George, my buddleia is young, true...I planted it last spring I believe. it's one in particular that wilts, the yellow/honeycomb one. The white ones have no problem. But the yellow one, while it is growing very well, it wilts just about every sunny day! The purple ones I have seen elsewhere seem less wilty for sure. I just wanted to suggest they might be on the lower end of your drought-tolerance list, since you asked. Lilacs also seem to survive in abandoned sites but I don't know if they are truly drought tolerant. By the way... I picked up your 'Little Honey' today and I asked about it being marginally hardy. The man said their specimen had no trouble last winter but it did burn a little during the heat wave. But then, it put out new growth which looks great. I'm optimistic! Of course I am going crazy trying to figure out where to put it. I think I need a new garden, wish I was better so I could dig a new bed...Maybe my husband can be persuaded to dig it for me! There were actually things on sale at BAN which is unusual, I might go back tomorrow so I can look around while my husband chases the kids.

i wouldnt doubt it because there are naturalized parrots in many cool areas. Brooklyn is a zone 7 and has parrots thriving in some communities. They are in abundance too but arent very widespread and live together. Just like all other city birds they eat a lot of food that is on the ground but will eat a lot of other foods too. They dont look like tropical parrots, but can be trained to talk, but probably will never do so in the wild. Definitely not those beautiful tropical looking parrots you see as pets or in the zoo, but they do have nice green colors to them. But as far as stealing fruit, there are lots of other much more common birds that will do that job a lot quicker than these parrots in brooklyn (I believe they are called quaker parrots and are from argentina). I think they are also in other areas but Im really only familiar with the ones in Brooklyn. Good luck! -Alex

Andy, I'm zone 7 but don't think there should be that much of a difference as we are both protecting our plants over the winter. Not a basjoo but my Himalayan (Musa sikkimensis) bloomed a few summers back. Last summer was a dud so bananas were off, this summer we had extremely dry conditions and I didn't even put them into the hot, dusty ground (now it's raining and raining!) But to get back to your question, mine bloomed with a heck of a lot fewer leaves than 20-25--maybe 8 or fewer of those enormous leaves on an 8 foot plant (have a pic somewhere I can post). It bloomed in September as I recall (a teacher wanted to bring it into his class to show the students how the bananas develop out a flower branches).--They kind of pop out suddenly those floral parts. Just keep watering and feeding! Good luck and post a pic if it does bloom.

Here are my thoughts on planning: while I agree that planning is important, I feel none of what I'm doing right now precludes any plants unless they are extremely acid-loving. My pH is 4.8 and the recommended ph ranges from 5.5 for acid loving to 6.5 for flowers. Changing the ph takes a long time and so far I've added 40lbs of limestone when I need 225 - 400 lbs! I also agree that using native plants is preferable, but that is limited by availability and cost. It's going to be hard to justify buying native if he cost difference is substantial. I have bought a few so far, listed below, from big box stores New plants: Gaura lindheimeri Salvia nemorosa Boneset chocolate eupatorium rugosum Salix integra brocade willow Pieris japonica If anyone has recommendations or websites to learn about native plants, please share. I feel like the far bigger limiting factor is the relatively small amount of sun I get, not my soil. Also, for any new subject, by definition my tastes are going to evolve, so I don't see much value in creating a plan upfront, when it's almost guaranteed that my tastes will change as I learn more about gardening. One example: I just learned about Swales and berms - something I'd never remotely heard of before. Now I want to learn how I can incorporate that in my garden!