Oh! They look just like the giant round yews I used to have on the corners of my house. One yew in the yard was removed after we moved in by my very useful DH and I hemmed and hawed and thought about what to do with the others since I didn't want to see DH destroy his back. Well, I finally decided that I didn't want huge bare spots next to the house and have to put something else there anyway. So I went with the major trimming and I really like the result. HERE'S WHAT I DID: I would NOT recommend cutting them back to 2 feet even though eventually they will grow back. The trimming can be done in stages so you are not left with a bare stump. 1) You can cut back the bush hard all over as far as the green goes to leave some green showing. I did this first. Yours look much too tall like mine were. 2) Then, if you look inside the yews, you can see that there is basically a trunk with radiating branches and the green is mostly on the ends of the branches. What I did was to trim off all the lower radiating branches and leave the top of the bush green. The result will be a vase shaped bush. I wanted to make mine narrower to keep off the house siding and because they were blocking the path. The trunk and branches are actually quite attractive and the top can be rounded or shaped naturally or done like topiary if you want. This left a lot of room underneath the bush where I can plant bulbs or anything else. The yew roots don't seem like they are too thick or shallow for other plants. This will let you keep the shrubs, make them smaller, trim them away from the house, and plant more plants in front of them. If you would like a photo, email me and I'll see if I can figure it out. I just dropped in on this forum for a minute, but had to respond. Susan

I'm a big fan of most bulbs - luckily winters get just cold enough here to get a good repeat on daffodils! No luck with Tulips though... Sparaxis are one of the best; they sell them mixed here; the predominating colour is orange, with some white, and yellow ones, but like Jackie, my favourite are the dark maroon ones. In the last couple of years its been possible to get dark purple ones, sold as "purple velvets" Ixias (also called corn lily) arent bad either (tho mine seem to get a bit floppy, probably because i grow them in pots). they tend to come in candy colours, although again, I have also seen some sky blue coloured ones sold separately. You could also try Tritonia (pale pink or off white) and Babiana (also called baboon flowers, and confusingly, sometimes purple velvets- they come in a range of dark pink to purple). The Tritonias and Babianas seem to flower a bit later than the Sparaxis, at least for me. I get a fairly good repeat the next year; sometimes I lift them, if i am feeling lazy, I dont... Not to mention refracta alba- creamy white, will multiply freely and smells divine.. Oops, almost forgot the tigridia (jockey caps) these I have only grown in pots (and I still got a repeat the next year). they are early summer flowering, and the blooms only last a day, but you get more than one per bulb and they are truly extraordinary looking flowers. I think they're all great- cheap and cheerful and fairly accepting of dry and hot conditions. Plus the bulbs are small and don't need all that much depth; i just dig my thumb into the ground about 6 cm, and there's the planting hole! You can usually get 30 bulbs for about 6/7 dollars here.

Realtor told my sister that her rose garden, perennial beds, blueberry patch, vegetable garden - all hindrances to selling because people worried about upkeep. She's 81 and did it all single handed but the purchasers have found they can't keep up with it and it has mostly gone back to weeds or is mowed. When we sold my parents' home, the first thing the buyers did was yank out the double lilac hedge along the road - now they get all the dust and noise from the traffic which, presumably, was what they wanted! They also mowed down all the roses and ditto the perennial beds. Lawn was what they wanted and cropped weeds was what they got. They did leave the Hopa crab in front which still stops traffic every spring but they mowed into oblivion the mat of grape hyacinths under it. Just as my neighbors carefully mowed a big swatch of primroses down by the stream until they had eradicated every one. Those primroses needed no care - just not to be mowed. But they had to go anyway. The same neighbors tried to eradicate the crocus in the front lawn but most of them were too small to hit the mower blades. What's with this obsession with grass?

Yes, I looked and saw a couple of buds. Maybe the mystery will be solved soon. I have been waiting for months. I will check out to see what a ragweed is.