Rosie, what are the succulents that you are growing back there? I wouldn't think that the Aloe striata's are one of them, nor any of the others in my photo. So as far as stretching out and being floppy, are you talking about things like Sedum spectabile? Floppiness is usually associated with not enough full sun, or growing the plants with too much water/too rich of soils, but obviously will depend on what succulents you're talking about. As to the appearance of the remesh, you definitely see it until the vines cover it up, but the 4 inch grid of narrow steel rusts out nicely and doesn't much distract if attached to a typical wood fence. Fast growing vines like the Thunbergera or Ipomaea or similar will cover it up within a matter of months. It is a cheap, easily installed material that works out well, rather than attaching multiple eye-hooks and stringing galvanized wire across fences or walls for support. And yes, I do consider myself very lucky to have Annie as a good friend, we especially enjoy going off on occasional plant shopping trips to wholesale nurseries or visiting local botanic gardens together, and from time to time have given joint talks together for local plant societies. Right now I am working on a garden design for her own home garden, as she decided she no longer needed the ramshackle plant shed/greenhouse where her business all started out of her backyard so many years ago. It's going to be a fun project, the first phase was updating the drip irrigation system to better withstand her nursery crew doing maintenance. They aren't used to being careful around raised drip emitters and sprayers, so I switched it out to stand up to some abuse. The fun part is yet to come with laying out the new garden area off kitchen...

Ahhh...BEAUTIFUL! You guys in CA have it MADE for growing Jades and Succulents...Lucky you! Thanks for sharing!

You are definitely treading on dangerous ground when planting out many of these plants in Sunset zone 15 conditions inland. I wouldn't hesitate to grow the hardiest bananas such as Musella lasiocarpa, Musa basjoo and Ensete ventricosum in these areas, as they can freeze their tops and come back quickly. The Giant Bird of Paradise will quickly freeze all top growth at 30F, and will regrow if temps don't drop much below 25F and the plant is somewhat sheltered so that the basal roots don't freeze. I wouldn't want to look at the dead growth all winter myself, so would be more inclined to only use it under protected overhangs against a house wall, or directly under dense evergreens on a slope where cold air would drain away. You should talk to Greg, the owner of Golden Gate Palms out in Richmond off 580 if you are really interested in tropicals for the inner east bay, as he is one of those designers/contractors/nurserymen that is pushing this envelope. I also know of a fellow landscape designer, Kristen Yanker-Hansen who lives in Danville, and grows alot of subtropicals in her own garden, but is willing to risk total melt-down of foliage and perhaps complete loss of plants with things such as Jacarandas,( she did have one bloom this summer), and grows more tender things such as Plumeria in pots that can be overwintered indoors. She has great success with many die back to the ground subtropicals such as Clerodendron ugandense, Cannas, Musas, Cestrums, etc., and I have got her started on a fairly extensive Aechmea/Billbergia bromeliad collection over the years that have done well for her planted in the shade and protection of evergreen trees or roof overhangs. I would also suggest that you check out the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, to see the fabulous collection of tender plants that they grow there. They successfully grow several Tabebuia species and have a huge old Chorisia speciosa on the grounds, but this tree in particular is not really hardy in a bad freeze. The more tender succulents such as Aeoniums, Echeverias and Aloes are given overhead winter protection from rain and cold to reliably get them through the winter, and you should see the gardens in winter to see the efforts some people will go to in gardening with zonal denial. You should also talk to people who were gardening with subtropicals in Contra Costa County during the December freezes of 1990 and again in 1998. Queen Palms were outright killed in many areas of Concord in both freezes, and things like Phoenix roebellenii, P. reclinata, Strelitzia reginae and S. nicolai were also killed outright. One must remember that even hillside areas that drain off cold air in winter will and can get down to 18F in a very bad freeze in these areas, with 22~24F lows as quite common almost every winter. These temps are deadly for things like King Palms, which were heavily damaged at 25F here in Oakland at the Lake Merritt Palmetum. Areas closer to the bay such as parts of Martinez and Concord and/or Benicia/Vallejo are much safer areas to experiment with, but even here, you are pushing the odds. Maybe it is just me, but I wouldn't want to risk big growing expensively purchased tender trees to fairly predictable freezes. I would suggest that you stick with smaller plants that can die back to the ground and regrow quickly in summer as better choices for your area, or container grow plants that are too tender and move them under protection in the winter. Or be willing to treat things like Hibiscus rosa sinensis and Mandevillea x 'Alice Dupont' as annuals...

Caudex1--I missed your post at 9:13. Thanks! I've seen Long's drugs on lists before. What's the deal there? A particularly enlightened employee or owner? Given the Longs near where I live it's unbelievable. They sell Sluggo and Miracle Grow but that's about as far as I'd go. Maybe a pansy or two? I'm not even sure about that. I know this is unlikely, but you don't happen to know the name of the employee at Annie's who buys from Silverhill, do you? I bought something I was able to trace back to Silverhill (their descriptions were essentially the same). However the person who responded to my emails wasn't exactly knowledgeable about the plant. This was Coccinia quinqueloba and I had a thread about it here: Annie's didn't know, Silverhill didn't respond to my email and finally I contacted Kirstenbosch, who got back to me in hours. I suspect it would have been a lot simpler if my email had been forwarded to the correct person at Annie's. Off on another tangent: Does ordering from Silverhill entail any additional charges these days?