Going through your list, I really love caryopteris, I grow it with rudbeckia and coreopsis verticillata and ornamental grasses. I treat it as a sub-shrub sort of like lavender. It stays in the background until it blooms in late summer/early fall. Then it takes center stage. I have 'Longwood Blue'. It hasn't gotten tall for me (it's listed at 4 feet) because I prune about a third to a half off each spring. Kerria japonica is a love/hate shrub for me. I planted it because I had an impossibly shady dry site that needed something. I eventually moved it out to a place under trees by the driveway in rock and gravel. It explodes with color in the spring which is why I keep it. I guess I should give it more respect given its ability to flower in almost full shade. It lives comfortably at the end of a Viburnum border. Any blue flowering spring bulb like grape hyacinth, crocus or Phlox diveracata would complement it. I have both roses you mentioned, Julia Child and Ebb Tide. Rose combinations are almost a separate topic but any of the perennial geraniums in blue tones for Julia work well ('Rozanne' comes to mind) along with lower growing Veronicas like 'Goodness Grows' and Salvias like 'Caradonna' and catmints like 'Blue Wonder'. For Ebb Tide Coreopsis 'Moonbeam' or any dwarf coreopsis would work well. Perhaps a daylily like Stella d'Oro or Happy Returns. Mine were planted in a new bed last season and so far I only have some dwarf coreopsis and salvias but hope to add more perennials this spring. Buddleia is another love/hate shrub for me, I have 'Black Knight' which gets huge so it is sits in a corner of two fence lines. Actually the rugosa rose 'Hansa' is next to it so they fight it out. The purple and magenta combination is kind of cool though. Cameron's photo is stunning, there are so many new dwarf varieties that would be worth trying. Calycanthus florida is one of my favorite shade shrubs. I have 'Athens' by the front door with Autumn fern, Lady fern, asian ginger, Loropetalum, Sarcococca, Cornus alba, Phlox divaricata, and various hostas. If you need more information or inspiration I suggest checking your library for the following books which have been helpful to me: "The Well-Designed Mixed Garden" by Tracy DiSabato-Aust "Rose Companions" by Stephen Scanniello "Perennial Combinations" by C. Colston Burrell

I didn't think it would be a good idea, like you said, to run it under or over the sidewalk, bad enough to run a hose across it for the soaker hose my neighbor loaned me last year and this. But it's so long, it has 3 turns and having to lift it in and out to hoe (I will mulch when I get to it), is almost more than I can bear. It's heavy and drags across plants to move so last year I never weeded except a few by hand, but with tomatoes in cages, it wasn't too bad. The soaker worked great for tomatoes in neat rows but is not going to work well for tiny plants and roses scattered more randomly. My roses are one long row but the companion plants are scattered. Do you know what I really wish? I wish I had an old-fashioned pump and a cistern to collect all this water. That is not feasible but it would sure bring back memories, and I would love doing it. My grandmother couldn't have watered much of anything except her African violets inside, and things grew ok for her. She didn't mulch either, just probably did a little hoeing and had boards to walk on to get down the rows of what she had planted. She had a long perennial bed with shrubs and spring bulbs but no roses that I can remember. If I get fed up enough this summer and depending on my health, I can have a guy come and install a faucet on the other side of the back sidewalk (front is a 'nuther animal but could have another one in the basement going through another outside wall on the other side of the sidewalk). Then I could irrigate all of it. I will remember Drip Works, usually think long and hard before making such a change especially in light of expensive repairs I need done, can afford some of it but not all at once and hard to prioritize. Irrigation would not be that expensive if I do it myself but takes thinking, planning and time. I really really want my arbor put back up, right this time, heard a jackhammer going at the neighbor's, was hoping they could come here when done and blast out four concrete footings so we can start over. No such luck. Of course I would have paid a reasonable amount. It was a fence company and I saw they had augurs of different sizes in the truck. That would be so nice, that arbor was a dream come true, and it's all come to nothing for now, my son and the neighbor down the street think vandals knocked it over but it wasn't installed right, I knew it, and was frantically trying to find out how I could anchor it better, didn't make it in time, actually paid another guy to try to screw it in the footings using a masonry drill. That failed, too. My son is good at things but so busy. It is thundering and raining again . . .so far just a shower. The beds that aren't mulched yet dried out already after that record downpour, probably damp deeper down. I will mulch but want all my seedlings in and big enough so I can see where to put it all without ruining some plus I want to hoe first. I can neaten up the edges later.

A lady down the street from me uses Justicia spicigera as a hedge and it's very nice. It does get pouty if there is NO water, but it handles everything else well. It's easy to gt started from cuttings, too, so one plant can turn into a hedge quickly. It is fuller in full sun, but will take quite a bit of shade before it gets too thin. I have a bit and I'm training it to fill in between me and the nasty neighbor.

Helleborus, all of them. Thousands of cultivars, all of them my favorites even though I only have 6. Along with being deer proof, you have an ideal plant for the Mid-Atlantic. Hamamelis vernalis. The fragrant ones will blow your mind. Sweet smelling small yellow flowers in February. A fragrance you can smell a hundred feet away. Callicarpa americana. Not as showy as its Asian cousin (C. dichotoma), but so dainty it more than makes up for it. Also, the purple on the berries lasts long after the ones on dichotoma have faded. I have also developed a fondness for Viburnum triloba. A fairly coarse shrub, the panicles of white flowers appear very different when viewed by moonlight. (Those who have it should make a trip outdoors to see it by the light of the moon). The edible red berries hang on just about all winter because they have to ferment or something for the birds to eat them. The red leaves in the fall are not bad either. Humans can eat the berries, (mom made "cranberry" sauce at T-giving with them) you need lots of sugar, and don't smell your hands after you pick them.