Thanks for the suggestions! blakrab: Diciduous is ok. I'm surrounded by evergreens, so it's nice to have some diversity. not sure if we have any other open space to plant more though (property is overrun by coast live oak which sprout like weeds here. Every year I pull out about 20-30 saplings, and seems like I'm making no dent in the growth density here... every few years I have to have one cut down since they start crowding eachother too much). I'll take a close look at the Texas persimmon. Is that anything like the persimmons you find sold in stores? (orange fruit)? There are few of those in the area. if so, may be there'll be enough in the area without having to plant another in our lot... hoobv: it's a pretty densely vegetated hillside property, so fire is always a concern. But never really thought bout tree-fire exposure (we're usually more concerned with shrub/grass fire). I said 15ft, but just looked at the survey map, and it seems like it's actually more like 25 ft from the house. making a terrace is an interesting idea. the tree can be taller, as long as it's the type that is conducive to shaping/height reduction management. but taller tree usually means faster growth (may be) and hard to manage? and thank you for the tree selection guide. I'll ahve to take a look at that. An arborist who just came by recommended chinese pistachio. He said around here, it doesn't get much bigger than about 25ft or so, and has great fall foliage, drought tolerant.. doesnt require too much water in the summer so won't hurt the juniper either (I called it juniper, but arborist said cypress, so... hmm). The tree sounded good until I found out that it has a potential of growing to 60ft.. i'll have to do more research on that tree.

Kate, when you say "sweet" lemon, how sweet is sweet? It may be a sweet lime, which looks like a lemon, and is sub-acid sweet. Very insipid. Cherished in the Middle East, but not so popular here in the USA. My Meyer lemons are not sweet. They're acidic, just not as acidic as a Eureka or Lisbon. But biting into one will probably not give you a "sweet" reaction. Just maybe a little bit less acidic than a Eureka or Lisbon (the two more common lemons available to the retail market.) And, you might want to check out Montery Bay Nursery. Down in Monterey Bay area, but they are a wholesale nursery and provide really high quality citrus, and some neat, more usual citrus to many nurseries throughout the state of California. You can contact them to see what retail nurseries in your area buy from them. I can special order any of their varieties through Anderson Nursery in Carlsbad for me. You don't have your USDA/Sunset Zone in your "Posted By" sig line (see mine), so not sure how cold you get up there, but I think melikeeatplants made a great suggestion in a Meiwa kumquat (my favorite kumquat). You also might consider the Satsumas, especially the Frost Owari Satsuma mandarin, one of the most cold tolerant citrus going. And quite good. And blood oranges should turn very red for you, too, if you can protect them from frost, so either a Moro if you really want something colorful, or a Tarocco, which some folks like the taste of better (I like them both, and think Moro actually tastes very unique and good.) Patty S. Here is a link that might be useful: Monterey Bay Nursery

I am by no means an expert, but I would just add that I find that in-ground citrus trees do tend to do a little better around here (I'm in the Bay Area sunset zone 17) when you can occasionally give them a slow deep watering. I have a *bratty* Meyer that I just struggled with for a while and I think programmed sprinkler watering and the occasional hose was just not enought for the tree in summer. It really did a LOT better when I wouId just drag the hose over to it and turn it on so that would just drip for a few hours, maybe every 2 weeks or so in the summertime. I don't know if it was not getting enough water or if I was just leaching the soil but it really helped. Same for another in-ground citrus, which didn't look nearly as bad but it really took off with deep irrigation in our very dry climate (though that Meyer still kinda looks like cr**...). The other thing is that I have seen a few homes where they had lovely, old citrus trees (I would guess dwarf navel orange) growing in their front lawns, but both were in a little semi-raised planter kinda like a tree-ring but bigger and slightly mounded--without grass immediately around the trunk. So maybe try a little brick or other masonry in a ring and mound dirt to elevate it a little for drainage and keep the grass at bay like bencelest wrote. I like satsuma too, as well as Clementine--I think mine is Algerian, not sure. It seems to be an alternate bearer for me, but otherwise hasn't been particularly difficult. Satsuma is seedless but a very slow grower. If your summers aren't very hot ( does Santa Rosa get very warm? I think maybe a little more than here against the bay) you could think about Pixie mandarins too--my tree is too young to bear, but the store-bought fruit I had was fantastic and seedless. I liked it so much I bought a tree! Supposed to be good for coastal climates. HTH.

