ok .. i did it .... sorta ... first .... to simplify wildly .... annuals bloom according to the intensity of the sun .... i doubt you can be successful is starting them later ... and hoping to delay bloom since sept/oct sun in MI is not going to be sufficient to trigger bloom.. and i am talking outdoors ... you are not going to FORCE a plant that is suppose to bloom in the high sun of JUNE.. to bloom in the relative darkness of OCT ... i can not address greenhouses ... next ... i had a rose collection.. over 100 plants ... their last bloom of the season in MI is often the largest flower of the year ... deepest colored.. and scented ... something about the effects of the refrigerator MI is in october ... and it worked for me ... i took two 5 gal buckets of budded roses to the florist to be inserted into the flowers i bought from them ... but i dont see you buying many roses and growing them successfully.. it defeats the money savings .... but, as i say .. the fail safe was the florist ... IMHO.. there is NO WAY you can insure that you will have flowers on the specific date ... short of a professional ... and on top of all that ... as noted.. in the few weeks before the big day .. you will surely have WAY TOOO MANNNYYY things to worry about besides mother nature ... like we can control that ... so .. my best advice ... pay for your flowers .... and set the deal with florist that anything you or future mom-in-law bring in.. they will add into the design ... and do shop around.. as i recall from 1995 ... prices for our concept varied between 300 and 1000 dollars ... and we went with the 300 plus all i could add ... and it turned out wonderful ... flowers were very important to this gardener ... but i gotta admit .... it is nearly one of the most ridiculous wastes of money in a wedding .... PLEASE focus on the important things.. like your bouquet.. and the maids .... and dont worry all that much about any other flowers ... the guests really dont care.. if you have a fully functional bar across the room ... lol ... so.. bottom line.. its money well spent for a fail safe.. and let mom in law worry about adding some late blooming perennials ... which most likely wont bloom from seed this year ... asters and mums would be perfect ... good luck with the wedding ken

"Not a great look if right at your entryway or front and center and highly visible." I would file this statement under "Who Cares" since most of the landscape looks dead this time of the year. Rhodies only curl like that in extremely cold temps and who in the right mind is outside inspecting the landscape in that kind of weather. Even guests coming over for the holidays are thinking about just getting inside and not what your rhodies look like around your front steps. The answer to the original post is to plant one of the Ironclads. These are broadleaf rhodies that can survive the worst of the worst that Mother Nature can throw at them and still look good and bloom well. Just do a Google Search and pick out the bloom color that you want. Everyone has Ironclads in New England and they take high wind, extremely cold temps, moisture extremes, etc. in stride.

My list is similar to Woodyoak's: Honeysuckle - look for varieties of Lonicera sempervirens, a native red-flowered honeysuckle (though also a few yellow or orange types), that grows well around here and attracts hummingbirds. Try to get a variety that says it is mildew resistant if that is likely to be a problem for you. Mine isn't a named variety, but I have never had mildew problems. Clematis - My favorites! I especially like the summer flowering, hard prune varieties or the really early flowering atragenes (no pruning) as they aren't likely to wilt and bloom at times other than my main flushes of perennials. Hydrangea anomala subspecies petiolaris and Schizophragma hydrangoides are both shade-loving extremely large vines with hydrangea-type flowers. I have a plain green Hydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris growing up a large retaining wall, but it also grows well up tree trunks. There are also some varieties with variegation on the leaves, like Moonlight and Miranda, but regardless, be sure you have room for this one if you are going to plant it. I do have some of the hardier climbing roses, but for me they have to be single early bloomers or they need attention to removing Japanese beetles daily. I am currently trying a hardy kiwi for the first time. One of my across-town neighbors grows it, so I am hoping that our conditions are similar enough that I can be successful. The fruit of hers is delicious. I honestly wouldn't call it a beautiful vine, however! If I were going to plant wisteria, I would be more likely to use the American wisteria as it isn't so rampant and invasive, though it still is a large vine needing attention to pruning. Both the Chinese and Japanese tend to seed around and need much management as far as pruning, way more than I have time for. There are horror stories out there of sprouts from roots meters away from the original plant. In all honesty, there are a couple of annual vines I really like as well: Sweet peas (for sentimental reasons since my grandmother grew them) have lovely scented flowers. I would NOT recommend perennial sweet peas - no scent and they seed around horribly. Scarlet runner beans have bright red flowers that attract hummingbirds, and as a bonus have edible beans, either very young as green beans or dried beans with a lovely purple mottled color. I also like black-eyed Susan vine, Thunbergia alata, with its cheerful yellow or orange (or more rarely white or pink) flowers with dark eyes.

Well, it's a year and a half later, and we haven't gotten very far. Granted, we gutted and remodeled our kitchen and removed out chimney between July and Dec 2018, and that was all-consuming, including months of planning leading up to July. We have a Fireglow on order to plant in the area I indicated just to the left and forward of the larger bed, but that's it. I can figure out what to do with the larger bed from your input above, but I just cannot figure out what to do in the small space to the right of the steps. The space is about 4' wide 8' deep, and I know I want something in the back that grows to about 4-6 feet tall and likes partial sun, and it has to be a bold color to stand out from the gray. Unfortunately, I am not fond of most evergreens, so the most appropriate options (such as the dwarf alberta spruce) for this space don't work for me. After reading and looking at countless pictures and not finding anything that I like and is workable, I am now wondering about either doing a trellis with something trained on it or planting something that reaches ~2' in a tall urn. What do you think? any other ideas?