Thank you all! After a long tortuous process of renovating and adding onto our small house, I can't wait for March so I can dive into planting. The construction wrecked the yard so it's a blank slate. I'm going to try some of the alternatives suggested in this thread. Except azaleas - I'm the one person in the DC area who doesn't love azaleas. We have a few and they seem incredibly hardy and pretty when they flower, but most of the year they just kind of look scraggly. That's sacrilege I guess. We had a mammoth bunch of hydrangeas in front of the house but lost them to construction. In the back yard, the hydrangeas are on the opposite side of the yard from the walnut trees and don't seem to be impacted. The walnut trees seem to be doing well too. We just had them trimmed by an arborist and the only problem that came up was a raccoon living high up in one of the trees!

Thanks, Jay I've never heard of that genus. One learns something new every day.

I did check Burncoose, and noticed they had H. aspera listed. The plant is located on King George V Memorial Walk, Hayle, next to Copperhouse Pool, which is a tidal basin. I don't know where they source their plants from, but I suspect that it isn't Burncoose. They have other Aus plants, eg Brachychiton populneus(?) that Burncoose don't carry. I've tried to get information, previously, but it appears to be maintained by a group of volunteers, who never seem to know the IDs of the plants they have, or where they are obtained from. I'll try the Council, next, and see if they can give me any info (but I'm not going to hold my breath) I have emailed the Australian National Botanic Gardens, in Canberra, to see which spp they might suggest.

Southern Ontario, CANADA . Winters similar to Buffalo, Michigan, but a lot less snow cover than Buffalo. We are at least a zone colder than Biuffalo too.. summer mid to upper 80s and 90s common.. humid... winters on the cold side by US standards... but mild by Cdn standards! Height - pretty open about that - I guess nothing exceeding 10'. I have a hysdgrangea there now that is underperforming and attracts a lot of stinging insects that i am allergic to... close to our patio area so something that doesn't attact hornets and wasps... I think i have pink diamond there now... I don't like it, neither the flowers or it's mediocre performance after 2+ years... Limelight might be what I want.. or perhaps a double knockout rose (standard..) but will DKO rose flower well with mid afternoon sun? It's shaded til 1 PM If DKO rose works for the site, I do like the idea of a long, repeat bloom time