Well, of the plants you listed, I'd avoid crabapple because it has issues with Cedar Apple Rust disease, cotoneaster because it is very susceptible to fireblight disease, and pyracantha because it is thorny--especially if you have children that will be running around the pool area. So, that leaves Beauty Bush, Sambucus "Black Lace" and Viburnum. Of those three, I'd tend to go with Beauty Bush or Sambucus, but I am not sure either of them will do well in the hot afternoon sun. If your pool is an above-ground pool and does not have a hard-surface decking that is made of concrete or something similar, they might have a chance. If it is an in-ground pool, though, and is surrounded by concrete decking, the plants that hide the pool equipment need to be able to withstand not only the very hot summer air temperatures and intense sunlight but also the reflected heat from the pool decking. Plants that are in morning shade and then are suddenly hit by afternoon sun plus the reflected heat from a pool decking can struggle in July and August. One reason you see so many tropical plantings around pools is because tropicals can handle the extreme afternoon air temperatures and the reflected heat from the pool decking. If it were my pool, I wouldn't have chosen anything on your list for hot afternoon sun near a pool, but that's just me. I am in zone 7B with very hot summer weather and your weather might be more mild than mine, although summer is pretty hot and miserable everywhere in our state. When I choose plants for either the western or southern side of my house, the hot afternoon temperatures and the fact that the plants have to deal with heat reflecting off the walls of the house are a key consideration. In a situation like that, I prefer tough evergreen shrubs with very thick leaves, like hollies, because they shrug off the heat or tropical plants that thrive in hot weather and are not bothered by reflected heat. We had a pool when we lived in Fort Worth, and I hid the pool equipment with two tall arborvitaes. They had a nice pyramidal shape,were very dense so they hid the equipment well, and didn't shed lots of debris that could blow into the pool. One problem with anything that flowers is that the flowers eventually fall and blow around, and then somebody has to spend time cleaning them up. The clean up can take more time on a daily basis than you think, especially if they blow into the pool and are floating on the water's surface. Cannas are a good option for a poolside planting and the tall ones easily get 5 to 6' tall even if planted in poor soil, and even taller in good soil as long as they receive adequate moisture. Their flowers are larger and heavier and don't blow around as much as smaller flowers that weigh much less. The large green elephant ears get quite tall and dense as well. Both of those plants do well for me in morning shade/afternoon sun on the southern side of the house. Often it takes a while to figure out what will grow well near a pool because the reflected heat from the pool decking is often not considered when plants are chosen. Good luck, Dawn

Barco, thanks! The issue I'm having is where I live there are ZERO pebbletec installers, I wrote to Pebbletec and they said although I'm closer to Nashville that they could only recommend the installers in Atlanta, they have put in over 2,000 pebbletec finishes...when I called him he said they would drive the 3 hours to where I live to install (at a cost of up to 2k for the expense) it, and he'd charge me 9k (but said it'd come in a little less) for the Pebblesheen..he said to stick with the Pebblesheen since it is our goal to have summer camps for local kids and the pebbletec would not be good for kids feet...he did say they warranty it for 15 years, though...I'm just not sure I could find an installer that uses the off brands that would drive all the way out here...need to look up those like Stonescape and see if they can recommend anyone and if they offer the same warranty...thanks for your help!! Tara

Our first message must not have be added. We too went out for bid with both PebbleTec and Gemstone. The PebbleTec bid had a lot of variations: cost A for X color, a different cost for another color; one cost for tiling, BUT if we wanted another tile, it was cost B, another tile choice was cost C etc. The price went up significantly. It was $7000-10,000 more than Gemstone for the equivalent look. We do have a huge pool (44x24), but that's an enormous difference. We went and looked at and FELT both Gemstone and PebbleTec surfaces...most of our neighborhood has pebble surface pools now, so that was east to do and nobody minded us stepping into their pools. They both looked and felt identical. Gemstone was much more willing to work with us with colors and tile options. We were just much more impressed with them overall too -- very knowledgeable, very professional.

If the surface is bumpy, it's either a really bad plaster job or it's a pebble finish. I'm guessing it's the latter. There are a number of pebble finishes out there and we won't be able to tell by looking at a photo which one it is (because they all basically look the same). There are finishes with large aggregate and small aggregate. Some people equate the large aggregate finish as feeling like a basketball, or an orange. If that's what you have then it should feel bumpy, but it shouldn't tear up your feet. They may have used a rougher aggregate than they should have, or if it's an older application the aggregate may be separating from the base which can leave some very jagged edges exposed.