Ken, As the branches got long over the years, I added some stakes, giving height to what is usually a sort of floppy shrub. Loosely tied to stakes gives shape to the shrub and allows good air flow through the plant. The garden there is bright light in morning (indirect), then dappled in early afternoon, then shaded later. There are no dead branches on the plant at this point. Every branch in the pic has floppy leaves at the end. Yes, it was a longer winter than normal, but this plant has seen one several years ago and nothing else in the bed has suffered. It's pretty sheltered from wind, too. I've not extra-fed the plant, just the annual 1C of HollyTone, same for the hostas and astilbes in that area. All the plants there have been in since 2003.

There's nothing quite as cool-looking(temperaturewise) as BLUE flowers. I grew Phacelia a few years ago, best blue i ever saw, next to cornflowers. The bell-shaped blue flowers with icy-white anthers were beautiful, and stirred up images of cooler weather. They do have a short bloom time, hot weather just about stops the show, cutting back helps somewhat. Give 'em a try, i believe there are 2 or 3 varieties. Good luck, and enjoy.

newbiehavinfun, I have a silver maple, and although it gives great shade in summer you're right that it's very difficult to grow anything permanently under such trees. It sounds like your situation is that the roots of the trees have intertwined to such an extent that they strangle other plants. I only have one tree so it isn't quite so bad, but I've had best success with: - dry shade plants, such as hellebore - bigger container plants have a better root system to compete with the trees. Here's a hellebore at the foot of my maple. It's 5 yrs old and has done very well. These are the standard kind with greenish-white flowers. The fancier colored hybrids aren't as vigorous and I don't think they could compete. The other plant next to the hellebore is a jade plant, but I don't believe they're for zones lower than 8 or 9. The spiky foliage is bearded iris; the round-leaved trailers/groundcover are common nasturtium that disappear once the soil heats up in summer. I have three problem areas. They had plants I've tried that didn't work out for one reason or another, had to be yanked out and started over....several times now, LOL. Front yard walkway: We're on a double slope-front to back downwards, and also side to side. Great drainage but it makes the view of the house from the street quite lopsided. Trouble is, the plantings on one side grew quite a bit taller than the opposite side! I don't have a good picture of it from the street, but you can see from this front porch shot, how the right-hand side is just about twice the height of the left-hand side. When you view the house from the street, it makes the uphill side of the front look even taller compared to the lower-growing half. Moving down the hill, one portion of our side yard is exposed to our neighbor. Houses are very close here, averaging 10' apart. Their house has very few windows on our side - but of course, that was the only place my original plants didn't work out! These new tall shrubs/small trees will hopefully fill those spots in a few years: The far part of our backyard is actually quite private for a property smack in the middle of the city. It backs onto a schoolyard and is the lowest point of the lot. That means it is the furthest from my outdoor faucet and thus almost impossible to water. This area is also heavily shaded in summer by a 60' linden and 40' walnut. It's been a real struggle to find plants that will survive cold wet winters and bone-dry summers along with the shade conditions. I've gotten an oleander standard and Tecomaria capensis to survive, with a variegated euonymus and hardenbergia vine trying to get established this winter.

Thanks you guys for the suggestions! The hydrangeas are all out front and I don't have a fence out there for anything to climb on. They are also planted on the south edge of my yard so I don't think there is much I can do to plant anything to shade them. The Pink Diamond and Limelight may give the ES a little shade. I don't know maybe I'll give some thought to rearranging things a bit if needed. As far as the tree - he actually rather excitedly told me about it last fall and said that he thought I'd be happy because with the extra sun I could grow more roses (I have over 120 right now..) and that he thought it dropped too much litter. Well yeah the roses are nice, but I was enjoying that little bit of shade garden. And that tree gave the front of my house a fair amount of shade from the hot afternoon sun as well. I'm sure my cooling costs will go up this year. Ultimately, it's his property and tree and he can do whatever he wants. He is a nice person and I don't have any reason to dislike him. But he is very perticular about that darn lawn and I have a hard time thinking about that large tree coming down just because it left a few pinecones on the lawn. I guess to sum it up yeah, I'm disappointed the tree is gone, but really whatever - there is nothing I can do about it but make sure my plants don't fry. Thanks again for the help!