We live in Santa Cruz and have a liquid amber in our yard, and I don't think it's at all what you're looking for. They get huge, cause major damage to pavement and foundations, and most drop a mess of very hard, prickly seed pods everywhere. I love having a tree in my yard, but I sure wish it was a different kind!

Texas Smoke Tree is a great small tree for fall color and strangely you don't hear much about it. It puts on another show in the spring when the new leaves are pinkish green. Google images of Texas Smoke Tree to see them. The leaves are a shiny rich green all summer with no insect or disease problems. As I remember it is fairly fast growing and has been this size for the last 10 or so years. The spring blooms are a nice addition even though they are not as large, nor give as much 'smoky' look, as the more northern branch of the smoke tree family. Here is a picture that was just taken. It is a little past it's prime, but still beautiful: The link shows the tree in a picture taken a little earlier in 2007. By the way, the tree is growing in San Antonio in thin alkaline 'soil' over limestone. Here is a link that might be useful: Fall color in 2007

Hellebore/Lenten rose is even more care-free than Carex. I let the crappy old Hellebore foliage just lay on the mulch beneath the plant since it seems to just disappear in short order. I figure it's just decaying organic matter enriching the soil. I'm 100% behind organic gardening but 150% behind zero garden maintenance. The Carex 'Ice Dance' plants are supposed to get a haircut every year early in the season but I haven't done that the past seven years and they're still looking just fine. They do send up some spindly seed-bearing stems early each year but I just ignore them and they just go away. One additional note about Carex 'Ice Dance:' I planted a single, nursery-grown plant in full shade back about 10 years ago. About 5 years ago I decided to divide it and plant the divisions in a part shade bed. I also gave some divisions to friends. Those have all taken off and are growing well. It's well-behaved but it's an amazing source of additional plants. I've never fed or watered either the Carex or the Hellebores. I'm in Southern New England. We're in the worst drought since I moved here 11 years ago and the Carex & Hellebores look the same as they do when we get normal rainfall. That says "bulletproof" perennial to me.

thanks for the recs, I coulda just googled the usda hardiness zone and found many options but I know for example like dogwoods are recently not doing to well in this zone (something with a beatle or something like that) but I will search each type further. Now I think I'm going to actually just plant like 7 different types of trees in between the arboorvitaes! Sounds wrong but I have seen many examples of similar, and it looks cool, also what's good is that for example arborvites sometimes can get snow damaged (limbs break under weight) and if you have a 20 year old screen of them and one gets beat up, you might want to replace it and might be hard to find the exact type and especially size and could be pricey. With using different types, if something dies or gets beat up it can just be replaced. I think I'll try an aprocot tree (have seen one doing well in the area) and a few other evergreen columnars/semi columnar.