Carol I'm putting your pics in for you. Hopefully someone here can offer suggestions but you may get more on the bath forum. Post there and put the link to here. You might be able to find something similar to what you have - not sure doing something contrasting is the way to go. If you tear out those 2 rows top to bottom and use a simple white tile (even if it's not a match) it should blend well enough to get you through. Deb

Hi - Hoping I can get a some help to save my tree... I took some pictures which are below. Only one of my four stems seems to be healthy and growing new leaves. The other three are in various levels of sick. Help! I usually only water when the soil is dry. Lately I've let it dry out a lot because I thought maybe I was over watering it. The tree means a lot to me and I really don't want it to die! Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.This is the only healthy branch. This is the one that's the most sick. You can see that it's started to change color and wrinkle/twist. This one's leaves shriveled up. This is the only healthy branch. and here's the whole tree... looking sad. After reading a lot of these threads, I've stopped watering it. I think I over watered it this winter. I'm not sure if the wrinkled branch is dead or not. Is it possible to cut the tip of it off? Will it regrow? What about the one with the wrinkled leaves? Hoping someone has some advice! Thanks! Carlos

Goatsbeard or Sheep Laurel for the left, back corner. They should do okay size-wise and in dryish shade. Some blueberry bushes between the forsythia and iris. Front of the border plants might include Heuchera, Tiarella, Cranesbill (all can take some shade). Creeping phlox is pretty, too. Ferns look nice in a native garden. There are some that will grow in dryish shade.

I am not entirely sure what you are looking for. A lot of gardening for me is researching plants, putting them in spots that fit their cultural needs, and then seeing how they do. If something doesn't work, I move it and try something different. I visit other private gardens, garden centers, and botanical gardens for inspiration and spend time looking at images on line, in magazines, and in garden books from the library. I do best at making suggestions with photos, though the plan view gives a good overview and will help place photos if you letter or number both the photos and where they are on the plan. Can you add some photos? Have them include something that indicates the type of shade if possible. For instance, overhanging trees provide deeper shade than the white wall of a one story house which has a lot of indirect light. Natives are a nebulous concept. Do you mean native to the NE US? If so, New England and New York are almost entirely forested by nature if they aren't kept open. Or just native to the US? That will give your more options. If you are open to nonnative, you have an even wider set of possibilities. Many of the plants you mention (such as purple iris) could be any one of a number of species so I don't know what to suggest about them. I grow several kinds of purple iris: reticulated, Japanese, Siberian, native Iris versicolor/blue flag, and some purple bearded iris, both tall and short. There are several species of Oenothera and Baptisia, but the Baptisia all need a fair amount of sun, so that may explain the slow-growing aspect and the different Oenothera have differing behaviors. Beware of your packet of wildflower seeds. Unless you checked species and are sure that they are actually natives, you may have sown a set of weedy non-natives. Often "wildflower" seeds are just easy self-sowers that aren't natives. I made that mistake a number of years ago and am still removing some volunteers of non-natives that are basically weeds with pretty flowers, but want to take over the whole garden via prolific seeding. 3' and 4' deep is quite shallow for a bed that long, especially with prairie plants that don't always stand upright. I would add enough extra depth to make it a minimum of 5'-6' deep. That will give you enough depth to have more than a single line of plants (or two) for more interest and longer bloom times. Also, be aware that prairie plants really need full sun, and it sounds like several of your areas have too much shade. Look into natives that do well in your area such as some of the asters (US natives are now in the genus Symphyotrichum though not all nurseries have caught up), milkweeds, etc. Check out Lupine, Amsonia cilliata or Amsonia hubrichtii and Rudbeckia. If you are looking for natives for shade, be sure to find ethically sourced plants, not dug wild plants, so they should say nursery propogated, not just nursery raised. These would include Tiarella, coral bells/Heuchera, ginger/Asarum canadense, Trilliums, bloodroot/Sanguinaria canadensis, spring beauty/Claytonia viriginica, Jack-in-the-pulpit, a few of kinds of Maianthemum (false Solomon's seal/M. racemosa, M. stellata, and Canada mayflower/M. canadense), partridge berry/Mitchella repens, wintergreen/Gaultheria procumbens, and Phlox divaricata and P. maculata. Don't forget native shrubs, many of which will do well in your partly shaded areas. Hydrangea arborescens (Annabelle is one cultivar), spicebush/Lindera benzoin, native deciduous azaleas and their cultivars, several Viburnums, all of which have nice flowers, berries if you have different cultivars or wild type of the same species, and and lovely autumn color. Sambucus/elderberry likes sun and is much enjoyed by pollinators and birds, though they tend to sucker and spread. Look at Fothergilla which has honey-scented, bottle brush spring flowers and stunning fall color, especially when it gets at least a half day of good light. Consider having some plants with winter interest since winter in your area, like in mine, can be long and gray. Evergreen perennials look good in late fall until the snow falls, and then woody plants with nice structure or bark or evergreen leaves (either broadleafed or needled) look good. Put the winter interest plants where they will be visible from windows that overlook the yard. Look at cultivars of native red-twigged dogwoods/Cornus, striped AKA moose maple/Acer pensylvanicum, and Cornus alternifolia/pagoda dogwood for winter bark or shape, and rhododendrons (many of the natives are quite large) and mountain laurel/Kalmia latifolia for broadleafed evergreen foliage. Most of these will do fine in part shade. Evergreen conifers such as some of the smaller cultivars of Thuja occidentalis/white cedar or any smaller selections of the native firs and spruces will provide not only green, blue, or gold foliage all year, but winter shelter and nesting for birds along with the rhodies. I much prefer Lonicera sempervirens, the native coral or trumpet honeysuckle, to Virginia creeper in a yard like this since VC/Parthenocissus quinquefolia tends to spread where not wanted with underground stems/suckers. I grow both, but VC is restricted to wooded areas because of its aggressive spreading while the honeysuckle is well-behaved, though large. I have the cultivar Major Wheeler, which has a really heavy bloom in late spring followed by continuous bloom all summer on new growth. The hummingbirds love it. I don't understand the area around the patio and garage. Are those paths along the side and back of the garage, and where is the back door? How will you fit in the trellised honeysuckle? I would remove the thin strips of sod on both sides of the patio. IME most folks don't use a sitting area as far from the house as the far corner of your yard since shlepping a beverage, reading matter, etc. out there can be a bit of a hassle. If you would use it, then fine, but I would be more likely to shade the patio near the house since it is more likely to be used, and put some of the larger shrubs such as some of the native Rhododendron maximum cultivars there.