mess with its acorns. Several recommended the bald Cyprus and would like to note for those that don't have experience with an established Bald Cyprus. They are nice looking trees however in my opinion they are one of the messiest trees. Needle leaves & seedlings they drop are mess and worst of all they have what people refer to as "knees" that are the tree roots that pop backup in the yard which are a real hassle when cutting your yard. I would highly recommend against just for the knees, which would also be a hazard for anyone walking or playing in the yard. Reading others comments think might be now leaning the river birch or the sycamore. Several commented relative short life of the weeping willow which is a concern, though don't plan to be in the house long enough for that to be an issue. I think for our situation River Birch or deal with the seedlings from the Sycamore and go that way are the best options. Hope my post might help others. I'll try to remember to come back and post picture of the results once we buy and plant our new tree.

Funny to see you here Neil. Looks like we're on the same track. :-) I actually planted 2 royal empress trees back in May. One in front of my house and one in back, even after reading the negative feedback. Both are doing well! One of them actually has two main 'stems' coming from the base and the leaves are very large. They're approximately 12"-18" right now. I did read that you should cut them back to the ground in the fall the first year, which promotes a better root system and allows them to grow larger faster. Emily

chinacat and others -- Ok here's the deal. We have no neighbors so that's not a factor. Right now this is for a weekend/retirement home where we spend several days a week but we're not there all the time. I'm not a gardener and don't basically like much about gardening. I'm really allergic to bug bites so when I go outside I am sprayed down and wearing a net over the hat. It's hideous but otherwise I can't work outdoors. But I got a very expensive very complex professional proposal for landscaping with plants neither of us liked. That also was expensive to keep up and I cannot do it myself. So what I'm doing is utility planting, basically. Since I'm not there all the time I'm also planning to put in a drip system on a timer. We're only planting the front of the house now. The space is 45 feet long and 15 feet wide and there are some tragic shrubs in there. Nothing was planted deeply enough by the PO so lots of the roots were exposed and the bushes never filled out. I've weeded the bed (4 times over) and cleaned it up, turned over all the soil, added topsoil around all the existing shrubs and humus and topsoil in the areas where the hideous ground cover was removed. There isn't space for a lot of plants. I need maybe 3-4 foundation shrubs in addition to those I have, plus 1-2 rhodos and at most 4 hydrangea (was thinking Annabelles but maybe other whites with stronger stems). I plan to have 1 tree (from PO) moved because it's ugly and we planted a Rose of Sharon too close to it. Also roots are exposed and the space can be used for something more attractive. We have a deer problem but I've had good luck spraying the hydrangeas and Sharon I planted 2 years ago. No serous incidents so far (keeping my fingers crossed). I don't mind pruning. I'm about to prune the hydrangeas, in fact. I don't love much of the rest of it. DH is totally uninterested and does nothing. We both just want it to look "nice" and he's from New England and wants rhodendron and hydrangeas like he had in the house where he grew up. I only want white flowering plants -- already have blue hyrdrangeas and a pink/purple Rose of Sharon (a gift). Adding shrubs as sort of a background for the hydrangeas was suggested to me and I didn't figure finding 3 nice ones would be this difficult. When we went to one nursery DH asked for bigger plants because he thought the white rhodos we saw were too small. I'd like to get the rhodos and hydrangeas in during the next few weeks so they can root well over the winter and I'm willing to screen them off so the deer don't get to them. But I can wait until spring to plant them. Meanwhile, I can put in the drip system but it's better to install around the plantings to be precise about the automated watering. Smaller plants will make the house look sparsely planted since I'm not going for complexity. There's plenty of room for them to spread out as I'm not doing anything cottagey and busy. I basically want something very simple with one big look -- white rhodos (vertical) and hydrangeas. So, should I go for bigger plants or be patient? My 4 original hydrangeas were small at first and now occupy a 7' circle. They're lovely and we both adore them. Blue. Is it better to plant now or wait till spring for the rhodos and hydrangeas? If I confine myself solely to this as a new gardener, can't I just learn the basic drill to take are of what I'm putting in now?