Candace, These are the Dwarf Wax Myrtles. Not what one thinks of as a Dwarf. I've been working in that area so it's still ongoing. The one on the left is limbed up nicely, but then I lost the privacy that I wanted. I had planned to plant some Abelia Grandiflora until the butterflies won out. So, Rue made it instead. At least, it's the rent house next door while the other blocks the view from the street. So, I may have to live with that for a while. Of course, it could revert back to a shrubby bush if it is left unpruned. It just looks so much better cleaned up. The one on the right might just remain like it is as it does provide more privacy. The last photo shows that it was planted too close to the fence and has grown through it to some degree as well as growing over it. I don't think they mind. But, it's worthwhile to keep it off the fence. I haven't gotten around to any pruning toward that. But, I don't want it to get any heavier wood, due to time, growing there. This turned out to be a good resource with all the photos that everyone has posted. ExMontrose person here. I saw that you lived in Houston. At least, you get more rain than we do up here. Xtal Good luck on your planting. Be sure to take Before and After photos along with some progressive age shots... not only for your own reference, but to be able to share them here as well.

Since Ian Barclay occasionally reads/posts to this forum and runs a nursery in WA that specializes in water-wise gardening in the PNW, I think that his perspective is important. He sells Ribes speciosum (http://desertnorthwest.com/catalog/plants_western.html), and here is his take: "Hardy to about 10 F" "It is one of the few drought-deciduous shrubs we can grow in the Northwest." "Although native to central California, IT DOES FINE IN MILDER NORTHWEST GARDENS, occasional leaf drop notwithstanding." (my emphasis) If you have a problem with me SUGGESTING Ribes speciosum for a relatively mild climate like Portland, I can't image what you think of Ian for SELLING the plant to PNW customers. Be sure to express your displeasure the next time that he posts here.

Hi Michiele, Landscaping around a pool that is in full sun, or at least in lots and lots of sun, can be very challenging. Often the heat that reflects from the pool and the pool deck are very hard on plants. When you are landscaping near a pool area, I think grass is always best because it can take the most abuse, from being walked on, having beach balls bounce through it, etc. To keep weeds to a minimum, put down a good quality woven landscape fabric, plant your grasses and add some mulch. When choosing a mulch, it is often better to use some sort of stone like river rock or lava rock because bark mulches tend to blow into the pool. Interplanting a taller ground cover like ornamental grass with a shorter ground cover can be difficult. Creeping ground covers like Asian Jasmine or Boston Ivy may tend to 'climb' up the clumps of grass. If you have a taller ornamental grass, then a shorter ground cover may get too shaded by the taller grasses and not fill in as well as you would like. You might try ice plant or creeping sedum. They also are creepers more than vining climbers so they would be easier to maintain. Both are very tough and can handle the reflected heat from the pool's concrete or stone surround. If you are going to have a taller form of ornamental grass, you could use ornamental blue fescue, fiber optic grass or blue-eyed grass as the shorter plant to fill in around the larger ones. It can be hard to combine ornamental grasses with shorter ground covers underneath them because the shorter plants can be overwhelmed by the larger grasses. A mixed planting of ornamental grasses, creeping groundcovers and dwarf shrubs can be used quite effectively if the plants are in scale with one another. You might go to the website for High Country Gardens (I think it is www.highcountrygardens.com) and look at their ground covers. They have a lot of uncommon plants that are suited to tough conditions. Good luck, Dawn

Enjoying nature, I never have tried pruning hollies to a certain size. I let mine get to the full size and shape that they're meant to attain. You probably could prune them to any size and shape you want, but after a few years you end up with big thick branches with leaves sticking out of them and it looks unnatural unless you like tightly pruned hedges. I still can hear Neil Sperry's voice in my head on his radio show saying that if you want to prune shrubs into square green boxes, why not just go out and build a plywood box and paint it green. (grin) Who am I to defy Neil Sperry and try to prune my hollies to a certain arbitrary size? So, mine were spaced as far apart as they needed to be in the first place because I had a good idea how big they'd get and they are fine now---roughly 12' tall and 5-6' apart. Those are the Burford hollies on the south side of the house. They shade the south porch from the summer sun, which is precisely what I wanted them to do. On the east side of the house, which is where the front part of the wraparound porch and the front door is located, I planted Dwarf Burford hollies in 2011 and they seem more like the size you'd want. I wanted a naturally shorter shrub there so we could sit on the porch and look out into the yard somewhat at least. Mine have really had to struggle through drought (i think I planted them in April of 2011 and it stopped raining soon thereafter and didn't rain for 90 days that summer) so they have grown relatively slowly for hollies, but now are about 5' tall and about 3-4' wide and they haven't reached their max size yet. I expect them to top out at around 8' tall and 4' wide, but time will tell. They are a loose informal hedge, which fits with our country Victorian house....all relaxed and sort of cottagey. It is your house, though, and they are your shrubs, so you should plant what pleases you and maintain them in the way that makes you happy. I'm a firm believer that a person's landscape plantings should reflect their tastes and anyone who doesn't like it can just go mind their own business. Well, except, I still have Neil Sperry's voice in my head and I agree with his comments about picking the right shrub to begin with so you don't have to prune your shrubs to an unnatural size or shape. That's just me, though. Some people love formally pruned hedges and they should have what they want. All those years of reading Neil's newspaper columns, his magazine and his books when we lived in Texas (as well as listening to his radio show and attending his Garden Shows) trained me to be a certain way as a younger gardener, and I have his voice in my head the way I have my dad's voice in my head, even though he is long gone. Scott, We have native possumhaw hollies and I love them, but they sucker like the devil and we've got one in the front yard we're going to take out. I hate to take it out because it is the bird feeder tree where we hang the feeders, but we'll just move them somewhere else. It just suckers endlessly and I'm tired of dealing with it. We'll leave the ones on the edges of the woods because it doesn't bother us if they form thickets, and the birds love the berries in late winter and early spring, though they won't touch them until all the other berries are gone. When the cedar waxwings are migrating through in spring, they get pretty much drunk on those fermented possumhaw berries. I feel like pretty much everything we plant has one poisonous part or another, so I plant what I want. If kids are around, I keep an eye on the kids, and teach them not to eat plant parts without checking with an adult first. No child has poisoned themselves on anything we grow yet, so I try not to worry about it. (And I grow several types of brugmansias and daturas, but the spiny seed balls are so hideous that I don't think I have to worry about kids getting hold of them and accessing the seeds.) When we were kids we ran all over the neighborhood and played and we all knew to go home immediately when our parents turned on the front porch light. None of us died or ever got seriously injured or ill. It was a wonderful childhood, and we had a woodland, a neighborhood pond, rocky cliffs to climb, etc. I appreciate that we got to be kids with no one hovering over us too much. Times have changed. And, just so you know, most poisonous plant parts have a bad taste, making it less likely kids will eat them. Or, they will cause you to throw up if you ingest them, so kids are not that likely to eat and swallow them. (However, some dogs will eat anything, so that is one thing to keep in mind if you have dogs.) It is a sad commentary on life in this century that kids cannot play tag. No wonder so many children have a weight issue. It is hard to stay physically fit if you cannot do anything because you might get hurt. That is just sad. Dawn