Roses I would grow are, mistakes or not, Mme. Plantier, Souvenir de la Malmaison, Quietness, Sombreuil, Blanc Double de Coubert, Clotilde Soupert and Pope John Paul II. I have been amazed at the number of blooms it has produced in this its first year. Plants usually take a very long time to establish here. Other plants that I must have include; Anemone japonica 'Honrine Jobert' and 'Whirlwind' (whites), 'Prinz Heinrich' (rose) as well a few pinks, Brunnera 'Jack Frost' (the jury is still out for 'Looking Glass' although I can already tell that it is not as strong a grower), box, yew, holly, Vinca minor, Daphne odora marginata, Nandina domestica 'Ivory Queen' (pale yellow berries), Narcissus in quantity (it is one of those things one can never have too much of), Lycoris squamigera, Scilla siberica (love that cobalt blue), Eranthis hiemalis, Crocus (both Fall and Spring blooming), Cyclamen, Colchicum, Lilium, Paeonia, Helleborus niger and its hybrids. I am sure that I have forgotten something but this is a good starter list. I have done fairly well with hedges and trees for structure but I would focus more on shrub compositions, especially evergreens, both broadleaved and needled, although those compositions must include deciduous plants or the effect becomes too ponderous. A lot is written about plant composition but it is usually directed at the relationship of perennials with each other. More emphasis should be placed on shrubs. They form a satisfying year round structure for the garden. Perennials are the bling. Shrubs can be interesting with flowers and berries as well as foliage and are definitely less labor intensive. Cath

Surprised no one has mentioned, but even in SoCal, I love my Warm Floors in the bathroom under the travertine - could be my favorite thing! During the winter, I wanted to lie down on my bathroom floor. Glad I held out for an outside spiral staircase to the upstairs deck, two-sided office desk, pot filler, upstairs laundry, pool bath, undercounter micro drawer, trash compactor (everyone tried to talk me out of that & said they were passe'), recycling bin, fixed & handheld shower (overhead shower was a bit of a waste...), doggie door hidden under kitchen desk - people think she's magic when she appears :), pull-out shelves for printers, etc in office & grommets for wires & got rid of most of the clutter, LOVE the light system & setting up scenes - esp. our 'night track' button that saves me turning on & off 6 banks of lights just to get down to the kitchen at night, my daughter's 'all-off' button that blinks until she turns all the lights off @ night Bain-Ultra air bath - no more gross jacuzzi jets shooting out gunk! Wish I had closet lights that come on when doors are opened, had organized the pantry lay-out a little better, figured out drawers/pull-outs for wrapping paper better, looked more closely at cabinet depths - can't fit a whole lot in, perhaps put an elevator in - was $10K in the beginning & just heard a woman is paying $70K to retrofit her house for one. I need the exercise now, but who knows what the future will hold... not a whole lot more than that though - we thought it out pretty throughly. STUPIDEST purchase ever - the Aquatics laundry air sink - basically a jacuzzi for my underwear that you can't even use soap in as it bubbles over & makes a mess. You can do a better job swishing your hand around in the sink a couple of times. Whatever possessed me to get this, I don't know... Almost Done!!

THINGS I'M GLAD WE DID We planned for the future and ran PVC pipe underneath all our concrete walks and drives so landscape lighting could be added later. Also ran pipe for electric wires out to the backyard where we would be building our barn the next year so we wouldn't have to dig up the yard again. Wired for an entertainment system in the basement (which we are finishing now -- 2 yrs. after move-in). DH insited on 400 amp service so we would have plenty of electrical for pool, barn etc. Splurged on the kitchen cabinets and appliances. It's one of our favorite rooms and is large enough for both of us to cook at the same time. Makes cooking & cleanup easy and enjoyable. Insisted on a pool bath with a separate entrance into the home. We fired our first designer when he insisted it was a waste of space in our northern home and would present a security risk because it makes another entrance to the home. It's great not to have guests walk across our wood floor when coming in from the pool to use the restroom. It's also a great changing room for the pool and hot tub and the shower is a great place to wash the doggie. Lots of very large windows to view the beautiful landscape and wildlife from everywhere in the home. What a way to increase the endorphins during an upper midwest winter. We used to live in a house where we could barely see outside. Our coffee area in the MB suite. We saw this in a parade home and had our second (and final) architect plan for this. It consists of some cabinetry, a small refrigerator and a bar sink -- perfect for making coffee in the morning or storing juice and sodas. It's located outside the bedroom, bathroom and closet area but still inside the suite area. Planned for a single, very large MB closet. It's 10 x 15 and is a perfect size for storing all our clothes and is also a roomy changing room. A covered lanai in the back of the house to escape the summer heat but enjoy the rainstorms. Our hardwood floor (Brazilian Teak) throughout the house. One of the biggest "wow" factors to people visiting. THINGS I WISH WE HAD DONE DIFFERENTLY Mostly small size changes which you wouldn't understand unless you were inside the house. A couple of feet here and there to make a room slightly larger. We actually cut those feet off the original plan to keep it just under 4000 sq.ft. Boy, I wish we had kept them. Really checked our cabinet layout. Our laundry room has a tight area when using the fold-down ironing board. It's mainly because we chose a front loading washer & dryer which are deeper than traditional machines. Try to visualize the cabinets and how they work in the room.

Abrahamx, I'm about as far north as you are. The Monarchs that make their way up here are second or third generation, so I don't usually see any in spring. They usually appear in mid to late July. They lay eggs, and the adults from those eggs fly north to Canada. The offspring of those northernmost Monarchs are the ones that migrate to Mexico. The North American Monarch population has dwindled severely over the last couple decades, making sightings a very rare thing, at least in my area. 50 years ago, I remember that almost every common milkweed I walked to, had at least one Monarch caterpillar. Today I can pass miles and miles of milkweeds without ever seeing one cat. 50 years ago the numbers of all butterfly species was abundant and the Zebra Swallowtails, Fritillaries,and Mourning Cloaks were in the area, but today those species are never seen. Paw Paw is rarely grown by people this far north, which may be one of the reasons why Zebras are't seen.