Hi: I live in Northern New Jersey (Zone 7) and I recently moved into a new home and I would like to start planning my gardens. I have all types of light conditions: full sun, partial shade, heavy shade and I even have some areas that are in a meadow that stays very damp after a heavy rain. I just ordered 85 10 foot tall Green Giant Arbivaitae to put along the property line to create a natural fence. Some of these Arbivitae will be planted in heavy shade provided by pin oaks. I was would like to plant a schedule of flowers that will bloom in succession, early spring through late fall. The beds will be planted with the arbavitae as a backdrop in some areas. Could you provide me with a list of flowers and the schedule in which they bloom so that I can plan out the gardens accordingly?

I am moving to Yucca Valley in Jan(from Ohio) and want to be prepared to plant the seeds in early spring. I want flowers that will grow in the natural desert soil without adding topsoil and ones that wont need much watering after they are established. I have a lot of area to work with so I want to do areas with wildflowers and also regular flowers. Ive been doing tons of searches but surprisingly enough cannot find any one book or source for desert flowers, so am trying to figure it out by searching : arid soil, sandy soil, zone 9, full sun etc and then trying to pick out ones common to all the lists. Unfortunately, while I have found a lsome useful information about wild flowers, I've found very little on *regular* flowers.. So if anyone has experience with flower gardening in the Mojave/desert any help would be appreciated. Thanks so much . Mykiel