Thanks Ingrid :) I have some other rose beds- but did not photograph those. I would worry about "the Mrs" in your climate- if mine has managed to get this big without any sheltering, I can only imagine what it can do at your house !! I have quite a bit of lawn that could easily be turned into more rose beds, but I can hardly keep up with what i have - maybe when I retire! I will be sure to post more pictures in the days following when the roses really begin to bloom, Marleah

I thought Ron Valente was more of a solid color. Show it to us again when it warms up. You seem to have gotten the pictures before the rain did too much damage.

Thank you Debra, Nancy, Nancy, Maryl and Sherry. Regarding the deer, we have two dogs, but they are only outside when I am and they go out on tie outs. There are way too many critters around they might chase after, plus there are coyotes around and I sure wouldn't want anything to happen to my pups. So, the deer are accustomed to the dogs being out and near the house, but it doesn't keep the deer away when the dogs aren't out there. There used to be a lot more deer, but since the coyotes have been in the area for the past couple of years, there don't seem to be as many deer. Maryl, Ashwood Still Night grows well here... it's supposed to be a rebloomer, but I don't think it has rebloomed for me. It is a nice dark purple. I think I've had it since 2012, it is a pretty big clump now and needs to be divided. The flowers are one of the purples that can take on a grayish/frosted look on cold mornings. The flowers seem to hold up well in the heat and hold their color pretty well here, but I don't think we get as much heat or for as long as you do. Here is a pic from yesterday of one of the scapes on the outside of the clump.

Thanks Tyler, I think that some of the large-leaved succulents like agave attenuata give off such a tropical vibe, especially when paired with palms. Barb, funny you would ask! Yes! I live with an expectation that some of my plants will "walk away." When I first planted succulents out, i had tons of tiny cuttings, and probably around 20 echeveria imbricata that I had propagated. The echeveria really stood out in the bare yard and all but 2 or so were stolen. Someone must've come back for more because every day there were 1 or 2 or 3 missing until I took the remaining ones and potted them up in the backyard. I don't mind people taking cuttings so much, and I haven't noticed any plants being butchered but I have seen someone take a handful of cuttings from the sedum before. I recently divided two clumps of graptoveria 'fred ives' and spread the rosettes across an area in the front. I was expecting about half of those to go missing but luckily none have! There is an office complex across the street so we do get quite a bit of non-residential foot-traffic as well as regular foot traffic you would expect in an urban neighborhood. I wonder if sedum could work for you as groundcover? And perhaps sedum praealtum (or maybe it's Sedum dendroideum ssp. praealtum ) could be hardy in your area also. We used it at another house as hedge material. It's very prolific and roots very easily. We started with a single cutting and by the end of the year, had propagated enough of the rosettes to plant a low-growing hedge. Best of all is the red coloration is picks up during winter and when stressed by drought.