Moving Plants All Around

I didn't like the knockout pink rose where I planted it. It's a very pretty plant, but its sugar pink blooms weren't right for this spot. 

Too English garden looking, even though the circle garden near it is quite structured and a little formal.

The shape is wrong too. I want something to spill down the little swale under the crabapple and the privet, not a big rounded upright shrub smack in between the two.

So, I took it out, put it in the white cement pot where the dead blueberry was, and placed it in the corner by the glider.

It fits the corner better than the big bush clematis and I will smell the delicate fragrance close up. On the patio in the corner its formal look will be better.

In its place I planted a Mojave sage (Plants of the Southwest had it) to settle in that little swale better. Not so upright, still flashy and eye catching but not so pink.A darker color to fit the earthier colors of mulch and stones and stucco wall.

I tried multiple times with Mojave sage and never got the hang of it. Too much sun, not enough water, whatever -- I struggled with several plants, not understanding what it takes to get one started. 

I know once established they want little water, lean soil, no care, a sunny spot. This spot under the privet has no irrigation emitter. And of course when I dug up the little rose, which I had watered deeply every other day, it was bone dry . . . 

And here's the thing: Santa Fe Botanical Garden actually says they want shade in this high elevation environment. Here's what they say:

It grows on dry slopes, in piñon-juniper or pine woodlands, often in decomposed granite, at elevations from 5,000-10,000 ft.

 

It should be planted in nutrient-poor, well-drained soil. It grows best in dry shade or partial shade of trees. It needs only minimal water after it is established. Soil that is too rich or too much water promotes lush growth, but short-lived plants.

So I'll see how Mojave sage does in part shade under the privet. It gets sun in the morning, shade much of the day, then sun again late in the day.

I had to move the bush clematis in its turquoise pot that was in the patio corner by the glider.

It should probably be in more sun for better flowering.

It got too bushy for this corner, the flowers are all down below, and the top of it (the bottom of the stems, actually) is turning brown. It's a plant that should be tucked in with other things somewhere and allowed to scramble over them, hiding some of the stems.

It can actually be used as a spreading ground cover too, unsupported and allowed to flop.

I couldn't move it very far, so it ended up tucked under the juniper by the garage door, which does visually cover the bare stems a bit.

But it's still floppy with the flowers dangling on the ground. I hope in more sun it will fill out more -- after flowering later this spring I'll chop it back.

I tried weaving the long stems and flowers up into the juniper and it worked, but looked a bit silly.

I may have to find another home for this.