Plant Research

So I've been reading a book called 'The Weekender's Garden Manual' it's one of my used book purchases but I like the idea of it. Obviously I'm going to have more time than the people in this book expect you to have which is only about 2-4 hours a week to work in your garden. I can easily put in twice that without a lot of effort. But they had garden plans and easy to grow plants that you could use in your garden and I thought that sounded like a good stepping off point for the novice gardener such as myself. A lot of their plants were annuals so no biggie if I decide to change the garden around after awhile. Anyway here are the plants they recommended. A couple are no good to me since the garden faces south and will be exposed to sun all day long but most can tolerate or thrive in full sun conditions.

Recommended:
Bleeding Heart (PS)
Chives
Crocus (S-PS)
Daffodil (S-PS)
Iris (S-PS)
Jacob's Ladder (PS)
Peony (S)
Snowdrop (S)
Bachelor's Button (S)
Bee Balm (S)
Balloon Flower (S)
Black eyed Susan (S)
Candytuft (?)
Day Lily (S)
Feverfew (S)
Marigold (S)
Chrysanthemum (S)
Sedum (S)

Others that I would like try:
Painted Daisy (S)
Geraniums (S)
Coral Bells (S-PS)
Rose (S)
Columbine (PS)
Begonias (S-SH)
Hostas (SH-PS)
Snapdragons (S-PS)
Zinnias (S)
Butterfly Bush (S)

S = sun, PS = part shade, SH = shade

This sounds like a lot of plants to put in the garden though, and I want the garden to be small at first, and add on to it later when I feel more certain of my footing. I'm thinking maybe half of the space that I can have. Not sure which half I want to work with though. So I need to winnow this list down, there's a lot of tall flowers in it and I need to make it work with some short, medium, and tall or maybe just have one tall section. And I'm not sure yet whether I want to have a 'formal' or 'informal' garden style. I'm leaning towards informal though, I've always liked cottage style gardens, I think they are lovely.

As I stated before I'd like to put the mini rose bush I've got now into the ground in the spring if it survives living in the house over the winter. If it doesn't make it, I'll probably go out and buy another rose bush to plant in the spring, but as for the peonies I don't think they'll end up in my garden. They are wonderful plants, and we had 4 of them growing on the side of the garage (detached) when we moved in here 13 years ago, but slowly and through various means they have all died and have been so for the last 4 years. So what my mother and I plan to do is buy several different types of peonies, and I have picked some out, and plant them back on the side of the house with some good fertilizer thrown in, and this time stakes to hold up the blossoms and a little fence around them so that my dad doesn't get weed wacker happy and take them out again. Lol.

The varieties I liked the look of were:
Evening star (white) (good smell)
Felix Crousse (reddish pink) (faint smell)
Faith Fenton (pale pinkish white) (excellent smell)
Fairy's Petticoat (pale pinkish white) (excellent smell)
Golden Bracelet (white with yellow 'bracelet' and more white) (excellent smell)
Nellie Saylor (striped reddish pink, pink, and white) (faint smell)

If anybody actually reads this blog, lol, I would like some input on the plants I have chosen here, or the peonies, or well just about anything gardenwise in general. :)