Most of the plants I mentioned aren't evergreen, and they weren't meant to be prescriptive in any event. You should check out what your local nurseries have available, see what you like, and research their eventual shapes in a shrub book or on the internet. I'd say deciduous shrubs would be nicest in this setting, but your taste may dictate otherwise. I will add my mite too to the question of whether your conditions "qualify" certain plants to grow in the situation you are working with. What you need to understand in order to evaluate plants for this area is why various plants need the amount of sun or shade that is recommended for them, and what will happen if they don't get it. To some extent trial and error is the only way to learn this, but you can also learn the horticulatural principles to improve your ability to guess which plants will succeed. For example, most shade plants are adapted to catching as much light as possible in a shady environment. This is why many of them have big leaves. And they tend to prioritize surface area over leaf thickness, as they aren't faced with dessicating sun. So when you put shade plants in too much sun, the leaves are prone to burning and scorching, and they tend to wilt. Sun plants, on the other hand, have adaptations that allow them to resist heat, and they get leggy and don't bloom if they get too little sun. Obviously there are endless variations of leaf size and other attributes. For example, as someone mentioned above, there are hostas that actually want and need a certain amount of sun. And there are plants that are adapted to grow in the shade of deciduous trees, so they bloom in early spring when they get sun, and go through their leafy phase during summer. Some plants can also adapt to local conditions. For example, if the shade is really heavy and dense, as in the shade of a house, shade plants will grow their leaves extra big. But such a plant will be extra-sensitive if you change its conditions in mid-season or maybe if it gets a mid-day blast of sun. The conditions recommended on plant labels are only a guideline, and there are no guarantees that your conditions of partial shade are the kind of partial shade that a certain plant wants. KarinL

Perfect; ej... Anyone who has not experienced that very afternoon, still has a beautiful slice of poetry waiting for him. Lilo; I would gladly send you some of this awful, awful heat----we apologize for stealing it from you when you were down at the hen house!!! :o)

>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

Deb, thank you for bringing this mystery back to the forefront. I'd forgotten about it, except for a faint tickle in the back of my mind. My hosta collection is indexed on my Windows computer, have yet to discover a way to transfer it to the Macbook in new software/apps. I have Summer Fragrance. BUT, if it is listed at NHH I will order it definitely from them too. I had Essence of Summer (from Warwick Essence I think) but the crown rotted over our wet winter and it did not come back. I have Paradise Sunshine which is said to be fragrant, in the Paradise naming lineup. Let me get the old Windows computer fired up and I'll be back later. Problem is, that computer is not connected to the internet for searching. It blew a fuse I think....don't know how to fix it. I have several with Summer in the name....including Kevin Vaughan's Summer Fragrance. I got it from Hornbaker in 2012, my first big year fascinated by hostas, and I ordered over 200 unique varieties. Others with "Summer" include Summer Music, Summer Breeze, Summer Serenade, Summer Lovin. Summer Serenade had a green eyed sport, not sure what it would be, so I was searching the Piedmont Gold family tree to see if there was already a green sport. It was a sport, incidentally, because I had to cut the crown apart. I've moved the two plants after separation into more sunshine, to see what changes to the leaf color occur with more light. (My Brother Stefan sport wound up being a real Brother Stefan when more light revealed its mid-leaf color....just saying, not connected to this question at all.) I totally expected to have our house remodel done before mid June 2015, but no such luck. The driveway is torn up laying new sewer lines, new irrigation lines while we have such an event in progress, and my gardening is suffering. We'll have to rework the back garden areas too, where heavy equipment compacted the soil, before I can sod the lawn and such as that. I cannot leave it to the DH, he would try to do it himself and I want it done professionally. He is truly not able, at 82, to endure such a project. I want to make sure he has a good arm to reach for his wallet! :) More on the topic of Summer Fragrance later. I'll check for pictures.