Ron, Thanks for the feedback on the other species' disease tolerance. I know that the literature always advises *not* pruning back plants to be moved, and understand the fact that the foliage is necessary for photosynthesis. But I can't quite believe that if one is getting a reduced amount of roots, and therefore the plant will not be able to supply adequate water to all top growth, it is not better to try and bring them into balance when moving large shrubs or trees. I've also heard where this should only be done after the plant is moved, and the plant itself indicates physically which parts of the plant have lost their direct connections to roots. I guess I will choose to believe that light pruning of soft new growth is advantageous to reduce transplant shock, as new growth is most likely to show immediate stress from loss of roots, and inability to balance water loss with uptake. I know the better way would be to root prune the plant first several months in advance, and then move it after it has been trenched to sever roots, fed and fertilized to encourage new denser rooting at base of plant, and then undercut and move, at a season that is best to do so for that variety of plant when it is best able to quickly generate new roots, and temperature and humidity is least stressful to the plant. But short of all that, I am not convinced that light pruning to reduce size of a shrub such as Photinia x fraseri, is going to increase the odds of failure.

littledog, thanks first for the compliment on my, well, big dog. *G* He's my boy, always out helping me. In fact, we *just* got in from the front hedge, barely in time to escape the sudden rainfall that just started. Good thing I pulled my head out from the middle of the hedge to look up. 'Cause, you know, Wolfhounds melt in the rain. Just ask them. ;-) The holly I'm undecided about, but it's on a back corner and we're the only ones who ever see it, so it can wait for a later decision. And yes, that's a redbud next to it. I have many dozens of them of varying sizes and states of decay all around the yard. We've cut down the oldest/weakest of them, we're tending to the ones still remaining, and for the most part I'm pulling up any new ones that spring up from the ground. The yard is a little over an acre, but I don't need or want 400 redbuds. But they have interesting shapes, break up some visual space here and there, and I think if I can get a few of the young ones coming up in places I find acceptable that it might be fun to shape them a bit. I like the giant bonsai look they can have. The boxwood is harmless, and mostly withstanding vast amounts of Wolfhound urine, so they'll stay. They just need a different shape and some care. I believe I should start by getting into the middle of the shrubs and cutting out anything dead, as well as a few of the oldest/thickest branches, down near the base if possible, right? From what I've read it seems like I need to open them up a bit so light and air can get in? Since they've suffered years of hedge trimmers, should I also thin out the "top" areas, where there are clusters of offshooting branches near the tips? Or should I leave that area and just thin out from further into the bushes? Yes, we have a ton of shade, and that's AFTER having a half dozen very large trees removed and the rest thinned out and cleaned up. Another half dozen or so old growth trees are going to have to come out probably in the next 2-5 years. They're mostly not very good trees...a few hackberry, a few mulberry. I have to figure out if and where we'll do any replacement trees. I think the pics were taken on an overcast day (since that's mostly what we had the last few months...haha...I seem to recall ducking out a few weeks ago between storms to take those pics). Some areas do get a fair bit of light in the middle of the day, some do not. The front fence line, for example, is in sun most of the day in the summer, other than getting some patchy shade from the magnolias that are in the middle of that fence line hedge. That fence line really must have something there blocking the view of the street, providing some privacy, and keeping the dogs from seeing every little thing that goes on outside the yard. The house, on the other hand, I don't necessarily need to hide. But the way the walkways are set up around the house, it would seem odd to me to have grass in those areas. I like the cottage-garden feel that the yard currently has, I just want it to be under control, as opposed to just being entire mayhem, which is what we have now. And I want to be able to see out my windows, which in most rooms I can not right now. All I can see out the windows is damned photinia branches. The photinias on the front fence I started tackling today. Right now I'm just cutting out about half of the growth on them. I'm cutting them back to just a bit lower than I'd prefer them to be, cutting out dead wood, clearing dead leaves from the magnolias out of them, cutting branches out of the fence, and anything that seems to be really overly long with only one leaf on the end. I WISH I could just cut them down to the ground right now, but I don't really want to remove all the privacy. I HATE the photinia. I think it's ugly, grows too fast, and is just unsightly. I have some hibiscus in the corner by the gate that I'm trying to free from the photinia as well as from some honeysuckle. And I have what I believe to be some more hibiscus popping up further down the fence line under the photinias. Can hibiscus fill in enough to provide some privacy? Or would it be too sensitive to being rummaged through by the dogs? I've got some other beds in the yard that I'm in the process of removing. One is the bed in front of the house, in front of the walkway, that encloses a tree (I think that one's a hackberry, can't remember). That will open up the front of the house some. I cut out all but one of the shrubby things growing there this morning, and still have to pull out whatever vine ground cover is there, and remove the wood rails. There's another large "bed" that encloses a bunch of trees on the west side of the house, that just makes that whole side crowded. The tree guys removed a lot of the smaller shrubs and trees there when they were working (I told them to feel free to get rid of anything in their way on that side of the house...haha), but I'll cut out a bunch more probably in the next week, and again remove the wood rails making up the edge of the bed. That will make it easier to get through that side of the yard, and we can just let the grass move in over there. And at some point I really need to deal with the giant bed, with its thousands of bulbs (seriously...thousands) of unknown type. But I'm still putting off that particular challenge. *G*

