I am so NOT one of these great pros who have contributed on this thread, but since I live in a somewhat similar zone (I'm East Bay/Oakland hills so similar to much of the SoBay), I thought it might help the OP if they could see what a couple of the plants suggested look like on a retaining wall. There is one plant I didn't see, but I think might do well in this situation - aptenia "Red Apple" evergreen groundcover. It's rightly listed as invasive, but I have found that although it will spread "out", it vastly prefers going "down" due to the weight - once those stems get long, they're heavy and it pulls the plant to trail down. I have been surprised to find it does not root as readily along the stem as one would think (based on its invasive designation). Easy to keep under control with minimal pruning, very easy to remove. I have aptenia in two spots and in the location that isn't shown, it goes happily down a wall as far as it's got room, but only needs to be pruned back maybe twice a year on the flat side. It is much prettier than ivy and needs almost no summer water (like 1 gall per month in summer). Note that the cute red flowers attracts bees; some people find this a disadvantage. Me, I'm all for anything that keeps bees alive and happy, so this doesn't bother us. My wall is smaller, but the lantana shown (both white and purple) are in a very narrow planter box. Due to its lightweight stems, lantana is as prone to go "outwards" as it is "down". It is easy to prune - stems are brittle so they just break off. Because even trailing lantana mounds, it tends to die underneath. I have found this to be mildly annoying as a clean-up task every year: dusty and messy, LOL. Anyway, retaining wall 2001: Retaining wall plants 2004 (they don't look any different now, since I keep them pruned to stay off the driveway). LH side is the aptenia - a single stem can easily get to 5' or more. The purple lantana is in the middle, with the white lantana to its right. Both of these would easily reach the middle of the driveway if I didn't keep them cut back. I have to agree with the negative on clematis. It's a 1 month flower wonder in the Bay Area, and butt-ugly six months out of the year. I planted one and will never bother again. Hardenbergia 'Happy Wanderer' is gorgeous - two full months of purple racemes. But I did find the evergreen leaves a rather dull dark green the rest of the year. This is a big, heavy, aggressive vine. I had to take mine out because it started to travel over the fence and the neighbor hated it. It was a pretty little thing at 2 years old.... ...but only a year later, see that "hump" in the back? The hardenbergia was almost half as big in her yard as it was in mine, smothering her Bird of Paradise and euonymus shrubs: If you don't mind regular watering, there's nothing more fun than passiflower - after a few years you'll have Gulf Fritillary butterflies dancing in the sun for 6-7 months. It needs a grid of some sort, though, it needs something to hold onto to go sideways. I have both the coral and the standard purple passifloras. The GF prefers the purple very slightly over the coral, but I think the coral is much more gorgeous. This is a big vine (estimates up to 30'; I keep mine around 15') but it is very tough. I almost killed it when the planter box it's in didn't get watered while we were away on a trip. A heat spell hit and the passiflora shriveled down to a single stem of tiny leaves. It's recovered completely and is back to its big bully role once again. There's a lot of dead undergrowth to the passifloras over time, but not as bad as the lantana. There is one other evergreen vine I use but I wouldn't recommend it - Solanum jasminoides. Carefree and needs little water, but it gets super thick/dense very quickly and really requires heavy-duty cutting back once a year or it goes out of control. In the right location, however, it definitely fills a need. This is what S. jasminoides looks like less than 7 months after being cut back to a 1" height. Fair amount of dead-leaf litter underneath. This one lives entirely on runoff going underneath the house. I never water it at all: The flowers are beautiful, though, and it flowers almost continuously: I have the star jasmine groundcover in my furthest back yard area. It twines with big thick stems like ivy does, and with its mounding growth is, like ivy, a roof rat palace. Doesn't take much water, smells wonderful, prefers bright shade but I've had it in partial sun conditions where it did very well. Anyway, hope the visuals help.

