Trees and shrubs aren't my strong points, but I know that tulips won't last long in a north-facing yard! They need full sun (south or west-facing) There are scads of shade-loving perennials that you could plant around your trees. Hostas, lamium, lily of the valley, monkshood, periwinkle (Vinca minor), siberian irises, ostrich fern, bleeding heart, solomon's seal, snow-in-summer (less invasive in the shade), auricula primroses, bishop's mitre (epimedium), astilbe, jacob's ladder, martagon lilies, heuchera, more hostas. . . all of the above are hardy to zone 3a. (I'm in Edmonton and have a shade garden). Good annuals include lobelia, pansies, ivies of all kinds, coleus, caladiums, your houseplants (bring them back inside before it gets cold in the fall), impatiens, begonias. . . One tree I'd get if I had a yard would be a mountain ash. I'm pretty sure they can take shade, and they've got amazing year-round interest with their reddish bark, unique leaves, amazing fall colour, and berries that feed the birds all winter. They also don't drop their berries nearly as much as crabapples, so you don't get the mess. And I second the suggestion for junipers over cedars. A juniper will simply do WAY better for you. Calgary has some really great nurseries though, so you could also go visit some and ask for their suggestions. I know that the chinooks offer, shall we say, 'unique' points to consider. =)

I'd suggest that you spring for some deeper soil volume containers, as 10 inches deep is pretty skimpy, and I imagine that they aren't all that wide either. This volume of soil will dry out pretty quickly unless you have these on automated drip irrigation. In such a situation, these planters will probably need watering twice a day for 3 to 5 minutes at a time to keep up with transpiration from sun and wind, and maybe just 3 minutes once every couple of days in winter. If you decide to stick with the wimpy sized planters, and especially if you can't provide automated drip irrigation, I would stay away from the more water loving vines. You might be better off with things that have more substantial waxy foliage like Bougainvillea. Star Jasmine, Pandorea jasminoides, Hardenbergia violacea 'Happy Wanderer', Tecomaria capensis or Macfadyena unguis-cati, all of which will tolerate more drought without looking stressed. I would tend to prefer a Passiflora which is not quite as rampant as P. coccinea, with P. 'Lavender Lady' being abit more manageable. For knock your socks off color, you might also consider Thnbergia alata or T. gregorii. In any case, all of these vines will do much better if your planters are more like 20 inches deep by at least 18 inches wide, or failing that, add soil water polymers to the soil mix to help it retain moisture. Roof top planters get more drying out from extra wind and reflected sun, and will really benefit from daily summer watering, maybe even twice a day, to look their best. Don't forget that you will have to ferilize more often to compensate for all that irrigation, and it will pay to use both a liquid fertilizer every few weeks in combination with a time release fertilizer such as Osmocote.

If you go to your member page you can add your zone and something that tells where you are generally such as your state or "Cape Cod" or "Bay Area". That will help you get feedback. I am assuming that the fence is the solid wood fence with the lattice on top, not the cables around the deck. If so, do you have something for the clematis to climb? They climb by wrapping the leaf stems AKA petioles around things, so it needs relatively narrow things to wrap around, such as a narrow-barred trellis 3/8" diameter or less, wire fencing, etc. Is the whole area relatively bright and open or are there overhanging trees? Clematis need enough light to bloom and will take a long time to grow into the sun at the top of the fence if there is too much shade. I don't grow any of these specific clematis, but have some general thoughts as to planting. I don't think I would plant pairs in the same hole just because I think the stronger growing plant will out-compete the weaker. I would get rid of the grass along the fence, loosen the soil along the whole bed and mix in compost since clematis are fairly heavy feeders, and use a buried edging to keep the grass out. It is really difficult to manage grass around clematis stems without accidentally cutting the clematis stems. I'd plant each clem in its own hole as close as a foot or two apart so that each can get started without competition. To keep the soil moisture more even, I'd cover the whole bed with organic mulch such as wood chips except right against the clematis stems. The other potential issue is that you have different planting groups mixed together. The different groups each bloom best when pruned according to group. So for instance a hard prune group clem like Polish Spirit will only bloom near the top on new growth if not hard pruned over the winter. Nelly Moser is a group two which gets a light prune after the spring bloom. If you hard prune it with the type three's you lose the earliest blooms. If they are planted together it is difficult to prune them separately. In my case, since I live in a zone where group two clematis are usually winter killed back to near where I prune my group threes, it doesn't matter much since I only get the new wood bloom on my group twos, so depending on your goals, it may be fine to mix groups. I have linked below the search forum for Clematis on the Web which you can use to look up your planned clematis. When I look up with the name of the plant I only use one word of the name since this search engine doesn't like spaces, and there's no need to fill in any other field. There is also a pruning guide in the FAQ of this forum (look for the link above the list of threads on the clematis forum page.) Here is a link that might be useful: Clematis on the Web This post was edited by nhbabs on Fri, May 2, 14 at 19:10

I love akebia too; have one on an arbor and one on an obelisk. So delicate-looking. My new porch railing has a lattice insert, floor to ceiling, similar to yours. It faces west; gets lots of sun. Just put a jasmine stephanense on it. So far - so good. It even has a couple of flowers already. Looking forward to lots of warm nights sittin' on the porch, smellin' the jasmine. Not fond of clematis & roses, just because they are everywhere on my street I guess. Every one of the Clematis is beautiful in bloom, though, and they are pretty much ignored by their owners. Have 2 climbing roses on chain link fence that I can't kill, try as I might. Neighbor doesn't want them on the fence because they scratch him :0 Can't dig them out because they are growing under the fencing. Tied black plastic bags around them (to keep out light) and a bucket upside down on top of them for two years. Opened them up this year and there are dozens of pasty-white, curled-up runners just waiting to go! Refuse to use chemicals, so maybe I'll just paint the buckets in psychadelic colors and call them garden art.