I would bookend the porch with a large flowering shrub, and bookend the steps with a 3' evergreen shrub. I think it would be most important to reshape the bed as shown: grass borders the drive nearly to the steps; the bed is a little deeper front-to-back (in scale with the large house); and the curve at the front of the bed is a longer arch to blend more smoothly with the woods. (Hopefully, you'll arrange and set the rocks more artistically.) A partial plant list might be dwarf yaupon holly, panicle hydrangea (ignore that in the picture looks like "big leaf,) daylilies such as Stella, and groundcover ... whatever is low and works best there ... maybe blue rug juniper. A street, shade or flowering tree, or trees, at the foreground (out of view of this picture) would help if the front yard has a vacant, empty feel.

I've had 2 Rothmannia capensis -"Star of Africa" here in St. Petersburg, Fl. It has a more of a gardenia shaped flower They did not like the chill they got here. One night, temps drop to 30-31 for about 2 hours. Froze the first one, a 10 footer down to a foot high. 2 years ago it go to 28 degrees and I lost the second one. Normanly I don't have a problem with the cold here. We grow Stemmadenias with no problem at all, but the Roths just couldn't take our chill here........cheryl

hello, I have two growing west of Brisbane. One is covered in flowers and the other has very few so far. They are less than a metre apart and are approximately 2m highbut very narrow. They are growing in very clayey soil with only a superficial layer of topsoil over. They face West and have not had any water except from the sky for the last6 years, were only watered to establish. They should do very well with better conditions as they have been very tough here just to survive in the soil which is not good. They do not have any seed at the moment but did set some last year - if they have any this year it will not be ready for some considerable time but if you wish to send me an email with your address I will send some if and when it is ready. I would think the only possible problem could be with too much water during the wet so place on a slight mound if soil does not have a slope. Robyn

If the soil is really bad, I'd put a little effort into improving it before filling up with plants. I had similar situations in some foundation beds when I moved into my house. My solution was to spread 2 or 3 inches of bedding soil (compost/topsoil mix) over the beds. I forked it into the base soil where the plants were going. Then planted the shrubs/trees. Then mulched with bulk leaf compost (instead of bark mulch) the next two springs. Now, the beds will grow anything. If rehabbing the bed is too much work, you could just improve the soil in the specific spots where the plants are going. The amendment Nazis here will here will discourage this, but amending the planting area with compost or compost/topsoil works wonders in these situations as long as you go shallow and wide. If nothing else, I'd put down a thick layer of compost as mulch. You will get weeds, but greatly improve the bed. One shrub worth considering would be viburnum. I have them planted in all sorts of situations and they all thrive. A plicatum viburnum might work well on the corner.