I actually don't like butterfly bushes. They need to be cut back every year and I seem to be allergic to them. Also, I've seen them spread like weeds. Except for vulnerable new plantings, it is preferable to water roses deeply once a week, not moderately twice a week. That is good practice in a dry climate. Some roses can eventually get by on watering once every third week. There is a demonstration garden in my area that has 'Mutabilis' and 'Happenstance' on an every third week watering schedule. That is how often I water my established climbers and ramblers, too. The key word here is established. Probably this this kind of water diet suits all roses. IMO the plants need to be big and have deep root systems for this to work. My front yard garden is watered weekly by overhead spray for half an hour and deeply mulched with ground tree trimmings. If we get a run of hot days, I will drag out the hose and give supplemental water to new plantings. I grow roses with all sorts of companion plants there, many with average water requirements (peonies, lilies, clematis, and so forth). About a third of my garden is on this watering schedule, but the other two thirds are watered every third week. That part is fruit trees, established climbers and ramblers, and areas of mixed natives, succulents, and Mediterraneans. Like you I have a dry summer. Our yearly rainfall averages about 15 inches a year with a yearly variation of about 6-22 inches. When you are planning your companion plants, remember to group them by water requirements. For example, you can plant some lovely buckwheats, native sages, and drought-tolerant succulents together -- but don't place them with plants that want weekly water! Some of these plants can actually suffer from too much water, even rot. Rosefolly

Thanks for the photo - it makes things much clearer. Four or five hours of sun and bright shade after that is pretty good light. I think there are some of the Salvias such as S. greggii cultivars or S. guaranitica (I love 'Black and Blue')or some of the other less hardy Salvias might work for you there. Check for height and problematic self-seeding or spreading potential in your area since it is quite different from my growing conditions. Here many of them stay around 2 1/2 feet and S. greggii is airy enough that it wouldn't block the Clematis even if it were taller. Some of the shorter Baptisias should work well also. The species and some of the older hybrids like 'Purple Smoke' can get taller than 3', but several of the newer hybrids are more like 2'. Out of bloom I find the foliage decorative. Look at Amsonias to see if any are appropriate for your area. I like A. hubrichtii for its spring flowers, feathery summer foliage, and stunning fall color. It seeds some here, but not a lot. You might find some Penstemons that will work for you in this setting to add flowers, but in general when not in bloom they aren't tall enough to block bare lower stems. Lavender or some of the colored forms of culinary sage (Salvia officinalis) might work here, and you can check out the shrubs forum to see if there are other short shrubs or subshrubs that work in your area. The TX and OK forums are pretty active and my have some suggestions for you as well. (I am assuming due the lower zone that you are farther north in TX.) I'd love to hear what you end up planting.

