HI,

**skip this if you don't care about the landscape the flowers are going in and just want to suggest some flowers**

We did a major landscaping project last year. (about 70' X 50') Our front yard contained a mature spruce and a mature birch with an alpine current, and yew in front of the house.

We added in 3 forsythia, 1 semi-dwarf cherry tree, 1 black locust, 1 weeping willow, and a Cleveland pear with 2 variegated willows next to it pruned to low to ground bush size. Various Hostas, daylillys and roses.

We have no sidewalk and the Cleveland pear and the weeping willow are around were a sidewalk would be. My only regret is that I feel I put the cleveland pear too close to the birch, but that is a different issue.

We found out from a certified arborist that our mature Spruce tree only had a couple years left at best, so we decided to remove it.

After the spruce was removed, 1/2 of the front yard is basically empty other than the bushes by the house. This is a nice display, so I don't want to completely block it.

Rather than put another tree in, I would like to cut out a 10'-12' circle about where the tree was and plant some kind of flowers there. It is about the only full sun area left in my yard outside my garden (which is great for my hosta collection), but not so much fun for all the full sun plants you can't use. Sorry for the long story.

**end skip this**

I was seriously considering using The old seed company Midwest Wildflower Mix for this sunny 12' circle part of my front yard, I've been concerned about how it would be received by the neighborhood, I can do a natural lawn plan, but it is a bunch of paper work and fees, so I don't want to deal with that. Then I read on here that several people have had problems with even small parts of the yard as natural lawns / wildflowers.

My thought is that I need to pick specific flowers for this area and keep it looking as much like a normal flower bed as possible. I don't know what flowers I can plant that will be early bloomers and look nice until they bloom.

What combination of wild or natural flowers would you suggest? (other perennials would be welcome also) I would prefer to keep them somewhat low, maybe around 1 foot to keep the view open to our other beds by the house.

I thought about using a pile of Day lillys, but I already have a lot of them and they are so overused. It is too sunny for all but the most sun tolerant Hosta.

Native perennials would be preferred.

Any suggestions?

Thanks very much;

Jamie Dolan

Neenah, WI