I'll bow to laceyvail's greater knowledge, but having spent 30 some years in Maryland where dogwood did (pre blight)/does abound, it does have the potential to reach some size. On our wooded lot, in the forest-like setting, the native dogwood tended to have tall slender trunks with a lacey canopy. However, a lovely one in the open on the front lawn was a sizeable tree, both height and width-wise. I'm just saying the potential for some growth is there and the OP's is planted close to the foundation. Daylilies (hemerocallis) are different from lilies (lilium) and without putting your nose right in the throat of a daylily - like Stella d'Oro which is yellow flowered - you'd get no hint of a scent. Some other groundcovers to consider: Phlox subulata (moss phlox) Moss pink, moss phlox or creeping phlox is a pretty common rock garden plant, but it also makes a good ground cover on poor, bare soils. It does do better when not competing with other things, though. It'll form a dense mat of foliage, which is covered in spring with masses of flowers in pink, purple, or white. Mine will often get a light reblooming throughout the summer and into the fall. Sedum (Stonecrop). Many different kinds ranging from tiny mats only a few inches high to plants 2 feet tall. They're used as ground covers, in rock gardens, on slopes, between stepping stones, etc. Most sedums are spreading or creeping plants that will root from broken branches or fallen leaves. Very easy, undemanding plants. From "How Stuff Works" - How to grow leadwort: Plant in well-drained soil that is rich in organic matter. Leadwort likes full sun or part shade. It will rot if the soil stays too wet, especially in winter. In most of growing Zones 5 and 6 plants die to the ground in winter. Apply a light winter mulch, and wait until growth resumes in mid-spring to cut stems back to the ground. Plant only in the spring: Leadwort needs a full growing season to get roots established. Uses for leadwort: Plant as a ground cover under shrubs and small trees and interplant spring-blooming bulbs such as crocus and daffodils." Late to come up means literally that - other plants may be well up before a "late" breaks ground in the spring. I experience that with platycodon which is the last to break ground here. Having gardened a long time, I know where the patches of it are so I know not to dig or plant over them. It's always good to put a marker over late breakers to alert you. And most information on any kind of plants will show you pictures of them at their peak of magnificence -rarely their fall die-back or spring emergence looks. You're kind of left to figure that out on your own. It's all fun and it's all a learning process no matter how long you've been at it. Despite any degree of gardening expertise, no one's immune from unintended consequences - something that just doesn't look right, failure to thrive or survive a winter even though it's supposed to, doesn't make the neighbors stop dead in their tracks. A good local garden center can be a wealth of information.

floridarose, I got my seed from a friend, but I always assumed they were something like Summer Carnival, but after being open pollinated for years, things can change. There is some variation in height, but most are a little shorter like SC, and do often bloom the first year. It's hard to tell if they act as short lived periennials or are just reseeding almost on top of the mother plant. I don't stake my hollyhocks, but grow them against fences and the house. I've tried the Madame Butterfly snaps, and didn't like them as well as la Bella. Not only do la Bellas live longer than most other snaps, when they are pinched back they promptly send another single thick shoot up. When I pinch back Rockets, they start branching off with floppy shoots, though they also live through winter here quite well. La Bella doesn't reseed like the other snaps I grow, though (darn). It's probably a hybrid that wouldn't breed true, anyway. Here is a pic of Rocket snaps. Off to the side are some pink la Bellas. Hopefully, my file isn't too large for posting here.

I am a consulting horticulturist and I deal with horsetails constantly. Pulling does NOT compound the problem as long as you keep at. I have horsetails in my own inherited garden and that is how I deal with them and fairly successfully as well, I might add. The roots run quite deeply and pulling does not remove all the roots. New growth can emerge from these but if you keep pulling ALL the new growth before it develops much height (less than 8"), the plant is unable to photosynthesize and will eventually weaken to the point where it will not return. And only a few of the plants produce spores and only in early spring - they are very distinctive compared to the typical horsetail - and these should be pulled as soon as they appear so the spores do not develop. Most of the horsetails' spread can be attributed to the rhizomes, not the spores. I do this for a living and this is a very accepted and relatively efficient way of dealing with these pests. The lime will have NO effect so save your money and your effort. Horsetails can and do grow in a lightly alkaline soil. Increasing the pH any more than that would make the soil inhospitable to most anything else as well. Any low growing or spreading perennial that shares similar growing conditions will serve to protect the clematis roots. I like hardy geraniums. But unless the horsetails are eradicated first, you will be dealing with these weeds indefinitely. And attempting to remove horsetails from within the root system of an established clematis plant is asking for unnecessary trouble.

Personally, I find roses to be high maintenance plants. Though beautiful when grown well, they are subject to numerous diseases and bugs. And like most perennials/shrubs, yes they will look scruffy if dead flowers and leaves are not removed. (Which then brings you to the "fun" of dealing with the thorns.) This is simply what one accepts with any flowering shrub. Have you considered Hibiscus syriacus, aka Rose of Sharon? If you are unfamiliar with them, it is a specie of winter hardy hibiscus. Without trimming, and depending on the cultivar they can get 6-10feet tall and most of the ones I've seen get about 3 or 4 ft wide. (The one at my folks' place in northern Michigan has never gotten over 7 ft and they have never trimmed it.) They come in whites, pinks, reds, lavenders, "blues" (which really aren't) and bullseyes (white or pink with a red bullseye in the middle). My sis has a beautiful pure white one which also has never gotten over 7ft tall. Neither she nor my folks have found it to be at all bug or disease prone, and hummingbirds like them. (If you'd really like to do this on the cheap, and if you don't mind waiting a few years, you can grow them from seed. The one at my folks' is one I started from seed. It's been a long time, but if memory serves, it reached 4 or 5 ft by its 3rd or 4th year.) Flowers only last a day or two but healthy happy plants produce new flowers most of the summer into fall.