I'm always on the look-out for sites like this. Thanks for sharing this one. I've bookmarked it to return for deeper exploration later. It appears to be a winner! -Sharon

I just saw Sester among the early christmas plants at the nursery. it is meant to be a pot plant or living xmas tree, I'm sure.this nursery would never carry it in its regular inventory. I also saw a "Hoops" blue spruce, highly recommended for it's blueness, but don't know that I have a place to put it... and gave up my week long struggle deciding whether I really had a space for a half price metasequoia "gold rush" the only place right now would be too close to powerlines, and the impending hurricane winds and some recent GW comments reminded it me it would foolish to put a beautiful expensive tree in harm's way. Having given up that dream, St. Mary's Broom may still be left at the same nursery. Dee- and others with conifer fright- screw up your courage. I have had arborvitae "smaarg" in my garden for 10 years and it is a perfect height, lovely shape, great color. Two anchor corners of the bed. I have had chamycypress obtusa in the center, also for ten years, and its lacy fronds make everything look better. I think I could have used something smaller, and this year is the first year I lightly pruned the tips a couple of inches. And it is highly unlikely that anything labeled "dwarf" will ever dwarf anything in your garden, even in 20 years, unless the perennials themselves are 5 inches high. At that height, weeds dwarf them more quickly and persistently than a dwarf conifer. It took me nearly ten years in this garden to add conifers; I think I understand the feeling of insecurity. In my case, moving into another plant group was an outcome of my maturing gardening skills and sensibility that paralleled the maturation of the garden. The garden NEEDED the solidity, gravity and permanence of conifers. A deciduous shrub, a big grass, or a big pot just wouldn't work. There were places where the garden needed to be "held down" and anchored. Keep us posted, especially if you get some conifers into your Edens. Marie/idabean

My garden soil is rocky clay & I've just lasagna layered right over it planting these plants (without repeating what others have listed) -golden creeping Jenny - Lysimachia -lungwort - Pulmonaria -shasta daisy, older cultivars -forget me not (biennial) -wild sweet William -Heuchera 'Firefly' -hardy wild ginger - Asarum -hardy bigroot - Geranium macrorrhizum -Dusky Cranesbill (mourning widow) - Geranium phaeum -other hardy geraniums - think it's G. x oxon... bloomed all summer - cut it back several times thinking it was done & it bloomed again) -Darmera peltata - Indian rhubarb -hardy ferns esp varieties native in your area -hardy fuchsia -Meconopsis Cambrica - Welsh Poppy -bee balm - Monarda (flops in shade, but still blooms for me & looks great next to daisy for later summer/fall color, so they can flop together near hydrangea, rhodendron, & crocosmia 'Lucifer') -Japanese anemone for fall color! -Brunnera - species, not the fancy white leaved types -monkey flower - Mimulus -Bergenia -sweet flag - Acorus (grows in heavy clay soils) -Carex 'Ice Dance' - variegated grass -Columbine -Ligularia -Astilbe - loves rich soil, so do give it compost/manures, etc. -Persicaria virginiana 'Variegata' (Tovara virginiana 'Variegata') -Vinca major (larger leaves than the minor) -sweet woodruff -Carex, brown (not sure the variety I have) -daylily (though less blooms in shade) -Miller's crimson Japanese primrose -English primrose 'wanda' - fast growing spreader, divide every few years to keep it happy (I just take chunks out to give to other gardeners & call it good) -Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae - Robb's Spurge -plants native to your area should also do well (I have red huckleberry, fringecup (Tellima), piggyback plant, Indian plum, low oregon grape, red currant, & various ferns doing well on the far right side in the pic below. Mid July pic of garden planted in late March on clay soil (my manure makers: chicken, duck & rabbit coops in the background) Most of what you see was winter sown, divisions my other gardens, or from plant swaps & just took off in our prepared soil. Composted manure + bedding is awesome! Be sure to remind her to use mulch to help the plants not dry out in summer.

Creeping thyme. It looks nice, will grow well if planted into the grass and smells great after the occasional mowing ;-) My parents' grave has perpetual care and we're not allowed to plant any bushes or perennials because they will interfere with the mowing. Also, as the site is on a mountaintop the sun is very intense and there is no water anywhere. I solved the "prettying up" by planting plugs of creeping thyme into the grass over the grave during springtime which can be very cold and damp in the Upper Catskills, in a few weeks the thyme was spreading and flowered on and off throughout the growing season. By planting during a cool and wet period you should be able to eliminate most of the trips to the marker for any daily watering-in until the plants are established...if it's been very windy though overcast you still will want to bring up some water for the transplants. Wind, across the open plains of a cemetary, can dry out the soil surface faster than sun. For a permanent display I made two wooden planters with silk flower arrangements. I sprayed these with polyester fixative to help retain the color and quality of the flowers. That worked out well as the arrangements only get sunfaded and wind-tattered after a few years out in the full sun and intense weather. These planters sit on the slab the headstone is on, one for Mom on the left and one for Pop on the right. Some people use caulking to affix the base of the planters to the slab but this is a small community graveyard and pilfering has never occured. T