Your first one is Xanthostemon chrysanthus "Golden Penda" - it's an Australian rainforest tree but commonly grown in a more open position as a street tree, it stays smaller and is more floriferous. A superior form was cultivated in the 1980's and marketed as "Expo Gold" for release at the time of the World Expo held in Brisbane.

I have never tried to germinate seed of this plant, but from what i have read, it is somewhat easy to germinate as long as you keep the basic seeds requirements... temperature, water etc. correctly. Are you sure your seeds are fresh?

This is so ironic... I thought I'd look on this site to see what would be good to plant for quick privacy. Our huge 40-foot old arborvitae split from all of the rain and wind last week. It had 3 limbs and split right at the bottom sending one limb onto our garage. We now have a perfect view into our neighbor's house. The single-leader advice is definitely worth following. Regarding the cypress suggestion, I planted about 35 leyland cypress 10 years ago (nursery going out of busines sale $3 each) and they're now over 30 feet tall. Amazing privacy. The only bad thing is they don't put down very deep roots relative to their height. We usually have to pick up one or two each winter and brace them back up when we have a particularly wet and windy winter. Even with this minor inconvenience, they're still well worth it and do a great job of screening out our neighbors' 2-story addition. I might try a tall, fast flowering shrub. Any advice on one for a dry, partial sun area?

Bands like gallon sized pots just fine. You could put them there if you just have some good dirt to put in the pots with them--a somewhat lighter weight duty for your orthopedic problems. Then after a couple of months and hopefully when the elbow is fully recovered, get them into the ground to give them time to prepare for winter. We've not tried any cardboard here, but Gregg Lowery at Vintage Gardens especially recommends using cardboard and mulch. I can't remember whether or not he promised that it would kill all the grass if the mulch were heavy enough. I was reading an excerpt from an organic gardening book about a grass-killing method to use with heavy clay. It used very thick stacks of newspaper (about one or one and a half inches thick, I think... probably cardboard would be the equivalent) with mulch and lots of layers of peat moss and compost on top of that--in other words, a really, really thick heavy thing that would totally wipe out the sun for the grass and provide good topsoil when you were ready to plant. I think you are supposed to wait for something like six months or so before planting, and then the grass won't come back. According to the author, your soil will be magically enriched with a ton of earthworms and will be much more friable for whatever you want to plant there. If you went that route, I guess you'd plant the rose in its own little hump of good dirt, and then surround it starting at a small distance away with the heavy stuff on cardboard that would end up being level with the dirt level of the rose by the time it decomposed a bit. (If you do try this and it works for you, then be sure to post about it! Take pictures too!) Best wishes, Mary