LOL Omar! For some odd reason your question reminds me of the story about the parrot who kept using bad language. He was put in the freezer for about 60 seconds to cool down. When he came out he very soberly said, "May I ask what the turkey did?" Well, what the fragrant olive did was rub on the patio roof when the wind blew. We only had to cut a couple of branches. The outer ones hide it pretty well. Ya' know, I think I would have noticed if that Mountain laurel had had those light colored flowers before. I've even taken pictures of them. Weird. I'll blame it on the odd weather ... lol Oh, and sorry I failed to dress David proper like in a fig leaf, but the leaves are just coming out and weren't large enough yet. Oh well ... ;-)

I've had squirrels nibble on echeverias, but so far not on the Mangave macho mochas. In the front yard the deer try them, but don't seem to like them much as they don't a lot of damage. I guess in our city neighborhood they find other plants more to their liking than they do at Mara's country place. But even if a few leaves are eaten MMMs are very forgiving plants as Lisa says and will soon grow more leaves. They don't seem particular about soil. They've grown well for me where ever and however they are planted. Wishing you the best with them. They are a beautiful plant any time of the year here in San Antonio and bloom nicely in the spring. I have one plant that has divided over and over in a very large pot and has six or seven bloom stalks. I think I've treated it too well by watering and fertilizing it. They are really prettier, I think, when grown lean in the ground so they just get large and don't divide. They also have better color when stressed. Once they they bloom they divide and then you have multiple plants which have less of a distinctive profile. P.S. MMM hasn't been damaged by cold weather in several years. I cover it when a hard freeze is predicted, not for fear of it dying, but just trying to protect the pretty maroon freckled winter foliage. Sometimes damage to the tips occurs. It's removed. New leaves grow quickly

Lindheimerri Muhly does very well for me, even in difficult spots of dry clay & it tolerates quite a bit of shade up here in OKC. I grow them in dry spots because otherwise they get too huge. Mine look really good growing in an area infested with tree roots on the high end of my property but I did give them a good soak twice this summer. Switchgrass on the other hand needs quite a bit more water and looks better with more sun, it tends to be stunted with lots of browning leaves in in dry years and doesn't color up here like it does in other parts of the country where summers are less intense, mine usually just turns from green to brown. I've never seen any red on the varieties that are supposed to turn red. I read the same thing happens to the guy on the Plano Texas Prairie blog, his tend to just go brown in fall. Switchgrass likes water. The best looking is 'Northwind' & I ordered several more to do a mass planting. My 'Heavy Metal' ones didn't do as well and are terribly dry looking but tall. Big Bluestem needs a lot more water than L. Muhly to grow good, at least the younger plants do, otherwise they get lots of brown leaves in summer. I have them planted with 'Northwind' switchgrass in my lowest spot where its easy to soak and where the water drains down when it rains. I watered them when it was very dry. The single "Red October' Big Bluestem I have growing on the hot, full sun, dry hell strip will be moved come spring (poor thing). I've got some very tall types of Little Bluestem that do great there and which are almost as tall as me but Big Blue suffered badly this year. In a friendlier spot, those Little BS would flop but as it is, they are are tall, straight and a deep rich mahogany color after being gorgeous light blue all summer. There is a gas station here that has the plain non-named local genotype of Big Bluestem planted in mass. All of them look dried up, deadish and terrible in this drought summer we had here but its been extremely dry since spring. The best muhly grass for areas getting lots of shade time but at least 3 hours of morning or afternoon sun is Pine Muhly and the much bigger Deer Muhly (if you have a really big space). They seem to be impervious to drought no matter how dry it is, I read they thrive on drought and maybe thats true. Pink Flamingo Muhly grass down on the dry hell strip is a giant. Don't fall for that "fits in a narrow space" malarky. Its the biggest grass I have.

Guess digging yucca in the wild depends on one's perspective. Apparently some ranchers find the stands of pale/twist leaf yucca to be a problem. An acquaintance with a ranching background warned I'd never be rid of it. In his childhood world, they would have been glad for me to dig up as much as I wanted and he couldn't believe I was actually willing to pay someone for it. So... you may have been doing somebody a favor. :-) Nolina Texana does seem to be a great plant. We picked one up at BSN on a trip through Austin, but roots rotted in our unimproved clay during an especially wet winter. Hope to try it again in a better draining location - just not commonly sold in north Texas. Yuccado is not gone yet. But don't delay if you've been considering buying something from them. They were still willing to restock a few months ago to fill my intergrade order, though believe that option is winding down.