I’m gonna hijack this further—as I go on a rant about the changes in genus/species names! The guys in the suits sitting in offices need to keep their hands off of The Names and get them out in the dirt where they might actually accomplish something! The chaos created by their constantly changing the names is absolute insanity when you’re working in the industry and trying to figure out what other people are talking about, and sometimes even trying to understand what YOU’RE talking about! One of my Pet Peeves is Wooly Thyme! Has switched back and forth from Thymus lanuginosus to/from T. pseudolanuginosus so many times it makes your head spin. Apparently the guys in the suits can’t figure out if it’s “pseudo” or not! Also goes by T. praecox ‘Pseudolanuginosus’, turning a “species” into a variety name, and also goes by T. praecox pseudolanuginosus, giving it TWO species names! Several years back when I was posting something here, trying to be as accurate as I could, I emailed the owner of perennials.com (and publisher of Heritage Perennial Gardening Guide, a good reference book) to ask if he could help with the “most recent” genus/species, and even he wasn’t sure what the (then) proper nomenclature was! Who knows what it’s called right now! And “all things pertaining to the genus Chrysanthemum!” What a mess! When I was a kid, painted daisies were Pyrethrum. In the Modern Age they wobble back and forth from Tanacetum coccineum to Chrysanthemum c. Call a painted daisy a Chrysanthemum and nobody wants it! They want painted daisies, not mums! Same thing with Shasta daisies! Forever I knew it as Leucanthemum maximum, sometimes Leucanthemum x superbum, but at least still a Leucanthemum! Then the Suits changed IT to Chrysanthemum—pick a species, maximum or superbum—who knows! Customers wanted Shasta daisies, NOT mums! That name also continued to switch back and forth, and since the sales benches were set up alphabetically by botanical name, I could never find them and was always on the radio going: Can anybody tell me what’s Latin for Shasta daisies these days? And a favorite of mine—also a “Chrysanthemum”—they now say! The late-blooming, butterfly-loving ‘Hillside Pink Sheffield’ (tho nobody can figure out in exactly what order the words in the variety name should be!) that I’m always giving away at the swaps. Forever it was Dendranthemum (a/k/a Dendranthema) grandiflorum, but then the suits decided IT was a “mum” too! Just Chrysanthemum, with NO species—and the mixed up variety name! When I post about that one I always add that it “used to be” Dendranthemum so people won’t think it’s a “mum!” And another real pet peeve of mine is hardy pampas grass, which was changed from Erianthus ravennae to Saccharum ravennae! Those two names are still used interchangeably online! Now that really helped to “straighten out” what it is, didn’t it!?! And to make it even worse with that particular grass, people already confuse it with “true” pampas grass (Cortaderia), so now you have folks who don’t know there’s a “hardy” and a “not-so-hardy” pampas grass and they wind up with three completely different names and don’t know what they should be buying. The upright sedum I mentioned on your one thread, they really messed up when they “simply” removed the species—spectabile—all together, renaming them with just “Sedum” and the variety name! Since there are SO many kinds of sedums, just a variety name doesn’t tell you ANYTHING about the plant! We always say, please use botanical names so we know what you’re talking about! Yeah, like that always helps!!! The Suits really need to get a hobby! BUT, all of that still doesn’t explain why the exact same genus AND species of a plant would/could be two entirely different things—and I still don’t think they are. There MUST be some mix-up in the labeling, or name somehow! End of rant! I concede! Sorry ‘bout that! You may have your thread back, Julia! Skybird P.S. Zach, I don’t usually find that USDA plant database very useful—except sometimes to use the maps to see where something grows.

Everyone has such pretty gardens above. As for the planning, I think it all depends on what you begin with, costs & style. I love the look of formal & modern landscaping; however, I bought a resale 8 year old home that looks somewhat traditional with an existing patio & a flat square backyard with a 6 ft privacy fence surrounding it. The patio is a curvy number with smaller interlock brick with a beige stone. It kind of sets the tone for the yard. It's not what I would have done, but it's nice enough that I can't justify replacing it. The original back fence line garden came with a few clumps of ornamental grass, a willow type shrub, a few other false spireas & a peony. In a bed that was about 3 feet deep. Already overgrown with weeds. So I spent the 1st summer cleaning that up, saved a few choice plants, planting 12 trees - front & back yards. And I started making fence line garden beds. Obviously have to plant the larger foundation plants & get them thriving first. So in 2 summers I made about 300 feet of garden around fence areas between the front and back. Planted the trees, 30ish varying shrubs, 45ish roses & quite a few perennials. Lots of edging & mulching. I also have a 6 ft fence along the front yard on one side. When we moved in there was no plants along the sides of the yards. I am very happy with the progress so far. But I want to extend more, add more, etc. Because my yard is very flat it was relatively easy & cheap to get as many beds as I have. If we had to do more hardscaping it would not be as simple. So I think a lot of someone's garden planning comes from the complexity or issues their actual property has ie. slopes, drainage, soil types, etc. Also I live in zone 5 so hardiness is a factor. I love boxwood hedging around beds, but it's easily ravished by winter winds, sun & ice damage. And I'm too lazy to winter protect that much. There are just so many variables. This is a picture of 3/4 of my back fence line last September. Started out as a 3 foot deep straight line bed. Here's another view of the back fence. There's is a small square patio tucked in the right corner. The stones for edging were used because there was a big pile of them in the corner when we moved in. So this came from an evolution plan. This is my side fence garden bed. Once the hornbeams & limelight get bigger I will widen this bed again.