Front Yard thoughts

[aimeekitty]

Turns out my front yard is more shaded than I thought! It's western facing. I'm in zone 9-10 (sunset western zone 18). The front yard in the areas close to the house, however, get shaded by the house for most of the day.

My original plan was to have a bunch of roses in the front yard, but they usually like at least 6 hours of sun, something they won't get in that position, So instead.... I'm going to have a camellia bush in the shadiest spot, and then I'm going to go with some roses that are a little bit more shade tolerant... and then have some other perennials that are ok in shade. If the roses get sad, then I'll move them to a sunnier spot later.

Also, apparently the HOA doesn't need to approve if I just put some bushes in, so that means I can buy some stuff THIS WEEK. (socal, you can really plant stuff now if you want unlike some other areas...)

For the camellia bush,... http://www.nucciosnurseries.com/ was recommended... I'll get one or two that they think would work well in my zone and spot.

THE ROUGH IDEA:


----- Other ideas for non-rose plants in this area (western facing, mostly shaded) are:
(ps. all of these are drought-tolerant)

Salvia leucantha 'Midnight' Midnight Mexican Bush Sage (4 ft)
Salvia spathacea ( Hummingbird Sage ) (4 ft)
Salvia greggii Autumn Sage (4 ft)
Some type of iris
Salvia leucantha - Mexican Bush Sage (4 ft)
fleabane daisy - Erigeron karvinskianus (ground cover)
Pratia pedunculata - Blue Star Creeper (stepables, ground cover)

For my roses for the front yard, I think I'm going to order from Roses Unlimited, mainly because they're the only one that has pretty much all the roses I want, are highly recommended and will ship this time of year. David Austin won't ship till Jan,... and two of the other recommended west-coast rose nurseries don't carry many of the varieties I want.

----- SHRUB ROSES


Felicia - Hybrid Musk
Hybrid Musk's are supposed to be more shade tolerant... and I think Felicia is really pretty.
semi-double flower, rapid rebloom. strong scent



Jude the Obscure - English Rose
very fragrant. can get to 8 feet
listed as being shade tolerant
http://www.rosegathering.com/jude.html


The Prince - English Rose
6 feet-ish
it's a deep purplish red which I thought would be a nice contrast to the lighter colors of the other roses. Also reported to have a really nice scent and prefers to be in a more shaded position. I figure I could pick a non-rose perennial to pick up the darker maroon color in another spot of the area.


Wildeve - English Rose
listed as being shade tolerant,
it's a short, almost ground-cover like rose, which is really appealing to me. It has a prettier flower than the knockout roses, though.

----- CLIMBER ROSES:::

I WANTED to try James Galway cl. for the climber,.. as DA recommends it for partial shade, but DA won't ship till JAN, and I'd like to plant a few things now. I couldn't find another site that listed James Galway for sale, either.

So then... I was considering getting

Madame Alfred Carriere - Noisette
glowing rec: http://www.roseinfo.com/carriere.html
taking over a westfacing garage: http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~dim/images/roses/MAC.jpg
closeup: http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~dim/images/roses/MACBloom1.jpg
http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~dim/images/roses/MACBloom3.jpg
(these photos, btw, the gardener says she prunes MAC pretty hard, but that it's easy to prune)

... she's listed on several sites as being shade tolerant and really good for this zone. lots of sites list her as being easy for a new gardener and low maintenance. The one negative for MAC is that she apparently can get quite huge quite quickly,... so I wonder if she's too vigorous for me?


My other choice was

Eden cl,
one of my top favorites, but only mentioned on one site for being shade tolerant. The far right pillar gets an ok amount of sun, but the far left one, hardly gets any if at all... so I have visions of the rose doing ok on one side of the house. is that ok?? I don't know.

Was considering getting 1 Madam Alfred Carriere and getting 2 Edens, and allowing them to mix on the arches/pillars, with MAC in the shadiest spot.... mainly to see if one does better than the other... instead of getting 3 of the same kind??

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this would be fun to go ahead and plant a few things in the front yard while I'm waiting on the landscaping and approvals for the back yard.