Wow - your space looks perfect for roses - lots of sun! If I were you I would do some more investigating before buying any roses. Going to your local nursery and buying grafted roses (the "bare root" ones you spoke of) is not what I would do. My reason is that grafted roses are actually 2 roses - one is the top (called the "scion"), and the other is the roots (called the "rootstock"). They are grafted together at the soil level, in a lumpy thing called the "bud union". In our warm climate, my experience has been that the usual rootstock on roses sold here is one called 'Dr. Huey'. The problem here is that Dr. Huey likes our climate so much that it decides to take over the entire bush, and puts up its own canes within 2-3 years, and can then take over and kill the scion. Dr. Huey is a once blooming climbing rose with medium sized red flowers (if you look around at neglected gardens near you, you will see LOTS of unintended Dr. Huey bushes!), which in our climate gets horrible powdery mildew all over it. To prevent Dr. Huey from taking over you have to continuously recognize and tear off the emerging Dr. Huey canes, which is a pain, especially if you have roses in a hedge - OWE! What I would recommend is that you purchase "own root" roses, which are grown on their own roots - there is only one rose, not two. This means that any new cane that shows up is good news, as it is part of the rose you want. Own root roses are becoming available at local nurseries, but the best selection is from mail order nurseries. I order my roses from "Heirloom Roses" and "Rogue Valley Roses" - both are in Oregon. You can google them. They both have lovely catalogues in addition to their web sites (personally I like to look at catalogues). They both sell old and new roses. Another nursery I love is the "Antique Rose Emporium", which is in Texas. You can easily get catalogues from these nurseries, and then you can see all of the different kinds of roses which are available. Many times these nurseries will ship you roses in "bands", which are very small pots. These are just as good (and probably better) roses than you can buy locally. They just need some time to get bigger before you plant them in your garden. What most folks do is to plant them immediately into a one gallon pot, and let them grow in it (out side only!) for 6-12 months, at which point they are big enough to plant. In our climate, you can actually plant roses 12 months of the year. The only conditions I would avoid planting in is if it has been so rainy that the soil is completely saturated (I will be SO HAPPY if that happens this Fall/WInter!)- wait until it has had time to drain and dry out a bit. The types of re-blooming (as opposed to once blooming) roses which do best in my garden (contrary to what "they" will tell you, roses are VERY climate specific) are old tea roses, china roses, hybrid musk roses, and polyanthas. Look at the catalogues - once you have found some roses you think you would like, look them up on the website "Help Me Find/roses". A couple of things to keep in mind: 1) The higher the climate "zone" numbers at the bottom for a rose, the better it will like our warm climate (I, and I think you, are zone 9). 2) The sizes they say the roses will grow on HMF are smaller than they really get in our climate. After you get a list of roses you think you would like, I would post it on here and as about people in the Bay Area who actually grow those roses what they think about them - that is the best way to find out, next to growing them in your own garden. Lastly, you are lucky re where you live! There is a thing in the Spring called the "Celebration of Old Roses". It is in El Cerrito - very close to you. There are roses for purchasing there, and also an immense display of all kinds of roses - thousands of them laid out by type - cut blooms in little glasses. There are also 2 local fabulous roses gardens where you can go and look at various types of roses growing - one is the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden, and the other is the Historic Rose Garden in the Sacramento Historic Cemetery. I would go see these in Oct, when they will have lots of roses blooming, or of course next Spring. Sorry to be so long, but I can tell by looking at your garden that you are a gardener, and just need some encouragement! (BTW, if I had your garden I would plant a huge climbing rose like, say Madame Alfred Carriere, on that fence way in the back, and start it up that huge fir tree - it would go up to the top!). Hope the above is helpful. Jackie