When we first moved here, most of the swamp was either red-twig dogwood, cattails or phragmites. All of them are extremely aggressive in a wet setting. In slightly higher places, there is some sort of wild pussy willow, what I think is arrowwood viburnum, wild winterberry, too much amur honeysuckle, coltsfoot and, of course skunk cabbage. I've planted lindera benzoin, viburnum trifolia, Hammalis virginiana, Rosa palustris, and more winterberry in relatively wet areas. Only the rose went into serious standing water. Slightly higher up, in areas that stay dry, but don't have a lot of root room before they hit water I've put a Little Girl magnolia, some hydrangea, and there are fairly large pin oaks, maples and ashes. One of my biggest gardening obstacles is a fairly limy soil. Somehow it got into my brain that the acid lovers can't handle it because the minerals clog their vascular system. So they might do better provided with as much water as possible. This does explain why winterberry grows wild here, and why my pin oaks aren't chlorotic when it's a real problem locally. So there are things like the magnolia that wouldn't ordinarily be placed in a wet place, but I'm putting down there as an experiment.

Yeah, i'm growing it indoors. The first thing I thought was that they could be vermiculite, perlite or styrofoam, but then I noticed that they were all concentrated in one area, a lot of them. I've posted pics at : http://www.briancronin.org/googlefe50c15e3089a480.html or click the link below thanks again Here is a link that might be useful: pictures of stangeness

The first one is Asparagus meyerii also known as Foxtail fern. The second looks like Philodendron selloun. The third is the toughest for me. It does not look like any tropical I have seen. Could it be a some type of sedum? Plant four is red bottlebrush aslo known as melaleuca.

Thanks for the additional photos and the bed measurements. I am fairly sure from looking at your photos that your house doesn't face due north, since in all your photos there is sun either on the front of the house (first photo, taken either early morning or late afternoon) or on the bed itself (last two photos, taken an hour or two before or after noon, based on the shadow from the house next door.) So you should probably go to Google Earth (which always has north up like a map) and find your house to figure out what direction it's really facing before we go any further on plants. It looks more like it gets close to a half day of sun and even when in shade, the shade will be bright, so you have more flexibility on what you can plant beyond shade plants. I'd still love a photo from across the street or plot plan that shows how deep the lot is and how wide, so I can figure out where to put a tree or two which are the only things large enough to ground your house and how to pull the landscape out some to also help ground the house. I would also love to be able to see both corners to see how to frame the front of the house, perhaps some flowering small trees or a taller spire of an evergreen. I still think that a more vase-shaped medium sized tree such as a Heritage birch would look great offset from the house, both over toward the right side and well out into the yard. Plant it so that the ultimate width won't overflow into the neighbor's yard. I am thinking generally that the front beds need to be made just a bit deeper and planted with two rows of shrubs and in front of that a row of perennials in just 2 or three colors with several plants per group for mass effect. One row of shrubs should be all one kind of evergreen that will stay below window height or shorter, one a long flowering shrub such as one of the reblooming Hydrangea macrophyllas such as your current Endless Summer (since it is doing well) or one of the longest blooming, and then a front row of perennials in just 2 or three colors. Depending on the evergreens and the flowering shrubs, you might have either closest to the house (though plant leave at least 2 feet with no plants behind the ultimate shrub size for maintenance and to prevent house damage.) On the walkway side, the perennials can be on the side away of the walk away from the house, continuing across the entire front in a straight line but filling in back to the shrubs on the right side of the house. This will give you something with enough mass to be visible against the house from the road (unlike the current one of this and one of that), and walking to the house will be through the garden rather than in front of the garden. Look at the first photo in thisthread from the blog of a wonderful landscape designer in the Detroit area, Deborah Silver, for something of the effect I am thinking of for your house's shrubs. She used H. paniculata Limelight, a taller hydrangea that is only just starting to bloom here, but you can choose one that will reach a height that come to just about your window sill level. The evergreens provide some color and structure for the five or so months that the Hydrangeas are bare, but don't need to be a formal sheared hedge as this yew hedge is. They can be a looser, naturally low growing evergreen. For your proportionately taller, narrower house (compared to the one in the blog), I would plant the trees off the corners, whether small flowering trees or taller narrow spires and a larger tree off to the side farther out into the yard toward the road as I mentioned above. You might even consider a medium hedge out closer to the road (though not close enough to be in conflict with winter snow plowing) to help bring higher the "ground feel" from the road (which looks like it must be lower than the house) to balance the house height. Something low maintenance with flowers such as some of the newer low care shrub roses or rugosa roses, or Hydrangea paniculata might work. For your current plants, move them to the back or side yard if you have a place for them, or advertise them as free if the taker digs them.