The sundial garden idea sounds wonderful. I'm in 7b of NC and grow a full sun (10 hours a day in summer) garden. Happy Returns daylily is now blooming for the 3rd or 4th time (I've lost count). The yellow IMHO is prettier than the gold in Stella. Salvia 'Mystic Spires' looks fantastic with soft yellow, deep pinks and soft orange colors. Mine have been blooming nonstop for so long, the foliage is gorgeous and there are more buds forming. Hummingbirds, bees and butterflies love it. This is my first year, so I don't know how well it overwinters, but I have high hopes. An evergreen for zone 7b are the salvia greggii varieties. There are many colors -- magenta, cherry red, bright red, deep purple, fuschia, white, etc. They have a shrub-like habit that reaches around 3' for most of them. I am very fond of 'Dark Dancer'. Hummingbirds love them. Salvia guaranitica 'Black & Blue' is a large-leaved variety that takes slightly more moisture, but is still in full sun all the time in my garden. This is THE favorite for our hummingbirds, so we have 15 of these! I love gaillardia 'Golden Goblin' which is a soft yellow blanket flower. Just make sure you buy it in bloom, or you may end up with the standard gold/burgundy ones. Gaillardia 'Tizzy' is an orange, but it is an incredibly great blooming plant with interesting petals. This is my first year with these, but blanket flower usually returns for me. Coreopsis 'Redshift' is a fantastic, upright coreopsis with abundant blooms. It is pale yellow with a deep red center that coordinates perfectly with Gaillardia 'Burgundy'. I plan to eventually put this pair with the salvia 'mystic spires'. Nepeta 'Walkers Low' is my "go to" plant for frilly foliage and blue-lavender blooms. You only need one. You can divide it every year. Perennial heliotrope (now a Southern Living plant and is carried by Lowe's) is my "go to" edging plant/ground cover. It blooms all the time until frost and nothing bothers it. Another great bee and butterfly plant. Again, you only need one of these to cover 5 feet and can take cuttings in the future. I'm also a big fan of agastache. Just pick a color and size that you like for your zone. I find the small-leaved foliage (rupestris) with tubular flowers look better for a longer time than the larger-leaved, bottle-brush flowers such as 'blue fortune'. I'm trying 'Summer Sky' this year and do hope it returns as it is shorter and looks a lot like spires of salvia. Another hummingbird favorite. Verbena bonariensis is my favorite skinny plant to tuck in. It can grow over 4' tall, but you can keep cutting it and it will keep on blooming, only getting bushier. A goldfinch, butterfly and bee magnet. Will reseed, but I like it so much that I help it reseed by scattering it. Shrub crape myrtles can take 3 years to give you great blooms, but I love them. I have a 'White chocolate' with burgundy foliage and white blooms. It would look great beside a Knock Out rose (I have 'Radrazz' but can't put the roses outside my fence because of deer). I also use spirea 'neon flash' with the salvia 'dark dancer', pink muhly grass, echinacea 'prairies splendor' and monarda 'blue stockings' and 'raspberry wine'. Monarda takes more moisture than the others. Dianthus (Cottage Pinks) are in full sun, in a harsh spot in my garden, too. Finally, zinnias love full sun. I am growing the tall varieties with the tall salvia 'black & blue' and the shorter salvia 'mystic spires'. I like 'Purple Prince' with the salvias. For fall blooms, look into sedums such as 'Great Expectations', 'Purple Emperor' and 'Bekka'. I have these and love them. I like the annual purple fountain grass with the salvias, zinnias and sedums. Mums do well in my garden, too. I keep them pinched back until July 4th. Right now, mine are beautifully mounded and loaded with buds. I saw the first bloom today. I like them with my sedums. If you want some herbs, lavender, rosemary, thyme and oregano will work, too. For spring bulbs, I use daffodils, spanish bluebells and Dutch irises. Cameron Here is a link that might be useful: my gardening blog

Lots of great ideas most of which I had not thought about! Like many area neighborhoods, we have an excess of rhodies, plenty of conifers and quite a few flowering trees (especially the weeping ones). The neighborhood is 17 years old and I am pleased to see that as people are updating the landscape they are replacing some of the overgrown builder's plantings with trees with interesting bark, winter branching form and foliage. I should have mentioned that the deceased plum tree seemed to have some sort of blight. The neighbors plum, about 35' feet away, but surrounded by healhty plants suffered a similiar fate. The plants that have thrived in this bed are asters, enonymous (forgive the spelling) and sun lovers such as zinnias and cosmos. There is even a funky old boxwood that does great there, although it looks totally out of place. I will amend the bed, but it is a fairly difficult spot - definately not a place for a borderline hardy plant. Thanks again, I have some plant research to do.

Bustopher , thank you for the ideas ! I am expanding the bed this week to accommodate the roses , so I hope that helps . Unfortunately I am tapped out in the money dept so what I have coming is kinda all I can plan with for now . I do wish I could squeeze Olivia into an order somehow ! And I had the lady gardener and wish it had survived but it didn't . Hopefully what I do have can make a lovely bed ! Flowers .. I buy in bulk from American meadows or peaceful valley farms and usually the California mix or a cut and come again type . In late May I get someone with a farm tiller to fill up the strip in front of the house and then before it rains I go out and hand toss my seeds . I lightly walk over them but certainly don't get them all walked on. Then I only spend the first few weeks or so worrying about rain or dragging the hose out . They are very easy for me but I do plant so many ( one pound ) I'm sure i lose some . They love the intense heat we have here ! Does your climate get really hot ? I'm not sure if it helps but they seem to like it . So last year my photos show they were sprouting by May 28 and I have photos of my baby seated in them on July 11. They seem to come up quickly! I don't now them down til almost November and they die on their own so as many birds get seeds as I can and any straggling butterflies still have some food

Ligularia is certainly striking enough; we have the spotted one (aureomaculata) elsewhere in this garden. Not sure here in 8A how it would cope with the afternoon sun. This would fit in better with the antique/heritage garden feel better than the acanthus I think. We could also consider a shrub, with our 12 foot diameter there's room for a gardenia or a really showy specimen azalea.