Hi dssguy, In my opinion, 5 inches is much too close together for the health of the plants, and overcrowded zinnias can lose all their lower leaves and look rather "ratty". Incidentally, that second picture looks like a really good trial garden, but those zinnias could be one of the dwarf varieties like Magellan or Dreamland. The Zaharas are nice, but I think they would have somewhat smaller flowers and narrower leaves. Whatever they are, they look impressive. Benary's Giants were bred for cut flowers, and they are typically grown as a row crop by market gardeners who simply harvest the blooms for sale to the Florist trade. Market gardeners really don't care how the zinnias look in the field, as long as their blooms look saleable. You can grow Benary's Giants for landscape use, but I would space their plants more than a foot apart. You might look to your seed packets for guidance on how far apart to plant your seeds. Growing and breeding zinnias is a hobby of mine, and sometimes when I am planting some "experimental" zinnias I will plant the seeds as close as 5 inches apart, but I do that with the expectancy of culling out and removing well over half of them at first bloom. Ideally, I like my zinnia plants to be about 18 inches apart. I space my rows 16 inches apart, with the idea that if the plants are "staggered" from one row to the next, they will be about 18 inches apart in all directions. That is a kind of "honeycomb" layout. But usually the seed packets will give you some guidance on this. And your personal preferences about a landscape. Some landscapes deliberately have a kind of wild meadowland look, with a lot of random irregularity in the plant spacing. ZM This post was edited by zenman on Sat, Mar 29, 14 at 12:57

Sherry, The clematis is about 4' from the base of the rose. The space between the shed and trellis is only about 2' to 2.5. The clematis is about halfway between the shed and trellis. Although, the plot is part of a larger bed, the area I'm referring to is about 10'x2' smaller than what looks like in your photo. I wouldn't worry about the shade. I'm far from an expert on clematis, i've killed a few PS is my only true success, but convential wisdom is the roots like to be in shade; the vine likes the sun, but eventually the vine will find sun. One of my vines gets very little sun at it's base. Polish Spirit is a heavy bloomer but is not for a normal shrub because it get's very large. I made that mistake and the reason I have 2 is that it split when I moved it. I wouldn't plant PS any closer than 3' from the base of the rose. I'd be inclined to try one at one end of your arbor like near where the liriope is now. PS is dark purple, it may look nice with the pink. If it doesn't work you can always remove like it did. Moving it for me was a little difficult because it was only about 1' foot from the original rose, but the vine itself reestablished without much ado. I think the risk is rather small. Other rose plantings I've successfully tried: I have two ferns (a japanese painted and an autumn fern) a couple feet near another large rose (Traviata) in filtered sun. Both seem to be happy, happier than alot of others under more conventional conditions. In another bed I have hardy plumbago growing around 2 azaleas, The Dark Lady, and Queen Elizabeth. The shrubs are all healthy and seem unaffected by the plumbago. Plumbago has a pretty loose root structure and I don't think either of the ferns I mentioned are particularly aggressive.

Great set of photos, thanks! Makes it far easier if there is a good set of photos to base the discussion on. First thing I would do would be to move the sand cherries into another bed before they get any more settled in. When they grow up they will block the view to the front door. Something with similar deep purple foliage but with less height would be one of the smaller deep purple Weigela. Hopefully someone can weight in with one that they like. If you want something for focus, perhaps a bird bath, piece of artwork, or a fountain would work there. I would probably remove the shrub that is partially in front of the left side of your big window and just leave the ones on the corner. I think it just looks a little awkward with just one side of the window covered. I also might limb up the right side of the tree a bit, just where the branches reach down in front of the house and door. Having good sight lines to your front door makes the house look welcoming. It is a bit difficult to tell, but the white flowered shrub near the end of the drive looks like one of the weedy honeysuckles (Lonicera). I would post both that photo and a closeup of the leaves and flowers on the Name that Plant forum, and if it is, remove it. It will seed all over courtesy of birds eating the berries. I think the rock wall along the drive is really nice looking as is the brick walk (though the walk looks a bit narrow for two to walk abreast.) However, I think that the issue of what's bothering you about the planting is less about specific plants and more about the relationships ( or lack of) between the plants. Right now the bed behind the rock wall along the drive is only really deep enough for one plant, leaving you with pretty much a single file line of plants. I would make the bed 2 or 3 times as deep so that you have room for more than the single row of plants. A deeper bed will make a much more interesting tapestry along the drive. I'd keep most of those plants relatively low, though they can be a bit taller further from the drive. You want to mostly have perennials rather than shrubs right at the top of the wall so that they won't be damaged by snow and snow removal, and also so branches reaching out don't damage cars using the drive. Think about repetition along the driveway bed, either of color or textures or specific plants. Not simple alternating 1 -3 plants, but a more flowing mix. To see some examples of that, get from the library or a book store one or both of Tracy DiSabato- Aust's books, The Well-Designed Mixed Garden: Building Beds and Borders with Trees, Shrubs, Perennials, Annuals, and Bulbs or The Well-Tended Perennial Garden: Planting and Pruning Techniques. You will get help on planning to get a nice rhythm going on up the garden along the drive, and can work on interesting foliage along with flowers to create a long season of interest. You may find inspiration from Fine Gardening magazine's website as well. Here's an example of designing a long border like yours "A Strategy for a Long Border" and another one showing some great examples of repetition as you look down the borders in this set of photos (use the arrows to see additional photos.)

That is precious! How about a round table with a table lamp? This one may be too white. https://www.ballarddesigns.com/georgia-round-side-table/furniture/living-room/coffee-accent-tables/479501?listIndex=61