Just a common old garden spider.....nothing to worry about and nothing to do with whatever may be ailing your holly (not a Japanese holly, btw). Garden spiders are good things and should be encouraged. FWIW, hollies can be cut back hard and they will backbud or produce new growth from bare stems. Your plants look perfectly healthy otherwise and with no sign of insect or disease issues so why they are so leggy and sparse now is most likely due to cultural conditions....lack of water at some point, possible cold damage at some point or issues with the root ball when planted.

What about when the hydrangeas go and the Montauk Daisies take over Kidding!! I like the idea of carrying the sign color to the door - that could be very pretty. Does the sign color look good with your siding? I love the Dusty Mauve @houssaon posted. I haven't seen that before - may steal that for our front door!

I wish I had an answer for you (I came to this thread because I'm getting my red oak floors refinished in a few weeks, and I'm looking for completed job pictures), but if you're looking for a "timeless classic brown" and have dogs and kids, those samples look awfully dark to me. An entire room full of that color floor is going to look even darker, and all the flooring people I've talked to have warned me that the darker the floor, the more likely it is to show pet hair, muddy footprints, etc. If you don't have tons of natural light, that's only going to compound the effect. Of the choices in your picture, I like the bona medium brown best (assuming that's the lighter of the two smaller rectangles), but I think you should try another color, or ask your refinisher if there's a blend or luster that will lighten the medium brown to get the same tone but not quite so dark.

Taupe is a chameleon color. It can range from dark to light, and can be a variation of any color on the color wheel--red, yellow, green, blue, orange or purple. That underlying hue can be very subtle, and you don't notice it until it's up on the wall. And the color can mutate depending on the lighting in your room. The only way to find the right color for your space is to try some in your room with your light. Test it during the day and at night. And ignore the color names--they don't really tell you anything--any guesses as to what color Marilyn's Dress is???? Some options would be Ben Moore Bennington Gray, Grant Beige, Richmond Gray, Carrington Beige, Abingdon Putty, Edgecomb Gray, Coastal Fog, Hot Spring Stones. It's not easy--personally I think it's the most difficult thing to do in designing a room.