Welcome, Susan! If you love Hippeastrum bulbs, you've come to the right place! I've been a forum member for just over a year, and I love it here! The people are wonderful, generous, helpful, and just plain great folks! You'll like it here! If you're willing to do a bit of reading, you'll also learn a lot here! The search feature will yield tons of great information on whatever part of culture you're interested in, and if you can't find something, we'll be happy to help! It sounds like you already have a nice collection of bulbs started... and if you hang around with us, you'll most likely end up with way more bulbs than you actually need! Welcome! Feel free to join right in... several conversations of interest and fun are going on right now! :-)

hello Careytearose, I do post some pics on the tropical fruit forum. As far as tropicals go, they are still very young. Some of the more normal stuff, grapes, veggies, citrus, strawberries, boysenberries I've had awhile and are growing and fruiting like crazy. Tropical stuff, white sapote, guava, mango (going to be a test to not kill it), passionfruit, paw paws, cherimoyas, and other weird tastey stuff still need some time. I also have a small greenhouse for the 2-3 months a year it is cold, it is a swing arbor the rest of the time. here is pic http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tropicalfruits/msg0116095916370.html?4 As far as moving, my wife and I have been in our home (40-50 year old home)7-years, it is 3bed-1bath. My wife just blessed us with our first child, a beautiful girl. If we are lucky, maybe a 2nd child in a few years. Two girls and 1 bath = daddy showering in the waterhose out back. If our next is a girl also, I'm in real trouble. We own some property near here in a mountain community (Z8) and recently had a water well installed. Once things get squared away, I hope to start planting there. Maybe in 5-10 years if we can afford to have a house built, the orchard will be ready for me. I also hope to install a gh to continue with some of the tropicals. I have even started some rootstocks to graft my existing cvs onto. -Ethan ps. do you ever pickle your nasturim seeds? If you pickle them when green, they are similar to capers, flowers are tastey too. If you like sweet taste, look into white sapote (casimiroa edulis) for a fruit tree, depending on your winter lows. Best new (to me) fruit I have eaten in years. Smooth "custard texture", sweet taste, fairly cold hardy.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I googled everything ya'll mentioned and I think I'm leaning towards a dwarf variety viburnum, oakleaf hydrangeas, and someone else mentioned Sweetspire. Those shrubs have more the look of what I had in mind as a backdrop. I also have tons of oakleaf hydrangea babies on the property so I may transplant a few and see how they do. That dwarf hemlock esh mentioned looked interesting too, I may have to find a spot for it in a different shady bed. Thanks again! Danielle

Colorful shade groundcovers: Take a look at groundcover phlox. It comes in numerous colors and does well in semi-shade. Also persicaria "Painter's Palette." Leaves are variegated, with cream and dark red over the green. For sprng color with some height, if it were my garden, I'd want azaleas and rhododendrons. I don't know which kinds do well in zone 8-9, however. A little internet sleuthing should get you that information. Your property looks gorgeous! Good luck.