You are already seeing that there is a rhythm to our weather. The trick is to plant the vegetables that will grow during each weather pattern. Here in central MS (our climate is very similar. My daughter lives in DFW), it goes kind of like this: In late March or early April (right after last frost date), plant the stuff that will heat check in mid summer: snap beans and tomatoes; and the long season heat lovers: butterbeans, peppers, and eggplants. And the short season heat lovers that will yield their space to something else in mid summer: cucumbers, summer squash, (Vine Borers make them a short season veg most years), and corn. As the snap beans and corn finish up (late June to early July), plant cowpeas, winter squash, and okra (this could have been planted earlier too). I also pull out cucumbers at this time and replant them, picklers this time. All of these thrive on the worst heat of summer. (with ample water). Oh, if you want a second crop of tomatoes, start your seeds by mid June. I usually leave the tomatoes in the ground through the worst of the heat, IF the plants look good. When it cools down in late summer, they will commence bearing again. If they look bad, I pull them out, add compost and fertilizer and plant fresh plants (no later than mid July) which will bear till frost. In mid July, I start seeds for collards, broccoli, caulifower, and cabbage in a place that has dappled shade. In late July, you can plant fresh snap beans. I like poles best for their flavor, and I think they do better in our heat too. In early to mid September, you can direct sow kale, mustard, and asian greens. In late September or early October, plant onions, carrots, lettuce, garlic, spinach, and set out your plants you started in July. I grow all my cool season plants under mulch and row covers, using my tomato cages as hoops. With the row covers, all these plants typically make it through the entire winter and we eat from them regularly throughout. There is an added bonus of growing this way. If you pick your greens, or cut the entire plant (do NOT pull them up by the roots) to harvest, there will be virtually no grit in them. The mulch and row covers keep dirt from splashing up on the leaves. It saves untold hours of cleaning greens inside. In February, I plant sugar snap peas. Some years, I get a harvest, and some years it gets hot too soon and I don't. On those years, I just plow the plants under the soil and figure their nitrogen fixing roots are a bonus to the soil.

Hi Jane, I got this rose last year from Palatine. It's pretty and does have a fragrance, but it's not very strong. It was in a pot for the first year and I just transfered it to the ground, it looks very happy and is covered in lovely glossy green leaves right now - also a ton of buds. Last year it did get a touch of Powdery Mildew but then I don't spray and it really did not get too bad. My growing climate is a bit different to yours so I don't know exactly how it will do for you. Hopefully someone in your zone also grows this one. Here are some pictures from last year. It does tend to get more pink when the weather warms up. Aprille

dan - Longleaf pines are very beautiful trees. The wood is stronger than other southern pines so they withstand hurricanes better. I planted 100 containerized seedlings (plugs) last spring. They did fairly well but I had some losses due to drought. I ordered more containerized seedlings this year to replace the losses and expand the longleaf pine groves this year. LLPs are very sensitive to provenance so it's best to buy seedlings grown from trees in your area. As Alabama says, they spend a year or two in the grass stage while they grow a long taproot (several feet long), then they take off. When they are in the grass stage, keep the weeds down around them - they need sun. I've seen 2-3 ft seedlings in pots that were too small to accommodate the taproot so I didn't buy them. Most magnolias don't need much or any shade. There are exceptions so do research on the varieties. I planted several magnolias planted in full sun as part of a wind screen - they are tough. They are reported to do well in hurricanes - mine were flooded this year during a Cat 1 hurricane - they were fine afterwards. If fall color is on your list, consider a tupelo/black gum tree. They have spectacular color that continues into December here. People say they grow slow but my small (3-4') trees put on at least 2 ft of new growth in their first year, during a drought. They also have long taproots. I didn't lose any tupelos during the last big hurricane.

Plumeria isn't really a big seller here in the San Francisco Bay Area, as we aren't warm enough in winter, or hot enough in summer for them to be a reliable outdoor plant. Mail order sources are probably a better bet for a good selection. If you are actually staying in San Francisco, Flora Grubb Nursery in the Bayview District is a good place to visit, although I usually buy my tropicals from a couple of nearby indoor wholesale nurseries that aren't open to the general public, for a more extensive selection of tropicals. Across the Bay Bridge, Berkeley Hort Nursery and The Dry Garden Nursery in Oakland are worth checking out, or Annie's Annuals Nursery in Richmond, which also has a web site and does mail order, at www.anniesannuals.com. There is a nursery specializing in tropicals up in Santa Rosa, I forget the name, that has an extensive selection of Hibiscus and probably Plumeria as well, maybe someone else will remember the name of it. Kartuz Nursery out of Vista is another mail order nursery that has an extensive selection of tropicals, they also have a web site.