I have concerns about your conditions when you mentioned "open shade" and "northern exposure". The weeping craps will not like open shade. The beech would really like some dedicated sun as well. Most trees and shrubs that are red in color like full sun or nearly full sun. There are many Viburnums that will take shade, as well as Hemlocks and Yews. "Harry Lauders" filberts will take some shade as well and there is a red variety of this plant available now, though he leaves tend to be not so red come the end of summer. Go for the best plant to fit the conditions and perhaps, it may not be a red plant. Other red plants that you will find mentioned will be barberries, cherries, ninebarks, and many red crabapples. All of these plants would need full sun or near full sun to survive. I would suspect that the Japanese maple did not survive because of the northern exposure and the open shade light conditions. While they can take part shade, they do need some morning sun for a few hours to grow and thrive. Good luck with your decision.

I'm Ann in Blaine and you are most welcome to come visit. And we can talk about the cemeteries that don't have roses because of weedeaters and herbicides. In many, many cemeteries, only bulbs and peonies and boxwood survive. But at the edges of cemeteries and sometimes inside boxwoods, there are roses to be found. First you need to get the county road map atlas, both for all the back roads and (MOST important) for all the cemeteries, some of which still have some ramblers and one has a boursalt (under pressure from calves and herbicides.) I also have two found roses that are suckering and I'd like to give some rose suckers to a good home.

The Knoxville swap was a blast!! My neighbor Jan came up with me , it was her first swap and she is hooked!! She said my "plant swapin friends" were the nicest people she had ever met. I think she'll be back, lol. Cheryl -- thank you for hosting us again and on such short notice too !!! Ohh and for digging in your garden for me-- I just love the lime green spiderwort with the electric blue flowers!! Your gardens are very beautiful, it was a pleasure just to be in them. Thank you. Canna, whoops- we never made it to your compost pile did we?? wink,wink ;) Ione, I'm bringing more hosta to the MTPS and between now and then I'm going to look for more of the orange marmalade hosta. I enjoyed seeing all my friends again!! Thank you all for a wonderful day !!! Marianndretti

We had a wonderful time today. Considering the amount of people, I think trades went very well. My goal, as usual, was to find homes for a truck-load of plants, and I just about accomplished that goal. I think most of us were pretty satisfied with the results. The morning started off with rain, and I think that may have scared some of our potential attendees away. By swap time, the rain was completely gone, but the cold started moving in. Within a few hours it started getting just plain uncomfortably cold! Some people had brought appropriate clothing; I arrived in shorts and a t-shirt...brrrrr. All together we had at least 15 attendees (below average, for sure). Some left early, some arrived late. Seven attendees were first-timers. I know of a few regulars that were unable to attend due to health or family issues, but I still think we were missing too many. Maybe the weather was just too bad for some. Lunch was grab-and-go, mostly because everyone was getting too cold to sit down and eat. The conversations were interesting and fun, and I think everyone had a great time.