Hi Haxuan, I'd have to agree with all that's been said here, so will only mention what hasn't been said. The 1/3rd rule is a good rule if you want your plants to bloom all of the time. These plants do need to be root bound and pruned to bloom. But the 1/3rd rule is for mature plants. Repotting babies is an entirely different matter. Here's what I do. When I seperate my babies, I pot them in 1" thumb pots, when the plant diameter is slightly larger than the pot, I repot them to the next size 1 1/2" pot or larger, so that the pot rim is 1/4"-1/2" wider than the baby. And so it goes 1/2" at a time until they are in the pot that I expect them to grow 3 times beyond in diameter. The variety, decides the final pot size. Once the plant is mature, the 1/3rd rule is a good one. Waiting for babies to reach 3 times the size of the pot their in before repotting only slows their growth and maturing process. For all of the cultural reasons expressed above, you don't want to pot a baby in a 4" pot. On the other hand, if you keep potting up babies, sooner than when they reach three times the width of the pot, they grow faster and mature faster. Not giving the root system the room to develop can also stunt a plants growth which takes just as long to recover from as over potting does. Russell

I'm not that concerned about the sidewalk and road, to be honest. As I mentioned, I would try to mitigate some of the damage with root barriers and deep watering, but if the sidewalk heaves in 25 years when the trees are 40 feet tall, I won't lose any sleep. I looked around the neighborhood to see what others are doing with this strip and it seems this house is the only one with a curb and gutter. In general, there are sidewalks, an unpaved area, then the asphalt street. Dan - in downtown Sacramento (aka City of Trees), the city routinely spreads DG around the base of new and established street trees. I'll probably do something like wood chips in the drip line and DG further out, assuming the trees are spaced 20' or so apart. For all the crape myrtle fans, sorry, but I'm not fond of those trees . The pink ones are on my list of most-hated plants. The flowers fall everywhere and blow around, then the seeds (which stain pavement). I'll admit they have a nice shape and the bark is attractive in the winter.

Clematis are outstanding vines with many colors and forms. I plant the non vining integrifolias in my mixed borders and they just scramble around. We had cedar fences and arbors already that needed decor. I have some blooming from March to October. Daffodils are so easy and so many forms and colors too, not just yellow though the yellow is very cheerful so early in spring. Their foliage is easier to hide than tulips and they are more perennial. I have a lot of crocus and dwarf iris too. Huecheras have great foliage colors though root weevils are a problem here. Grasses come in so many colors and sizes, I just love their blowing in the breeze. Oriental lilies have fantastic fragrance and take up little space. Hostas have great foliage and some are fragrant. They light up the shade. Dwarf Rhodies stay small without pruning and bloom early with the daffodils. Many are grown and hybridized here they do so well. I have about ten small ponds so waterlilies are a natural. Hardy fuchsias do really well here with almost no care and they bloom and bloom and bloom. They don't need shade and as much water as the hanging basket types and aren't whitefly magnets either. I love the hardy geranium Rozanne. What a long blooming workhorse without the scraggly wilty growth of Johnson's Blue. Heaths and heathers are evergreen and some are blooming year'round. They are very easy and mix well with dwarf conifers. Daylilies, well I didn't realize that they all didn't bloom for just a week. Stella never did that well for me and she was supposed to be the longest bloomer so I didn't ever bother with them. I just don't have room for something that blooms a week. Then I moved Always Afternoon and was also intrigued by your posts here........I'm up to a couple dozen I think....

"The U.S. National Arboretum presents Ulmus 'Frontier', an elm tree of moderate stature with attractive red fall color. 'Frontier' hybrid elm combines a high level of tolerance to Dutch elm disease, moderate resistance to elm leaf beetle, small leaves, and a lovely red-purple autumn coloration. It is perfect for use in smaller landscapes, along city streets, and under power lines. 'Frontier' blazes a trail for elms in the urban landscape" http://www.usna.usda.gov/Newintro/frontie1.html Note, however, this warning under Culture in the linked to description: "Avoid planting close to buildings in areas with high elm leaf beetle populations" And the related "The elm leaf beetle, first discovered in California in the 1920s, quickly became one of the state's major urban tree pests...The elm leaf beetle (ELB), Xanthogaleruca luteola, is the most important pest of elms in California; it is ranked as the second most important urban tree pest in the western United States and third nationwide (Wu et al. 1991)." on this page: http://calag.ucanr.edu/Archive/?article=ca.v052n02p18