Thanks for your responses, you two. I appreciate your helping me. Never visited Arrowhead Alpines. I used to go to school in East Lansing and now am in Saginaw. I took a look at the sites you recommended and I was a little overwhelmed by all the cultivated varieties available. I generally prefer wildtype varieties or cultivated varieties that have been around for a long time. This year I may depend on the generosity of friends and family for plant starts and cuttings - turn about is fair play, right? I don't want to spend a lot of money. Happy Monday! Joe

Birdsong72, this is Somerset Co. red clay (loamy red clay but it will crack in dry weather) and all I can say is it beats Union Co. clay/rocks by a mile. Some plants I just can't grow but the rhodies are okay (not great but okay). I have mostly catawba and maximus types or crosses and three yak hybrids. I grow a few in slightly raised mounds (about six inches originally, but they sunk). There's one white one growing in deep shade under pines, growing almost horizontal in search of light, and it blooms if the deer don't eat it. It has character. There's a monster lavender one near my front door, in a raised bed, leaching alkalinity from the foundation, and I have to hack it back. I've got native azaleas (austrinum, candulaceum, flammeum) under pines with full sun from the south - they need irrigation even though they're heavily mulched. The ones with a north exposure near but not under the pines don't need watering unless there is an absolute drought. Also mulched with pine needles. I've got ordinary hybrid Japanese type azaleas flourishing with morning sun. Have to cut them back. My mother with horrible Union Co. clay in a hollow can grow Jap. azaleas but not Rhodies; her neighbors up the hill (northern exposure) can grow Rhodies, maximus and catawba. A slope helps. Don't be a ground-cleaning, leaf blowing fanatic - the neighbor with pachysandra and fifty years of fallen leaves has big healthy rhododendrons and the obsessive leaf haters have wimpy spindly ones. My conclusion: you can grow many rhododendrons in some kinds of clay, in some locations, without a whole lot of trouble. Experiment with the cheap ones first. Slope, leaf or pine mulch, east or north exposure, not too much competion with tree roots will give the best results.

Your choices for grasses are great. Love them all. Just make sure you plan for the future and don't have them planted too close together. Growing grasses from plugs may take several years to have a desired effect, so buying started plants in 4' pots might be worth looking into. Heck, if you or someone you know has a clump of these grasses they are willing to part with you can easily divide it into 4 parts using a shovel or saw and have mature-looking grasses by the end of this Fall. Black-eyed Susan and oxeye are great, but I question their longevity. They are prolific seeders, but that adds to maintenance issues. If low maintenance is a high priority, go with taproot plants. They generally live a long time and are pretty easy to maintain. Plus they don't need to be watered since the roots go deep. Perhaps establishing the grasses should be the first priority. I wouldn't spend a lot of money on buying plugs of black-eyed susan or oxeye unless they are very cheap. Buy an ounce of seed of each, throw down in bare spots after everything else is in, and you will have more than you know what to do with of both. I collect both varieties of seed each year and it's remarkable how easily the seed grows. I literally have thousands of black-eyed susans just from seed planted last year. Here is a link that might be useful: Improved Ecosystems

Thanks munkel. I will add them too. My builder has some people he'd like me to talk to as well. He is great, he was fine when I told him we wouldn't use the person he had originally sent us to and is willing to either work w/ whomever we find our help us to find someone he has worked w/ before. We also got another quote back, from paradise custom kitchens. they came in a little higher than wellsford- $38,000 + $4000-$5000 installation + tax, but that wasn't too bad either. So, we are meeting w/ wellsford on tuesday and going to oxford cabinets on tuesday, and we're also waiting for quotes back from a few other people that I sent pictures to via email.