Welcome to the area! I would check and see when the next Master Gardeners class in Greenville County is offered - it may not be offered again until fall. Whenever it is, take it - you will learn a LOT about gardening in general (no matter how much you already know) and about gardening in your area in particular. Plus, you meet fellow gardeners! I second the recommendations to wait for a year to do any major changes, see what you already have (any early bulbs will have grown out and gone dormant by now, for example), and improve the soil as much as possible. Of course, if you REALLY can't stand a certain plant, then take it out, by all means! It is your garden, after all. Even if the previous owner obviously treasured it, you don't have to! I would visit as many nurseries and public gardens as you can, see what grows here, what you like and what you don't, and generally get familiar with conditions that you have, and the conditions that plants require to do well in the area. I don't know where you moved from, but some plants that grew well for you won't do at all, some will need afternoon shade, and some will be annuals instead of perennials, and vice versa. Another good book, while covering a wide area, is the Southern Living Garden Book - it lists plants and cultivars that do well across the south, as well as giving general garden advice. Any of the books by Toby Bost are good, as are books by Alan Armitage, Felder Rushing, etc.. Even though dated, there is a new edition/collection of Elizabeth Lawrence's articles out - although she gardened in Charlotte in the 50's on, many things will carry over. This is getting into the time of year when people stop planting things anyway - it's too hot, both to be working hard out in the sun, and too stressful for trying to get plants established. If there are water restrictions again this summer, you do not want to watch your new purchase wither up and die from lack of water! You may lose a few plants in the existing garden anyway - keep an eye out for signs of stress. Saving the water as you wait for the hot water to get to a given sink may be necessary.

I use the HelpMeFindClematis website. There are thousands of pictures of hundreds of clematis cultivars posted there. Use the site's search feature to browse through them alphabetically. One thing to keep in mind as you search is that Clematis often have more than one name, so when you find one you like, you may find it in your local nursery or mailorder under another name. Another site to browse is the American Clematis Society website: http://clematis.org/ You need to look for clematis that are suitable for your zone/climate. I like Michael's advice about types and his cultivar choices. I would add General Sikorski and Niobe to his list, although they are type 2's, and require a little different pruning. You can find climate information, pictures, pruning details, plant size, alias names, etc., at HMFClematis. Best wishes Here is a link that might be useful: HMFClematis

One solution is simple direct-wire undercounter lights such as these Commercial Electric LED White Direct Wire Under Cabinet Lights. Just buy the lengths (9”, 12”, 18”, 24”, and 36”) that match the widths of your cabinets, and have your contractor attach them to the bottoms of the cabinets and wire them up. Generally, you want to install undercounter lights just behind the cabinet trim and want them to be hidden by that trim. These are 1" high so if the trim isn't that tall, choose a different product. Be sure to use a dimmer to control the lights; they are likely to be very bright when undimmed. Competing Halo HU11 series. Another solution is to attach LED tape lights to the cabinet bottoms. If you do that, be sure to install them in channels with diffusers. If you don't, you'll see the light from each LED reflected in the countertop.

Thanks for all the responses folks! Mmmm12 I have been grateful that my local rose society values garden growing of roses not just exhibiting, though they tend to emphasize the roses that show well. I'm looking forward to showing them the beauties of OGRs and shrubs and hybrid musks and polys when they visit my yard for a breakfast next June. Berrypie thanks for the encouragement - I consider the humbling experience in other yards as a challenge rather than discouragement. If their roses can look that good so can mine (within reason). Kristine makes that point well that always learning can be a good thing and I want to keep doing so. Carol & Ben - I'll have to check with someone to find out the organic fertilizer recipe they use. They get a local feed shop to mix the ingredients and then they sell it at cost ($25 for 25 pounds which is cheaper than Rose Tone). It's a fine textured powder that smells good and doesn't seem to burn anything. Ben, I appreciate the welcome back and I absolutely love the posts on HMF by Digger Dave and Deb. In my records I keep a one-line summary for each rose about key elements including comments on HMF and here about rose performance. Several of my posts have key Digger Dave comments that I treasure because of their insight and application to my yard. They stopped posting pictures about 2016 as far as I can tell and I'm hoping everything is OK. Sheila - with climate change and more extremes every year I think all of us need to keep learning no matter our location. Things that might have worked 5 years ago might no longer apply and I'm getting much more creative with mulching and watering given our increasingly longer stretches between good rains in the summer. Erasmus, Tututara and Diane - I know that multiflora doesn't like alkaline soils but I find my soil doesn't seem to be too alkaline for it. We have loamy clay so multiflora seems happy enough here, as opposed to places like California (even though it takes an act of God to turn hydrangea blooms from pink to blue here). Dr. Huey seems to fade faster and may be more likely to fail here, but that may be the health of the original plant if I plant body bags. I've had some body bags do fantastic things - World Peace is one I've never seen for sale but the once locally - and it's a terrific rose with stunning colors. Trish - thanks for the good wishes! I've missed posting pictures too and getting the warm responses from people here that help keep me encouraged during the low spots in the gardening year. Moses lovely to hear from you and your comments are gracious as always. I can get away without spraying here because of the "dry" part of "hot and dry Nebraska" in the summer, but I do sympathize with the depth of blackspot problems further east from me. I rather think we're starting to get midge damage out here but it's not bad enough to cause undue grief. Japanese beetles - well, I just don't expect any actual blooms in July any more. As for the equivalence of a 3-4 year old own root to a grafted younger rose, it seems entirely plausible. The robust HTs and flori own roots that I have bloom pretty well and since I have to bury the graft I figure that most of my established grafted roses have gone own root over time. I still love buying own root roses and we have fantastic vendors like Roses Unlimited and Long Ago Roses and Northland and High Country Roses and Burlington and Antique Rose Emporium and ... well you get the picture. I don't hesitate to buy from any of them for any roses that I want that they sell. It's just that I look elsewhere first for the HTs and floris now in grafted form. Even this past two years I've bought some own root HTs that have done fine and I'm sure I'll continue to do so in the future. I just have to temper my expectations and know that I'm zone pushing when I do so. Speaking as a zone 5 person who still grows one long-surviving tea (Maman Cochet) I'm quite familiar with the hazards but potential joys of zone pushing. Cynthia