Lots of good ideas already offered here. We are nuts for roses (count now over 100), and have cottage garden plants in a picket fence area in our front yard. We have no azaleas, and we want to add boxwood somewhere!! I also look at the Cottage Garden and both Roses forums, you'll find them very helpful. Love the David Austin roses, not been very happy overall with J&P roses. I would mix it up a bit, maybe two or three Austin varieties that compliment each other in color, maybe 3 of each one. The Renaissance roses are quite lovely too- ck out www.helpmefind.com and look up 'contains: "Renaissance"' in the rose search. Another favorite roses we grow is "Paul Bocuse"- a beautiful pink one. To see pics of our front and back gardens and landscaping, ck out my Picture Trail: careytearose Here is a link that might be useful: look at Landscaping Projects 2007, Favourite ROSES We Grow albums

I'm sorry I didn't fully glean this from your original post, but I get the impression you are just looking for plant suggestions and bed layout help for the foundation planting and the mound. You may get that here, but you may also have better luck with it on the shrubs forum, a regional forum for your area, or a forum dedicated to the type of plant involved - conifers, rhododendron, trees, what have you. But generally speaking, that kind of help is better sought at your local nursery where you can discuss plants actually in stock where you shop. This forum tends to discuss issues relating to landscape design, and so the questions that tend to engage people here are things like "does this house/site require a foundation planting at all?" rather than "what plants should I put in my foundation bed?" Most people just plunk in a foundation planting out of habit, but it actually suits the minority of houses and I don't see any requirement for it here on this house with a beautiful foundation and such a large site for plantings to frame the house. Certainly I can now see why the boxwoods are there! But I think if the target audience includes children or people wandering around at night with a beer can, a more solid boundary might be preferable - perhaps an airy metal railing that has little visual presence but significant holding power (there may also have been a way to grade the property to avoid having such a sudden drop). I also think this house will look much more grounded when it has a backdrop of trees behind it; that tends to have a much more significant effect from a distance than a few bits of greenery at its toes - even the phantasmagorical amount our Chinese friend has sketched in his/her photoshop pretend-universe of imaginary plants in improbable sizes. Or "is a mound a good idea and if so how to integrate it with the flat site?" But if the mound is going to be there and you don't want to integrate it, then you don't need advice. The mound is the one thing for which I could make a plant suggestion, namely junipers - looks sunny there, and there is nothing better for covering the ground, though you'll need to weed or mulch until they grow in. But if you want actual evergreen trees, it may tend to look a bit like a moustache on the yard if there are no other plantings across the expanse of the yard. Nothing wrong with doing it if it meets your needs, but like the mound itself, if the eye has nowhere to stop between it and the house, it simply tends to go from one to the other and wonder "why?" Would you put rocks on the geothermal field, or could you put a rockery-type thing where the geothermal isn't? If so, we did once have posted a thread with a picture of a similarly sized property with an island bed in the picture that was edged with large boulders that made a real impact from a distance. That really counterbalanced the houses in the picture, irrespective of what plants it had in it, and of course had an all-season impact. Unfortunately the photo in the thread has been pulled. KarinL

For an easy overview of the unfamiliar garden plants you're seeing, you might go to the local public library and look for books about garden plants for your region. And if you're looking for a particular book your library doesn't own, their Interlibrary Loan service can obtain it for you (sometimes charging a small fee). === "Plants for a Livable Delaware" talks about invasive plants which should be avoided, and those which might be substituted for particular invasives. http://www.dnlaonline.org/information/plants_for_delaware.php === The University of Delaware Botanic Garden has -- besides the garden itself -- plant info, events, plant sales, etc.: http://ag.udel.edu/udbg/ === NCSU has wonderful lists of garden plants in various categories (bulbs to trees, and everything in between). I've seen this information in the same format for other states, so I assume there's a USDA database which the states adapted for their particular climates. Unfortunately I could not locate such a database for Delaware (though that doesn't mean there isn't one). Anyway, NC's zones include DE's zones, so the NC database would be useful for you: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/factsheets/index.html First, click on the category you're interested in. Then choose whichever arrangement of data presentation is most useful. Don't ignore the "By Scientific Name" and "By Common Name" at the top of each category.

Let me offer a few tips on taking the pictures. For the foundation planting, move in a little closer than as in your first picture, above. In the camera viewfinder you should be able to see just a little sky above the house and about 20' of lawn space in front of it. Situate yourself such that you are standing in line with the front door. Take a series of slightly overlapping pictures that pan from far left to far right, with the fronts of your right and left neighbor's houses showing in the first and last pictures. (Basically, a 180* view.) Don't substitute a computer generated panorama as it will be too small to see detail. Then, back up, a little more than in your second picture, above, and take another picture that shows the whole front yard. This could also be two slightly overlapping pictures if your yard is wide. It should show from the curb, back. Include a statement about your objectives ... what benefits you hope for, or are expecting to achieve by making landscape changes. If it is more than street-appeal, say what. The front walk is something that almost universally comes in the cost-cutting phase of house building. Even though your walk may be in good physical condition, I can see barely enough to tell that it is substantially undersized for the house. Changing, or making it into something more fitting, would make the overall house look and function much better.