I'd suggest you consider conifers, and look especially into junipers as you are on the sunny sides. I can't decide whether the pebbles will aggravate the heat on the plants through reflection or help to cool the soil for them. Likely a bit of both. The upright junipers include many interesting ones such as gold cone, a contorted form, and several blue ones like Wichita Blue, Blue Arrow, etc. Other than this, spruces may also like the conditions; again there are many ornamental varieties that can make for a very interesting display. Ask over on the Conifers forum for places to shop in your area. BUT to tell you the truth, many people jump to the conclusion that breaking up a wall requires planting AT the wall. It doesn't, depending on how much yard you have adjacent to the wall. If you have space, plant a tree or some deciduous shrubbery out there, and in many cases, from many angles, it softens the house wall just as well AND keeps the mess and habitat away from the house. Deciduous shrubs will grow out from any wall reaching for the light, which is why I wouldn't recommend them for a wall planting. KarinL

>It does not get sun except for 3 months of year for 2-4 hours a day in afternoons. Avoid rhododendrons and azaleas. They can make do with scanty dappled sunlight but if they're totally in the shade for 9 months of the year, they won't do as well as what you would like/expect. (August and later into the fall is mainly when they're asking for sunlight to help them make the bloom buds that will open in the spring.) Plus, if watering is a problem, they won't do at all; they're not deep-rooted and don't survive droughts at all without plenty of water. There are reblooming azaleas and a few rhododendrons will have a few fall blooms, but they won't work well without regular rainfall/watering and some sunlight. Camellias won't survive the first year without good regular watering either, but after that they can survive a drought much, much better than rhododendrons and azaleas. Depending on the height you are wishing for, camellia varieties Shishigashira and Bonanza, either one or both, would make nice plants for that spot. They are sold with the sasanqua camellias (but are really hiemalis). Shishigashira can for sure do well and bloom well with less than an ideal amount of dappled or direct sunlight. I have read a post by someone who had some success growing a Madame Alfred Carriere up the wall on the north side of a house. The rose didn't bloom much at all until it got to the sunlight of the roof area but then it did okay. The trick would be in getting the rose to the upper areas of the wall where it could get some sunlight, but maybe in your situation your 3 months of the year would give enough sunlight to allow the rose to get there. There are some other shade-tolerant climbers that might work that way, mostly Noisettes (like Cato's Cluster or Champney's Pink Cluster). But camellias would be close to a sure thing, and they'd look good there too, even when not blooming. You might try a combination of the two--a shade-tolerant rose with some evergreen camellias for variety in foliage size, color, and texture. The polyantha rose Eutin with its red blooms might work to the left of the window and you could pull some canes down to parallel the window bottom too; Liz Druitt credits Eutin with a good bit of shade tolerance. Some (but not all) of the hybrid musks also have good shade tolerance and can climb; red Skyrocket (aka Wilhelm), Will Scarlet, or Nur Mahal might work there. One Shishigashira centered under the window with a climbing shade-tolerant rose planted on each side might look nice and might also work with your sun situation (might work--I certainly wouldn't say that with any certainty). Eutin might have a better chance at blooming heavily in the months when you have some direct sunlight there than would the hybrid musks. And once established, Eutin would survive a drought. But survival is not the same as blooming; you'd still have to water it well for it to bloom well when you weren't getting good rainfall. Shishigashira is small enough that there would still be room for a few rose canes pegged beneath the window behind it. Shishigashira in front of a rose pegged below a window would stay really short for a long, long, long time. Our Shishigashira that is maybe 25 years old now is wide but still under 2' tall, though it has been grown in almost no direct sunlight and might have grown faster under ideal conditions. It has been a heavy bloomer in spite of its slow growth. (Once-blooming only, but the bloom period lasts a long time each fall.) It would be interesting to see how this turns out with whatever you decide to plant! I hope you'll post some pictures! Best wishes, Mary

Roses need full sun. Pittosporum need a few hours of sun. Gardenia might take your coming water reductions for landscaping, Sarcococca can work there. Dan

Charlene, I've been pondering the same thing. I have a smallish garden on the north side with a window at ground level as well. I am hoping at some point to find a smallish shrub for it. I've got a few hostas, a bleeding heart, forget-me-not and then groundcovers in it right now. This is the first year. I have a native clematis at one end where there's a little more shade. I've been considering a red twig dogwood and maybe a yew. David, you're comment on the spirea has me intrigued. We have a spirea in an area where it's completely hidden. I was thinking about trying to dig it out and transplant. It's a nice compact shrub, so maybe I'll give it a try out back. Oh, and that preplanned garden looks great Charlene! What a cool idea.