Thanks seedmoney. It indeed looks like a jade plant from the pictures I googled. Some of its leaves are not grown in opposing pairs, as described by Wikipedia, but I guess some leaves are just lost or eaten by bugs.

Most of the buddleas (butterfly bush) are fast growers. Get a couple-gallon size and it will shoot out 6ft or more length branches by the middle of summer - particularly once established. And you can cut them back to a stump each year and get the same type of growth each year. And I've seen them big box stores all over. Also climbing roses can grow pretty quickly, throwing out multi-foot long canes in a season. Give them a support and tie the canes to it and begin to train the canes with some pruning, to create a screen. Other possibilities include bridal wreath spirea (eg., Spirea prunifolia cultivars and not Spirea japonica which is slower growing and shorter) and even forsythia, which can throw those long canes out too. I was just thinking - with the above combo, you could have March/April (forsythia), May (bridal wreath), June (roses), and July - frost (butterfly bush & roses) blooms! LOL Meanwhile, you could always plant the slower growers and once established, shift your shrub focus.

Thanks for responding - I've found a few references to the bean as Pebble bean too, so I guess the seller I bought them from added the "Desert" to their title. One of the many things that attracted me to it was the mix of colors it throws. I guess this will be an experiment!

I agree with Nath': it seems there are 2 violas growing together and ask the same question than her: Can you tell us which one flowers belong to ? Thank you both. I took that pic in 2006. There were only the speckled blooms in the clump, no other type. I then saw the clump in 2007, but there were no blooms, or at least none that I saw. Possibly life got in the way and I missed them. I am not finding the clump where it was last season, but do see one small plant (plantlet?) with the crenated leaves in the area. I'm not sure now if there were other shaped leaves on it or not. They are growing at the edge of the woods and there is a lot of winter leaf cover in the area. I'm hoping the bigger clump is maybe just late emerging, and hoping I did not loose it to the drought last year and the competition of the surrounding things growing wildly around it. I have just left it grow where I found it in 2005. This plant was coming from italia..( but maybe from somewhere else before!?) Here is a picture: http://violets.free.fr/Photos%20bis/viola%20burchelli%20groupe.jpg ( and better pictures on the same webpage) Do you think they are both the same? Nathlie, I posted a clickable lic to the pic you provided the URL for above. Note it is just for the one pic...and it is not possible to see others on the same webpage. No, I don't think it appears the same...the one from your pic, has much more purple in the blooms, in my opinion. Hopefully the bigger clump (my pic above)of this little sweetie will emerge yet this season, and hopefully bloom. Even if it doesn't bloom I can verify if there are 2 different leaf types on one plant and which ones are the newer leaves and which are the older ones. I will post more when I see it and can look it over better, and maybe provide more pics. Thanks to you both. I appreciate it. Sue Here is a link that might be useful: