First, in general, tulips are not truly perennial in the southeast USA. We simply do not have enough winter cold for them to bloom year after year. You live in Switzerland, so I have no idea other than your zone number. In my area (zone 7b), they are typically good for one year only, and that, only if I refrigerate them for 8 to 10 weeks before planting out. Further north, like in northern Tennessee (zone 6), they may last for two or three years before they decline. They will continue to put up foliage for years, but only about l0% will bloom, with the percentage decreasing each year along with the size of the blooms. There are a few wildling tulips that will return here: clusiana, Cynthia, Tubergen's Gem, Lady Jane, saxatilis, and sylvestris being some. They are all, however, very short, and though nice, are simply no substitute for the tall holland bulbs we all know. As to the daffodils. It doesn't matter so much how shady your area is in the summertime. What matters is the amount of shade it gets in late winter to early spring. If your shade is from deciduous trees, you should be in good shape. If it's from buildings, your bulbs will decline over a few years time. They need full sun while their foliage is up so that the bulbs can ripen for the next year. (I assume you know to never cut the foliage back till it dies naturally.) I have grown all three daffodils you mention. None persisted for more than a few years here in my warm climate. The best cyclamineus I have grown is Tete-a-Tete. It continues to bloom and multiply yearly under a deciduous tree. One clue for you is that most daffodils like a good long summer baking. If your soil is quite moist all summer long, an awful lot of them will rot. I have had the best results with daffodils in the jonquila class. If you're interested and it seems fitting to your climate, the book "Garden Bulbs for the South" by Scott Ogden is excellent. It's my go-to for all new purchases.

Prairiemoon2 - I've not seen the High Line, but my husband was suggesting a hotel with a view of it if we go (not likely this summer) to NYC. Yes, Christopher Lloyd and Piet Oudolf are inspirations to me. I used to try to keep my garden sectioned by color scheme, strictly prohibiting yellow and white in the largest section based on pink and purple. After several years of drought, I decided to "go wild" with anything that would self-sow and survive in my full sun deer resistant garden! This is the first year with all those rudbeckia and daisies! I'm happier with the results. Ianna - a stocking, of course! I thought about organza bags since I have a few that held jewelry. I have salvia 'Caradonna' and it self-sows. Right now, it is just foliage as it bloomed the first time in April here and was cut back. My favorite achilleas are 'Pomegranate' and 'Terracotta'. 'Pomegranate was just cut back this morning and 'Terracotta' is slow to bloom this year as I had to divide and move it from an area that had finally gotten some shade. It should be back big time next year. Oudolf's blue sages in the Chicago gardens (I've only seen photos) look like a river. My nemorosa sages (I have several varieties other than 'Caradonna') bloom early here in April and don't rebloom again with such drama in the heat of our summer. I love hedges as backdrops! We do have a mixed evergreen hedge on the east side, but is set back from my gardens with enough width to allow me to drive the truck around the outside of the garden. Each end of the meadow garden has "bookends" of shrubs/trees to separate and define it from the other gardens. We also are growing a holly hedge in the gravel garden that we created last year. In another 2 years, it should be a solid wall of green. There is also a hedge of buddliea and a low hedge of rosemary in the gravel garden. There is a hedge of oakleaf hollies, osmanthus fragrans, gold mops and cryptomeria that separates and backdrops the waterfall patio garden to provide privacy. Cameron

A twig of a tree will be that size after just 4 yrs. They sound like small trees to me. My parents (*sigh*) have one that is probably 25 ft tall. Produces lots of little pears too. It doesn't cast much, if any of what I'd call shade. Last year I dug out a 15 ft tall Norway Maple here in my yard. It wasn't hard and in it's place is now a Catalpa. It's almost the same size and I only paid $20 for it. A Chinquapin Oak (Quercus muehlenbergii) planted as a small tree, can grow 2 to 4 ft a year. It sounds like your husband is trying to convince himself to keep the pears...the neighbors have them, nurseries sell them (which always reminds me of my parents and their question if somebody else had something and I wanted it, if they jumped off a bridge, would I?) shade, trees take too long to grow etc etc. You can also argue that some day those trees are going to be a lot bigger than they are right now and will be harder to take down. Unless they do what they're known to do and just fall apart at 20 yrs of age. At 8 or 10 ft. your husband and a chainsaw can take care of them easily. And of course this is all just my opinion...;)

I would like to hear any of your Interests in cultivars or idea's I forgot Wild bitter watermelon crossed with sweet water melon, crossed again with sweet water melon than maybe again to get more of a sourish water melon Or maybe it could be used for wine if it wasn't good for eating out of hand (or maybe jelly too.) I really like a lot of wild plants (like the sweet fruited hack berry with a large seed Celtis) In the Hop family Of coarse if the cannabis thing is interesting to you remember about the auto flower pot a hybrid that takes the potency of regular pot, and the Russian short growing pot, (short to the ground short to the harvest time) so someone gets it in a shorter time like 2 months , but with lower harvest good for hiding out doors) (I have quit, but I do not see a problem with people going to support themselves with something natural like that.) I am Also very Interested in Persimmon (and other diospyrus species) Northern Persimmon have 90 Chromozomes, southern have 60 Does that mean I'd get a cross right, but i'd Be sterile, and I'd have to Graft it to proprogate it after the first generation grows right? (not only persimmon Like texas persimmon Japanese persimmons but also a lot of the other plants In diospyrus (date plum stc etc.) Not only those tasty fruits , but interesting ones Like in the pea/ bean family like Honey Locust (caltalpa EDIT not in the pea family ) (I have memorized a lot of the native families of IL, nice to bring some of these tropical species closer to home or closer to there home. personally I' am against Invasive plants, and pesticides so for me breeding things (like grapes for instance) with better disease resistance is ideal , and so is what others have done already making fruits grow where they normally wouldn't (like selecting fantastic avocado's in zone 6 or pomegrante (from Cold Afghanistan) , or selecting the best hardy kiwi,