If you want aggressive groundcovers that spread quickly - but don't invade or affect your larger plants - I have a few I like to use, which are common, easy to find and well-known: Ajuga reptans var. 'Bronze Beauty' - nice dark-leafed groundcover (a mottle of dark purple and olive green leaves) that is very shade-tolerant for the areas closest to the house. Short blue flower spikes in the spring. It will survive droughts but if there's water available it will grow very dense, to make it absolutely impossible for weed seeds to sprout from within it. But it's shallow-rooted so won't compete with your plants, nor will it shade them because it never grows more than 3 inches from the ground. It's easy to spread around by digging small bits that take well even in heat. Sedum spurium 'Red Carpet' - A very attractive red-leafed sedum that will really stand out in contrast to those varigated irises if planted right next to and among them. It is also very low-growing, drought-tolerant so it will not take water that could be going to your other plants, and this particular variety grows pretty slow. Sedum spurium 'Tricolor' - similar to 'Red carpet' but grows more quickly, has a green/white leaf that has a very visible pink blush over it when it's exposed to direct sun; it also turns more pink in the winter, and has pink flowers. Cerastium tomentosum ('Snow In Summer') - spreading silver-leafed ground cover that is also reliably less than 4 inches high, gets absolutely covered in white flowers in the early summer, and would pop against the ajuga and red-leafed sedum. It wouldn't contrast as well against the iris so I wouldn't plant it right there, but because it's the most drought-tolerant, I'd put it right up against the edge of the garden.

This is a link to my photos..... not sure if this will work. Indeed it says "it's not a valid URL." I used Picasa and copied and pasted the HTML that is supposed to send the photos to a website Here is a link that might be useful: Dying Hollywood juniper

"Jacobson (above) lists J. chinensis 'Variegated Kaizuka' as a synonym, under J. chinensis var. torulosa 'Variegata'" According to Welch, it was raised in 1965 at Monrovia Nursery from a sport and named by Den Ouden & Boom; if this is correct (not guaranteed!), it is post-1959 so can't have a Latin cv name. As to whether it is two languages or not - I think one could reasonably argue that 'Kaizuka' is (through its use as a cultivar name for a related cultivar) a legitimate loan word in English from Japanese. 'Kaizuka' itself was (again according to Welch) formally named by a German person (Hornibrook), not a Japanese person. But I'd also interpret the ICNCP stipulation "a language other than Latin" to be a generalised statement merely excluding Latin, not restricting names to one language per name. I'd bet there's plenty of other cultivar names made up from more than one language. "I've also read numerous sources describing names like "chisio improved" for japanese maples illegit for this reason" That's illegit because of the use of the word "improved", not because it contains two languages: "(f) Do not use any of the following banned words (or their equivalents in any language) in your epithet: "cultivar", "grex", "group", "hybrid", "maintenance", "mixture", "selection", "series", "sport", "strain", "variety" (or the plural form of these words in any language) or the words "improved" or "transformed". (ICNCP Art. 19.19-19.20)" Resin

Okay--I've decided to hold off on the 'Hollywood Lights' until it's been on the market longer and hopefully specimens available will be larger and I'm going for the 'American Icon'! I hate to start out with wimpy starts, as they just make me too nervous! Hosta should be enjoyed, not hovered over like I will do if they are so small to start out with. I'm always fearful as to what to do with them--plant them in the garden and watch them sit there, still small, for several years or leave them potted where they will hopefully be more water controlled and free from voles and slugs, but then comes winter.....always a risk if not planted in ground!!!