Not a lot of evergreen shrub candidates native to the northern blackland prairie ecoregion - though we're good if wanting grasses, flowers, or riparian trees. Semi-evergreen autumn sage is native, but tops out around only 3 ft. So, any taller "native" alternatives to nandina or photinia would have to be borrowed from the more acidic regions to our east (wax myrtle, Virginia sweetspire,..) or those more alkaline to our west (agerita, yaupon holly,..). Agree wax myrtle seems about the best match of the near-by natives. But here are a few others that may be worth considering: 'Henry's garnet' Virgina sweetspire (Itea virginica) has a seasonally good color match to nandina, can be semi-evergreen around Dallas, and reaches a height of about 6 ft. Though the cold weather and wind this year eventually knocked about 70% of the leaves off our 'Little Henry', so would likely be times when it would too thin as a privacy screen. Argarita (mahonia trifoliolata) is another possibility, though has prickly leaves and a rough open form in the wild. Only recall seeing one in cultivation that was big and bushy enough to serve as a screen. Maybe others know more on how this grows under care in north Texas? We started the slow growing Texas mountain laurel (Sophora secundiflora) as an eventual (decade+ from now) replacement for a section of nandina screen. Seen these left in shrub form as hedge in SA, so could potentially serve as an alternative to a photinia hedge where there is enough space. Considered marginal this far north, but was unsheltered and undamaged during our recent 3-day deep freeze. Here is a link that might be useful:

These kind thoughts and good wishes mean so much to me; I thank you all for these, and also for the hopeful, optimistic comments. Being a "second-time offender" with onco stuff might be making it even more frightening than it would be otherwise, and I'm only 59 years old! Worse yet, this time around it's a vital organ that's been hit,and there's lymph-node involvement. I love life so much, and want to live a very long and healthy life. Even at my age, I miss the fact that I wasn't granted the gift of knowing my parents as old people. My best friend is caring for her 90+ year-old-dad, and I realize full well that it is no party,but at the same time I think (no, I know) he gives her much joy...well, I don't know how to say it, I just think that I would love to be around, in relatively good health, for as long as possible for my DS and my DH. Ingrid, you are so right " just being allowed to talk about this here is a great help." I, too, fervantly hope that now that your DH is getting treatment his health will gradually start to improve. Titian, I am encouraged to hear about your friend,and I wish her the best. The idea of having a big piece of one's lung removed is terrifying, yet the human body is such a miracle...after all, here I am, I've apparently been boogie-ing around,doing "extreme gardening" on a very sharp slope for years with emphysema, and I never even realized I had it...Sheila, I think the very fact that you wish you could help us DOES help us.You are sweet.