Thanks for adding your suggestions, Renee! And gypsy, I think your garden is lovely, don't sell yourself short! And thank you Renee for your kind comments. It is such a pretty, pretty area of our yard, and my husband is on board for it to stay formal. And yes, these rose trees are breathtaking. Every year the perform better and better. They are nearly 8 feet in diameter right now . We're going to have to re-stake them. Again. With something really massive, lol! House is sort of a beige with medium brown trim. Sounds ugly, but it is sort ofTuscan in its style, and it's a nice neutral color. Here's an old photo of the house (much more landscaping and fruit trees, now). My formal garden area is on the left side of the house: Colors for the flowering plants. Thinking purple (have some variegated lavender colored iris that will stay, just need to be dug up and repositioned), pink and white. And some silver foliage and green foliage. The lavender I was thinking of using is Lavandula angustifolia 'Thumbelina Leigh'. Very nice, well behaved, very rich green foliage and deep blue purple flower heads. Plus, it is very fragrant. I have found this to be one of the very best lavenders for small spaces, just has so many great qualities. I was also thinking of maybe using some Dianthus? I found these 'Super Trouper' in a fuschia pink, which I think would be a nice color accent. Foliage is silvery: White Meidiland roses would be great. Or some white rose. I have a lone 'Glamis Castle' that looks gorgeous below the 'Red Fairy' tree rose. So, yes, white roses would be very pretty. I'd love to have any DA rose, so I might try to mix and match pink, purple and white DA's in the middle of the triangles. For the shady areas, I could go with a white Kalanchoe, or a white begonia with the Hellebores. The shady area is much more difficult to plant. Patty S. This post was edited by hoosierquilt on Mon, May 20, 13 at 18:44

Well, of the plants you listed, I'd avoid crabapple because it has issues with Cedar Apple Rust disease, cotoneaster because it is very susceptible to fireblight disease, and pyracantha because it is thorny--especially if you have children that will be running around the pool area. So, that leaves Beauty Bush, Sambucus "Black Lace" and Viburnum. Of those three, I'd tend to go with Beauty Bush or Sambucus, but I am not sure either of them will do well in the hot afternoon sun. If your pool is an above-ground pool and does not have a hard-surface decking that is made of concrete or something similar, they might have a chance. If it is an in-ground pool, though, and is surrounded by concrete decking, the plants that hide the pool equipment need to be able to withstand not only the very hot summer air temperatures and intense sunlight but also the reflected heat from the pool decking. Plants that are in morning shade and then are suddenly hit by afternoon sun plus the reflected heat from a pool decking can struggle in July and August. One reason you see so many tropical plantings around pools is because tropicals can handle the extreme afternoon air temperatures and the reflected heat from the pool decking. If it were my pool, I wouldn't have chosen anything on your list for hot afternoon sun near a pool, but that's just me. I am in zone 7B with very hot summer weather and your weather might be more mild than mine, although summer is pretty hot and miserable everywhere in our state. When I choose plants for either the western or southern side of my house, the hot afternoon temperatures and the fact that the plants have to deal with heat reflecting off the walls of the house are a key consideration. In a situation like that, I prefer tough evergreen shrubs with very thick leaves, like hollies, because they shrug off the heat or tropical plants that thrive in hot weather and are not bothered by reflected heat. We had a pool when we lived in Fort Worth, and I hid the pool equipment with two tall arborvitaes. They had a nice pyramidal shape,were very dense so they hid the equipment well, and didn't shed lots of debris that could blow into the pool. One problem with anything that flowers is that the flowers eventually fall and blow around, and then somebody has to spend time cleaning them up. The clean up can take more time on a daily basis than you think, especially if they blow into the pool and are floating on the water's surface. Cannas are a good option for a poolside planting and the tall ones easily get 5 to 6' tall even if planted in poor soil, and even taller in good soil as long as they receive adequate moisture. Their flowers are larger and heavier and don't blow around as much as smaller flowers that weigh much less. The large green elephant ears get quite tall and dense as well. Both of those plants do well for me in morning shade/afternoon sun on the southern side of the house. Often it takes a while to figure out what will grow well near a pool because the reflected heat from the pool decking is often not considered when plants are chosen. Good luck, Dawn

I have a bunch of pictures on my pool blog (mostly under the "Electrical" titles), but here's a sample: From The New Blue Pool We had two issues with the equipment pad. First was electrical. The cranky electrician (sub) didn't communicate with the PBs guys on where the equipment was going to go, so he assumed that the controls were going to be on the right side of the equipment pad, so that's where he ran the wires (see posted picture). Of course, the controls were mounted on the left side, so he had to run a junction box and extra stuff (fortunately, behind the equipment) to wire it all in. Second, they ended up putting the gas heater on the right side, to get the exhaust vent as far away from the window as possible (It is technically not "legal" because it is less than 4' from an opening window, BUT we never open that window because of the noise from the neighbor's A/C and pool equipment, and now our equipment, too. Eventually, we'll put an exhaust stack up if required, but we passed inspection, so we're in no rush. Otherwise we would've had to screw the window permanently closed.) I just realized that in this picture, they stuck the heater out to the "legal" spot so we could see where it would be, but we had them push it back towards the wall back onto the pad. Anyway, we didn't call the gas guy until later and they ended up working around all the other equipment and so it kind of looks jury-rigged because the gas stuff is all in the front. I just realized that I didn't put up any gas pictures yet, so if you want, you can look for that in a couple of days (I write the blog for my in-laws in CA, because they get into that kind of thing). Also, the pad is a few feet too big. That's fine with me, but I thought it would be poured exactly to required size. The big thing is the spa jet pump. PB wanted that as close to spa as possible for the most force and it is pretty powerful. The plan is to put a trellis between the heater and the pool and grow something thick (bouganvillea) for view and noise. We'd like to put solar in eventually, but I don't know how that's going to work at all. The equipment is on the north side of the house and of course the solar will go on the south-facing roof surfaces. Not something to worry about now until we save up more $$$! Here is a link that might be useful: Pool Blog

Here is what I did - My propane heater manual specified how many minimum feet of clearance was needed between the exhaust vent and the nearest combustible material. I built a wooded "shed" with a 6 inch opening all along the bottom and the top of the "shed" is made of privacy lattice and is twice the distance required from the heater. There are two swing out doors for easy access and the flooring is a concrete pad with a buried six inch drainage pipe for my filter backwash. The result is a quieter equipment area, no harmful UV rays to the equipment and cooler environment for the motors. There is NO increase in temperature inside the shed with the equipment running because of more than adequate ventilation.