I also have seen reports that 'Smaragd' Emerald Green do not go brown in the winter. There are some other arborvitae cultivars which are reported to brown in the winter. That person may have gotten the Emerald greens confused with those cultivars. It, also, could be that in your area the Smaragds get so stressed in the winter that they do turn brown. I have a screen of thuja 'Green Giants' which all winter stay a nice color for me situated on the north side of our neighbor's two story house. But my friend has a 3 foot high row of the same cultivar of my trees planted along the south side of her 7 foot tall privacy fence. Her trees while they were trying to get established did change color last year. Not exactly brown, but more of a burgundy shade. They greened back up the following spring and summer, and we are still waiting to see if hers will stay green over the coming winter.

Hello and welcome. I love your "don't mourn organize" for all it stands for! Joe Hill, labor history, etc. I think that if you could post a photo of the area you want to put the shrubs in it might inspire some posts in reply. If you enter the words "post" and "photo" in the Garden Web search box, you will get lots of information on how to post a photo. If you are successful at keeping the deer out, my first thought for something easy would be dogwood (Cornus). There are some that are very beautiful in the winter and they would grow very well in a situation like yours. I have one called 'Midwinter Fire'. In winter it is brilliant red on the bottom half of branches and brilliant yellow on the upper half. Living in Montana I really like to get some winter color into my landscape. I am in US Zone 4 and it does fine here. I think Zone 3 would be too cold for it. If you do a Google image search with the words: Cornus "Midwinter Fire" you will see lots of photos of it. It really is stunning after the leaves fall and right up till it is covered with leaves again in spring. I should have spoken to your desire for fruit. There are some very hardy cherries developed by the University of Saskatchewan. They are shrub cherries that grow to about 2 meters/6feet tall. They are being bread to provide a commercial crop for the Canadian prairie and are very hardy. Some were bred to be good for eating fresh and some for use in pies, etc. The one I would love to get is called Juliet (sometimes spelled Juliette) and is a fresh eating cherry. Unfortunately these cherries can only be sold in Canada (lucky you!) You might need to order from a mail order nursery. If you Google the words: cherries University Saskatchewan Juliet OR Juliette, you will find nurseries that sell them. It would be best to plant Juliet and one other variety (the nurseries will have more than one. (I know one is called Romeo). Cross pollination increases fruit production and you can't get cross-pollination with only one variety. They should be planted 5 or 6 feet apart. They need to have water withheld after harvest so that they will stop growing and harden off for winter. If you decide to buy, ask for instructions for how to grow. Hope you find something you love!

Hi everyone, thank you all the wonderful input! What a wealth of information. This gives me so many different options and plant combos to try. Cori-Ann, thanks for all of your input and advice based on my climate. My soil is funny enough directly the opposite of yours, very rocky and hard and I have successfully planted all kinds of lavender without too much trouble (have spanish, french and english lavender in different areas in my front yard), though I wish I had your soil, it sounds lovely! I have also successfully planted roses with some amendment and careful watering, though many of my roses are planted or will be planted in a raised bed since two of my austins almost died last year because the soil wasn't to their liking - to be fair I also neglected them when work got busy during the hotter months. But my eden, skylark, and heritage are all doing great, and lots of my neighbors have floribundas/HTs that seem to be thriving. Aquaeyes, thanks for the tips on how to plant the two together. I'm going to try that! I am also planning for lavender more in front with roses more in the back so I'd plan to put down drip irrigation in the back of my roses which I'm hoping will give the roses enough water - the lavender would just get the runoff from whatever soaks over - though agreed with smithdale that my english lavender does seem to want more water than my French and Spanish kinds. For anyone interested, I'm planning Hidcote lavender in this bed. What I may do is plant lavender first and only one rose as a test to see how that works for a year. And if everything seems happy. I'll buy more roses. If not, I'll stick to the lavender since I try to keep my front yard low maintenance - most of my loved roses are in my side and back area. So whatever I chose for the front will have to be easy and able to tough it out if it wants to stay =). Really appreciate all of the wonderful suggestions here!! I'm going to do research and come up with a plan. If anyone else has any recs for hardy roses that aren't fussy and don't mind hard, clay, rock soil, let me know!

Good point about the slope-I really should have done better in geometry! So far the pittosporum seems most appealing since it won’t drop any fruit. i would think that I’d have to plant more than one to achieve a continuous hedge but it does appear to be a fast grower so definitely a contender