Some other local nurseries with a good selection of plants would include The Dry Garden Nursery on Shattuck Ave in Oakland,(right on the Berkeley/Oakland border), the Ace Garden Center Nursery on Grand Ave in Oakland, Yabusaki Nursery on Dwight in Berkeley, Magic Gardens in Berkeley, and East Bay Nursery in Berkeley. Your daughter should also make a trip out to Annie's Annuals in Richmond, which sells very interesting plants,(not just annuals) in mostly 4 inch sizes, and has an especially good selection of rarer plants at this time of year. They also have a web site. If you wanted to accompany your daughter on a shopping/info nursery trip, you might also find it entertaining to visit Orchard Nursery in Lafayette, just over the hills inland from Oakland. This nursery would emphasize plants that might be more familiar to an east coaster, as they are abit colder in winter there and have more winter deciduous perennials and shrubs to select from, as well as catering to a more conservative/east coast garden design mentality as compared to the bay side of the hills, where it is really anything goes, and hortisexuality has taken a firm hold of the gardening public... For quick screen plantings, clumping bamboos would certainly work, and depending on the height wanted, the species selected would vary. Tree Dahlias or Tree Daisies, (Dahlia imperialis or Montonoa grandiflora) could also be used as quick growing vertical screens with fall into winter blooms for such screening. The fall sales at both the local botanic gardens will be happening in September/October, and are great opportunities to get really interesting plants that nurseries don't always have, and could emphasize rarer plants that do well here in the SF Bay Area from the Berkeley/San Francisco/UC Santa Cruz Botanic Gardens. Any of these nurseries could also recommend people who do consultations to give your daughter advice. There are tons of qualified people around who do this locally, but expect to pay at least $75/hour and up...

This post is my fave of the two. So many gorgeous flowering things. I love, love, love the pink Cestrum, giant Callas and the heavenly Hardenbergia. Thanks so much for sharing. ~Annie

Natalie, in my opinion, first you have to make up your mind whether what you want is a garden blooming in Winter or a garden which has Winter interest. I believe these are two different things. Some plants may fit the whole bill, others only one of the premises. What I mean is, a garden that has appeal in Winter does not necessarily mean it has a lot of flowers. As I said in another thread, Winter is the time of the year to pay attention to the things which are overshadowed by the flowers - foliage, bark, berries, plumes, etc. So, decide what is the effect you want to achieve. If the look you want is really flowers, then nothing beats the winter annuals stated above, plus cyclamen, for example. If, on the other hand, you want to get a bit more ambitious, broaden your scope and look at berries, interesting barks, twig color, etc. It's a totally different approach, IMO. Both are valid and can produce beautiful results. In my personal view of gardening I tend to go for the latter and then use some Winter flowers here and there for a burst of additional color. For Winter interest in my garden I grow viburnum tinus (laurustinus), firethorn, hollies, nandina, dwarf conifers, pieris, dodonea, red twig dogwood (my latest adition), New Zealand tea tree, sweet gum tree (for the bark), prunus trees (ditto), grevilea rosmarinifolia, camellias, mahonia, photinia, hardenbergia violacea (climber), cestrum red, and strawberry tree. In pots or window boxes I grow kalanchoe, cyclamen, solanum capsicum and violas. If I had more room I would add birch trees (especially the Hymalayan birches with the whitest bark), witch hazel, garrya, itea, more dogwoods, including yellow twig ones, Christmas box, daphne, more types of viburnum, winterberry and all types of holly I could get my hands on :-). Gardening in Winter is a fascinating subject and one that is bound to entice you as you do some research and become more knowleageable. There are quite a few books specifically about Winter interest in the garden, you may wish to have a look at those for more ideas. Barbara Damrosh's "Theme Gardens" book has a Winter garden plan that changed my view of Winter gardening when I first read it, many years ago. Better Homes and Gardens website also features an interesting slide show about Winter garden this week. See the link below. Have fun planning your Winter garden. Eduarda Here is a link that might be useful: BHG's Winter Garden slideshow