I would plant nothing but the lowest ground cover in the front. Your stone foundation is such an attractive feature you don’t want to cover it or even distract with vertical climbers. What I would conceal is the drain pipe. Did you know ithat the downspout could be reattached so that it is next to the column, even though the gutter extends further? This would go with your preference for tidy and neat:)

It looks so pretty! what will you grown in the arbor? I‘m not in your zone and my roses are on their first year. i have Olivia, Bolero, iceberg and LA from your list. Bolero is by far my favorite, is not bothered by the sun/heat While Olivia blooms fry on the heat. they are all under 2ft still, except LA that is kind of big already. all of them just keep putting up new blooms. I have 3 Olivia’s (well 2 one die 😫) then 3 box woods with 2 boleros in front, will add more this fall. Just remember to find a spot with decent sun light for the roses.

@kitasei2 Thank you! Yes, part of the gutter is broken. We plan to get the entire gutter system replaced/fixed and it is going to cost $3000- $5000 so we'll do it the next year. Thank you for the reminder! I love the rock too and you are right I shouldn't get it covered too much. I thought stone will show through the climbing rose.

@CeresMer Zone 7a NJ Wow it's always great to hear personal experiences with the roses that I'm interested. I learned about Bolero from Houzz and it seems it's one of the favorite white roses here. I heard it takes a few years to bloom. Would love to see your pictures!

As to the arbor, there's a funny story. I like Asian wisteria and read they are invasive in America, so this spring when I called my local nursery, I was glad to find they had one non-invasive purple-colored American wisteria. I drove there right away to grab it without looking carefully at the tag. I didn't know there are different types of American wisteria (I didn't know so many different kinds of roses then either.) I was planning to put the wisteria to the trellis on the stone foundation next to the walkout basement. Then, when I took it home, I realized it would grow much taller than I thought and too vigorous to plant near the house. Then dear hubby kindly built a customized arbor just for it. Otherwise, you might not even see the arbor there. Well, the wisteria is not an invasive breed which is nice but it didn't bloom long or much. I don't know whether it would do better with time or it's just the kind. Even from the web pictures it seems other Kentucky wisterias-- amethyst falls, blue moon, and aunt dee have more blooms than Summer Cascade. I think I'll give it a couple more years and if it doesn't perform well, I'd replace it with another wisteria. My husband doesn't like to put a rose over this front arbor so climbing rose is out.

I‘m going to throw my cap in the ring for Bolero. It really is everything they say it is and I don’t have tons of sun or great soil and it bloomed the first year. I absolutely love this rose. Even the shrub itself looks nice.

Need to fix the tiny pictures so they can be seen. Open them in Paint (or whatever program you created them in) and select the main image and move it to abutting the upper left corner. You may need to zoom out to see the " grab handles" at the bottom and right side of pics. Grab and drag them to the right and bottom of the image such that all white space is removed. Save the pictures and reinstall them, one by one, into the thread, in place of the existing pictures. (Use the "Edit" button at the post where the pictures are.)

Hi Yogi,

I don’t have good pictures because like I said my roses are all babie

@CeresMer Zone 7a NJ Thanks for sharing! The middle picture is lovely with the beautiful coordination of house color, decoration, light fixture, furniture, and of course the most lovely is the little girl. Almost like a magazine picture!

@Yardvaark Hello! I'm very happy to see you visit my post. I've been enjoying reading your advise on other posts and was hoping you could share some thoughts. I deleted that comment with small images as I couldn't figure out how to enlarge and I didn't quite like how they looked anyways. I'll try to post a couple more below. Inspired by Kita, I'm now thinking, instead of planting in front of the stone foundations, maybe I should extend the flower bed on the opposite side. Also, what do you think of the current spacing of the bobos? (The third picture on the top) The bottom two are about 4 1/2 feet from each other and from the path and it seems to be a little too much space. The size on the tag says the mature size is 2 1/2 -3 feet high and 3-4 feet wide, but suggested spacing of 4-5 feet. Why does it need to be that much spacing? It won't spread that wide anyways. Am I missing anything? Should I move them closer to each other and the sidewalk? Thank you!

Inspired by @kitasei2 's comment, maybe I'll plant something short and purple in color in front of the stone foundation. I'm also thinking extending the flowerbed south of the sidewalk. That will give me another 16-18 feet and should be able to put in three or four more Bobos. In the next picture, I put down the white hose to line out the idea and added a few images. Behind the bobos, I'm thinking of putting a few earth angels or two earth angels and one or two Olivia Austin. It still seems to need a punctuation somewhere. Maybe a Tiffany blue tall planter by the corner of front porch and front steps. The all-wood siding panel and railing seems a little dark and need to brighten up somehow. Any suggestions?

Front Yard · More Info

This is the view when we walk up to the front door. As you can see, we are in a woodland setting and there is lots of green in the summer but not much color. In the far background, I plan to plant a row of blue Endless summer by an old lilac bush. We rebuilt a water feature and I've got ideas about the plants I want for a Japanese-inspired water feature garden there. It's the front yard that I'm stressing out a little. I can't decide whether I should move the bottom two Bobos closer to the path or just plant something there (iris, or lilic tree, or snapdragon). Can't decide what to do with the slope on the right either... I'm still trying to figure out my garden style and the landscaping that fits the house architecture. It is helpful just to allow me to think aloud with you guys here. Any ideas about general landscaping or plant choices are welcome!

Front Yard · More Info

Sorry these two pictures seem to be small still. But when we put the mouse cursor on the image, there's a plus sign and hit that would enlarge the image. Sorry for my technical clumsiness. If you can't see these two images, please simply look at the three large ones in the original post and share what you'd do! Thanks!