Thanks everyone. We like the arbor too as a small ( cheap!! ) easy to construct entranceway. It was peeling pretty good but it has given up its bark by now. When and if it falls, we will haul out the cement footers and do it again. It is not deep..basically just an entranceway. We grow deeo red bee balm next to it ...low bright purple ajuga in front and in the back 5 feet tall long nosed bright yellow rudbeckia.
My motto is ..don't help it...if It makes it...it is meant to be! If it croaks...the arbor distracts!
Sean, I should have not said mop head.. Thuja won't last. The deer eat it and rub their horns and break it. I have tried.
The shrub is a false cypress. Golden mop??? I think it should go to 5 feet per the books but ours would go to 6 at least-- so maybe not a dwarf. In sun it is a bright bright yellow. ...deer won't touch it. Needs no special care. If you get it, when it is shaped...be sure you plan it well because it doesn't grow new shoots on the old wood. It really is a shrub that makes friends with others because its color does so well with dark green and crimson and burgandy. Also evergreen and very graceful. I think I will always have a few in the garden. I also feel that way about the black dragon because I love love the bright green new growth against the black black green needles...it is a quiet gentleman...plays nice...but WHAT A PAIN IN THE TUSH unless you find a totally draft free site, It burns brown. Another shrub I think would do well for you in your area is a witch hazel - so many varieties, but I did not mention because you wanted winter interest and while some will bloom and perfume...no evergreen leaves.
Your model: I think what you have done is quite nice. I especially love the astilbe..but they do not love me...I am not sure why. I have tried many times. You may also like one pink muhly specimen in that area ..I know not evergreen - but the dried up winter leftovers can look interesting. Deer leave it alone too. I agree about the vine for the lollipop tree but no ideas for one to survive, that's why I set things on chairs, place statues, boulders, totems, anything next to the bare tree trunk. . I even have a tall music stand in a planting area.
The deer SLEEP under our windows. No way to avoid even next to house. You mentioned cleome...that brings to mind seeds...and to my mind blue star amsonia. The deer will ignore. In the late late fall, it will absolutely GLOW a beautiful bronze. Comes back faithfully..and has a nice dried stalk and pod in the winter. You can leave it alone....in the summer..it looks like tall fat fennel.bright green. This is not the dark green foot to 15 inch blue star that pops up everywhere..this is 3:5 feet tall and wide, gorgeous. I have seen cars brake for it in autumn with the sun on it...it is on fire.
