Hi Miranda: Before moving to Arizona, I was a landscape designer in upstate NY. This photo is an exciting combination of colors: yellow-green, deep purple and touches of red. It's hard to know the scale of your garden without an image. I would begin by adding the largest elements first. A small Japanese Maple in red or green would give the space a human scale and could be trained to any size. Seating nearby: a simple wooden bench comes to mind. A bench means a path is needed. Combining a variety of stone shapes adds interest. You might consider looking at classic Japanese garden paths for ideas. Planting mosses between the stones will bring in your yellow-green in a subtle way. Patches of ajuga would introduce a rich green and burgundy contrast. Your rudbeckia would be a handsome drift of yellow-orange in the background. I might add a single forsythia to interrupt the swath of orange. A border of Hosta aurea-marginata and Japanese Forest Grass underplanted with crocus, daffodils and ajuga might be a nice combination. Elsewhere I might introduce red peonies, Sedum 'autumn joy' and tall purple German Iris with an underplanting of grape hyacinth, purple and white pansies (they sometimes self-sow) and a groundcover of sweet woodruff (for scent). There's really no end to the beautiful combinations possible in a shade garden. I hope you'll love your garden as much as I did mine. -Ted Kmiecik

I have the exact same situation except that I am in zone 6. Full day sun from sun-up til sun-down. Same thing with water lettuce and hyacinths. I knew that the lettuce needs some shade but tried it last year anyway. But the hyacinths are supposed to like the sun, yet mine are turning yellow once again this year and not growing. I've had my water tested and it was perfect, so I don't know what's up with that. I also found some dwarf papyrus this year, and it is doing well also. A trick I found this time around for the parrots feather that never thrived before, was to plant it in soil - we have clay soil here and that is working very well for them this year. They are nice and green and are reaching outward into the pond. So if you are floating yours, you might try planting them in a pot. I found some curly rush at Lowes about a month ago and potted that up and it's doing well so far. My cheap water lilies that I bought at Walmart 2 years ago have decided to grow for me this year, so I am thrilled about that. I even have a bud on one of them - too exciting! Oh, and I found some lizards tail at a different Lowes 2 weeks ago. It is doing well in a pot as well. It is supposed to be hardy here in zone 6, so it should also be hardy there. Good luck Vickie. I will be reading here to also find out any plants that I might have missed for a full sun pond.

I agree that Princess Charlene de Monaco does great in the heat. She just grows very tall, and the blooms fade quickly in the sun unless they’re picked for indoors. I don’t mind that, as I bought her for cutting anyway. Kristine, I grow both Darcy Bussell and 3 Boleros. They are both quite heat and sun tolerant, but Bolero more so. I only have one spot that gets radiant heat and sun here. It’s at the edge of my yard, next to the sidewalk. I have had Bolero planted there for 4-5 years. That rose is amazing! All day blasting sun with no relief, and yet Bolero just keeps blooming. I love its tidy compact form, as well. Darcy does just fine too, but I’ve seen a her put out small, lighter colored blooms a time or two when the heat was extreme. My Darcy has only done this a few times , but she does get a break from the sun around 3pm. They’re both good. I just think Bolero stands up to the heat and sun a bit better, and Bolero’s color won’t turn lurid on you. I had to chuckle at the OP’s choice of Golden Buddha. I love mine, but this rose is shade tolerant and I say give it some.(In a hot climate anyway.). It fades very quickly and with thrips damage, looks really bad unless you are deadheading each bloom as it fades. I still love it, though. Lisa

G.M., I think any ornamental sweet potato would adequately shade the clematis roots. However, last year I had both Blackie and Margarita (and some others as well) in containers (couldn't plant them in the yard-turned-pond) and they climbed both a trellis and a chain link fence. They did look pretty, but might try to climb and compete with your clematis. On the other hand, maybe they'd look good climbing together. The Sweet Autumn Clematis is the only really late blooming clematis I know of, generally blooming for me from late August through early September...maybe about 3 or 4 weeks of bloom. The others are spring to summer bloomers as Caroline mentioned above. I did notice our forecast has changed again and I like the new one more than the old one (if it is accurate!). I gues I'll just continue to watch the weather and do the should I plant/shouldn't I plant argument with myself for the next few days. The 22 tomato plants that I put in the ground yesterday DO look deliriously happy. I guess they are ready to spread their roots and grow. The wind has been beating the tar out of them all week, so I have had to keep a close eye on them to make sure that they didn't windburn. You can add any organic material to your beds to improve drainage and revitalize them. I like to add a little compost, a little composted cow manure, and some pine bark fines (the most finely shredded bark mulch you can fine, whether pine or not, will work). At Lowe's they usually have bagged mushroom compost, which is great, and I prefer the Black Kow (Cow?) manure they sell in bright yellow and black bags. It is 100% manure, whereas the law only requires bagged manure to contain 10% (!) manure, so many other products have a minimal amount of manure and lots of cheap, useless filler. I like pine bark fines as they break down a little more slowly and help feed the soil longer. (You want to avoid working big chunky mulch into the soil as it ties up nitrogen as it breaks down.) If you can't find finely shredded pine, you also can use finely shredded hardwood. I've even used finely shredded cedar and it didn't seem to have any adverse effect. I am watching Megan's forecast right now and it sounds like a cloudy, dreary weekend....but at least we don't look like we're going to freeze. Today's high (63) is lower than it was when I woke up yesterday morning (68). I'm off to get some mulch today for the beds that are already planted. I don't like to mulch them too heavily until the soil warms up to 70, but I do need to mulch them lightly today or I will be pulling weeds soon. And, by the way, I am too sore to do much in the garden today too. I guess you and I need to do a pre-season gardening workout to prepare us for the planting season. Caroline, I hope the moonflower seeds sprout for you. I love, love, love the flowers and they are worth the wait! (Not only are they slow to germinate, but they also are sort of late to bloom....but worth it!) I read an article many years ago in Southern Living about a groom who built a sort of open-air chapel on family land for his wedding. (It looked sort of like the framing of a building. So, I guess it really was a huge open-air trellis built to be covered with vines. The wedding was held "underneath" the trellis.) Then, he planted it with moonflowers. I think he planted some a year before so he could time when they would open. THEN, for their August wedding they timed the start of the ceremony so the flowers would oh-so-dramatically open just moments before the bride made her trip down the aisle. Can you imagine how perfectly lovely it must have been? (I hope they stayed married, 'cause a man like that sounds like a keeper!) Dawn