>I'd prefer Felicia to Cornelia since Felicia, I've heard, has stronger scent? or is that not true? I have a couple Felicias that are babies now. (like I said in my previous... I'm not sure if they're doing well or not. They may just be young?) Hi Aimee, Rogue Valley lists them both with three "f's" out of a possible four for degree of fragrance. Francesca is for sure a beautiful rose, so good luck with it! If you ever do consider Cornelia too, well, I've read a few comments that its fragrance wafts on the breeze. >Both Kathleen and Mutabilis (which I guess are similar to Bermuda's Kathleen) are listed as shade tolerant... Neither one makes it to the ARE shade tolerant list, though they do sell both. (The person running that nursery is extraordinarily knowledgeable so I'd take his advice over the opinions of others.) >I'm open to Darlow's Enigma, too. I want something that does WELL there... otherwise I might want to try a shrub or something more tolerant? I've seen so many gorgeous pictures of this very fragrant rose that at one time I wanted it too. But it was a turnoff to discover that it is supposed to be unusually thorny. >I really like camellias too. Mary, that was one of my other ideas. So if the roses won't do well, I'd rather go with something that will do better. Your roses are probably going to do fine, with the right selections, I'd guess. On the other hand, with more thought as to the whole picture, you might want a little greater diversity in the front yard and some things with a bit of a heavier shinier leaf look to them. Two books to help you form your own landscaping ideas: House and Garden Book of Country Gardens," by Charles Quest-Ritson, and Landscape with Roses" by Jeff Cox. Consider Japanese maples if you end up looking for more trees. I never tire of looking at ours (three kinds here). >I have a small camellia roughly in that spot now, it's getting a little bit of burning on the leaves, but overall seems happy, so I'm guessing as it gains maturity, it will be able to tolerate sun better. I don't think you ought to generalize the experience for a single camellia (japonica?) to all the many others you might consider for the same spot. Some varieties aren't too picky about how much sun and sun protection they have, and some are very picky. The variety in that spot is just probably one of the pickier ones and is wishing it were in a slightly shadier spot or were getting better watering. >Mary, how do you mean "for the front walk"? sorry, I can't figure out which part you mean exactly., do you mean along the sidewalk coming from the front door, on both sides...? (before it does a right angle?) Edging each side with shishigashiras would work well for the entire distance, I'd guess. >I'm just having trouble with the part that's right up next to the front of the porch (the foundation) There are an unending number of potential choices and combinations, all of which would make a nice inviting entrance for your house. It all depends on what you personally like best. If it were my house, I'd opt for some Bonanza camellias spanning the front next to the porch, with perhaps a rose climbing the two pillars where you have two MAC's planted now. >I'm seriously considering putting a tea (probably Archduke Charles) in the front middle area. I think that one is a china, but it should still do quite well in your climate. Gorgeous! If you're hoping for the evergreen quality that many of the tea roses have you'd just have to ask locally about that. >I also was thinking about pillaring a rose, like you said. but I'm on the fence. It would be great if one of the roses already on my short list was one that could be pillared. In seeing some more pictures now, I'd suggest the pillar for a larger planting area than what you have right in the front. The height of your climbers next to the porch might be enough for that area; too many focal points amounts to not having any. A pillar might make a really nice focal point in your side yard though. I'm not sure which roses are on your short list-- I might not have seen that list anywhere. Anyway, it wouldn't hurt to post them all again in a very organized fashion. Ideally, include a division as to front yard/side yard/back yard plant intentions, assuming you've taken the ideas that far. It also would be very helpful to actually make it into a much longer list, listing first the names of the roses you've already purchased/planted in those yard areas, along with a dotted line to separate the ones not yet bought but that you're considering for future purchase in those same particular yard areas--with all three yard areas totally separated by lots of space and double dotted lines. You are doing enough stuff all at once there that it is easily confusing to try to recall everything you might have mentioned somewhere sometime in different posts now, and this is the very most basic information that anyone wanting to offer suggestions needs to have. There's also a benefit to forcing yourself to organize your own information: it's not just a benefit to your readers, but you yourself can do a better thinking job with the information, once you've organized it enough to have it ready at your fingertips. Best wishes, Mary Here is a link that might be useful: A shade-tolerant rose resource

There are a couple of big differences between your hedge/house and the one in your picture (which I agree - it looks dynamite there). First, the house in the pic has very different proportions from your house. It's more squared off, whereas yours is much wider than it is tall (from these pics). The windows in the inspiration house are tall and narrow, whereas yours are low and wide. The inspiration house has some fairly "busy" woodwork, while yours has a simple, clean style. The structured hedge for the inspiration house is off-setting some of that elaborate woodwork, and the length of the hedge is providing some balance to the tall, narrow look of the house. The same hedge on your house is reinforcing the low, wide structure of the house. You have a pretty structured, clean look to the house, and the structured, clean look to the hedge is making an overwhelming sense of "structure". It makes it look boxy and plain, and takes a lot of the potential character away from your (very nice) house. Also, the others who commented that the hedge is cutting your lower windows in half horizontally are right, and that's just reinforcing this impression even more. There are a lot of things you could put in there that will complement your house's style and still give you privacy in those windows. If this were mine, I'd want to balance the structured look of the house with a much less structured look in the lawn. You can do that if you replace the hedge (is that boxwood?) with another evergreen hedge that has a rounder, more mounded character. You can also provide balance by making a nice, deep, curving bed in the front. I would suggest rhododendrons, or azaleas, but planted with some space in between them, not as a wall of greenery. You'd get your privacy in the windows, they'd break up the horizontal effect, they're pretty low-maintenance (as long as you get ones that are appropriately sized, and I'd suggest ones that aren't likely to get above 4 or 5 feet tall, max), and you get flowers. In front of those, I would put some nice summer-flowering perennials in. Daylilies would be nice - you don't get much lower-maintenance than a bed full of daylilies. You'd want to have several different types and plant them in drifts so that you get nice irregularly-shaped blocks of color throughout the season. Hostas would also work for you - if you want something a little "formal" looking you can front your bed with a nice edging of small-ish hostas - this can give a very finished look to a perennial bed. I also agree about putting something in that rock wall. Creeping thyme is lovely and low-maintenance. Campanulas would soften the look really nicely too.

This place looks like it might be able to provide the right type of retractable screen, eh? I called and while it was a brief call, the man said they can be more sheer for sun-blocking only or else can be more for privacy where you can't see through - and he said they come in something like a hundred different colors, and can be retracted either manually or w/ a motor. :) http://www.lasvegassolarscreens.com/patio_shades.html

OC, I really don't know why the map and the list don't match. It may be a mistake or typo idk but if you follow the maps up into Canada, there isn't any z2 areas until you get quite a bit further north of Lake Superior (100-150 mi?). Now Cook County MN, is famous for what little mountains we have here in Minnesota and has elevations in places over 1000ft higher than most other areas in MN. (I'm @ ~1400ft). Quite possibly, there have been events in that county where polar vortexes have collaborated with those 'mountains' to create some very cold temperatures, and that may have affected the calculations for zones in those areas. One thing is for certain, if anyone can publish documents that may have more that a few inaccuracies, it's .gov. :-) Now to answer your question about my handle: One of the first years I lived up here, late 70's, we had a most severe winter with weeks of below zero temperatures, even during the day. For two nights in a row (late January?), we had -54d f. (It was a low-lying area out in the country). It most likely was a polar vortex of some sort, but to me, that winter was a bit below the averages for z3. So that kind of stuck with me. Even a few years ago, we had -46 for a couple of nights. So, government documentation or not, short periods of z2 is possible here.