Crocosmia, I have also had the same problem as you in that bulbs do better in the center of my beds than along the edges. Mine are all interplanted with perennials and even shrubs. I think that this provides them better drainage. I have learned to live with the occasional (well actually fairly frequent) slicing of the bulbs by my shovel. My daffodils are planted in circles or semi-circles, or behind many of my daylilies, especially those that are seen from some distance. The daylilies do a great job of hiding the dying daffodil foliage. I try to leave some room for growth of the daylilies, but in any case the daylilies seem totally unperturbed by the bulbs, even though I am unlikely to give them the foot of space :~) that at botanical garden might - I garden in a small area & everything is crammed. Some orange daylilies I like are Backdraft (orange with red eye), Egyptian Spice (amber orange blend) Orange Velvet, Orange Vols, & Tuscawilla Tiger. There are lots more available! Most of my daffodils, however, are planted around in my red daylily/shrub bed at the back of my yard. In my small orange daylily bed I used a different method that you might find interesting. I use minor bulbs all in shades of blue. Smaller bulbs like Ipheon, Scilla, Chionodoxa, Iris reticulata & such can go much closer to other plantings and only need to be planted 3-4 inches deep. I actually planted all the bulbs when the bed was first made and the daylilies had not been chosen yet, poked them in with my finger. I then partially buried upside down nursery pots in the bed to mark the daylily spots and let the bed rest until the following spring when my daylilies arrived in the mail. It was a sheet of blue in the spring. Many minor bulbs can also go in shade areas around hostas for example which come up very late. If the shade is from deciduous trees, these bulbs can easily finish their cycle, and get enough nourishment to bloom and spread around, before the trees are leafed out. So look around at all those areas too and plant more bulbs! Don't overlook miniature daffodils they can be tucked in here and there and everywhere and the foliage disappears so much faster than full-size daf foliage. Please see my pictures in the thread Tulips return. Over the tulips in the first picture, I usually plant portulaca as someone in this thread mentioned, or some other low water annual. I am always afraid I'll do something stupid and these perennial tulips (still going strong in 4th spring) won't come back for me. Most tulips are strictly annuals in my garden. I also have the tulip area edged in Blue Fescue Grass, and use the small blue Sedum sieboldiana and blue Myrtle spurge (Euphorbia myrsinites) & other dry plants like Geum coccineum borisii (bright orange which you would really like) which do not thrive in my dense wet clay, except in this raised gravel bed. Blue and orange is one of my favorite combinations! And while there aren't many cold zone early spring bulbs in orange, there are plenty of blue, whites & yellows. Tried a pretty in-between size daffodil this year called Bantam that you might like. It's a very neat & compact bright yellow daffodil with a ruffled orange edge on the cup. There are many others with this color, but the size is more unique. Oh, and there are lots of hardy lilies that come in orange, can't forget them. Anyway have fun! Sorry this is so long, I get carried away when I get enthused about things. LOL

Melissa, broom is a pain in the neck. I used to love seeing it by the roadsides driving through the Italian landscape; so bright, so perfumed! But I think that is the only good context for it, in a way. It would be OK where it is on my property, if it didn't attract those effing beetles so wildly; in fact, IMO, the beetles exist precisely to keep the broom from taking over the entire world, since they suck the flowers and render them infertile. But the beetles are engineered to be wildly attracted to the colour yelow; that is, the stamens of ALL flowers,and due to the geography (or morphology???) of my land (sharply sloping down from the rose garden into the broom field and below that, oak woods,with a south-west orientation),having broom down there is like rolling out the red carpet for the beetles (well, the yellow carpet). Broom has strong, fibrous tap roots that can push their way through/ between rocks, etc. I think the only way I can do anything with this area is by hacking up the ground with my pick; I can't see just planting baby trees amongst that thuggish broom and hoping them to survive.Also, I'd have to water the babies in their first year, and I think the broom would just flourish all the more. Probably I'll try a mix of things and see what works best,but it will be necessary to work the soil before I plant anything. I probably should saw down all the broom in the area I wish to start cultivating, and maybe put black plastic bags over the stumps of the ones that are too deep rooted to dig up; for shade it might be better to rig up something artificial. I don't think your land was as abused as mine was; this area in question has been so badly eroded; I have to hunt out spots where it will be possible to dig down deep enough to start stuff. The rose garden area was similar when I started about 15 years ago,but I am not going to lug all this heavy clay, etc. all the way down there. To plant the first Leylandii I prepared an area,digging out rocks, putting in organic matter and kitty litter, etc. I'll certainly be watering it in it's first year at least! but the thing about Leylandii is that it was cheap; it's as tall as me and cost me all of 13 euros. So, if with some effort I can get it to establish,I might have a nice start.The thing is, even on the subject of drought resistance, people's experiences and opinions vary greatly with ALL plants, as far as I can see. To me,for example, roses are very drought-resistant once established, but many, many people heartily disagree with this opinion. So I will see what this Leylandii does before I make any decisions. Criteria for a nurse crop would have to be : economic ,(not to say, cheap) and fast-growing. But even for that, I will absolutely have to work on that soil ; as it is now, nothing new can start growing there, I think,except baby broom and maybe brambles (if they manage to compete with the broom)...bart

Native prairie plants tend to be drought-tolerant, not surprisingly. Some nice ones for the garden are: Yucca glauca (native to southern prairies); also Y. filamentosa (native to NE US) Purple prairie clover coneflowers- Ratibida species Pasture sage - Artemesia frigida Sticky geranium (Geranium viscosissimum) All the things suggested by Plantlady are hardy in your area, and some groups have representatives that are native to these parts (Gaillardia, Monarda, Echinacea).

Shacute and Sam: Glad that Sam mentioned compost .. that provides soluble phosphorus for more branching on new roses. I made the same mistake of putting too much nitrogen when I first bought own-root roses .. and got only one bloom the 1st year !! Sulfate of potash is best ordered on Amazon, the ones at the store (Espoma Potash) is muriate of potash, or potassium-chloride, salt-index of 112.6 ... that's the salty stuff we use to de-ice sidewalk in zone 5a. Quick way to get the potassium & phosphorus you need is to grab a bag of Tomato-Tone NPK 4--6-6, or any organic fertilizer with big number 6 or above for the last digit (potassium). Tomato Tone is sold out fast at Walmart, it's 5 lbs. for $10. Since potassium mobility is a 3, somewhat slow, it's best to put that in the planting hole. If your hole is 18 feet by 12 feet, it's safe to use 2 cups of tomato tone, plus 1 cup gypsum (calcium sulfate) in the planting hole. Roots need both calcium and potassium, plus a bit of phosphorus to get big & solid. The EarthGro humus & compost sold cheap at Walmart for $1.29 per 40 lb. bag .. that's good for the planting hole .. will provide phosphorus for years.