I have no idea of what's available in your area, but most of the parks in our county park system in NJ are available for wedding photos and ceremonies at a very reasonable cost: wedding photos are $35/$70 and wedding ceremonies are about $130/$260 for county residents/non-residents respectively. These are for 1/2 hour time blocks in most parks, which include rustic areas, an arboretum, a botanical garden, and sites with water views. One of the high-end wedding shows recently featured a sumptuous outdoor wedding and reception. The wedding ceremony was held in a glad in the woods, so the guests traveled through some rustic territory to come upon a fairy-tale setting in the wilderness for the ceremony. I believe someone already mentioned working with vignettes. This way, you could clean up generally, but not go nuts, and concentrate your resources (ideas, money, labor) on the site for the ceremony itself. With all the good advice you've received, you should certainly be able to go into this project, if you decide to pursue that avenue, with your eyes open to the challenge. That said, I think an outdoor wedding can be beautiful, and starting your life together in a "garden" started anew as well holds special meaning. With the increasing awareness of our environment and changes we can make in our gardening and landscaping practices to promote cleaner water and air while supporting wildlife (beneficial insects as well as birds, reptiles and small mammals), such a wedding would be very much in tune with the times.

The blue mist spirea, if it is the one properly called Caryopteris clandonensis, is more blue than purple to me - it comes in yellow-ish-leaved cultivars as well, one of which is 'Worcester Gold', flowering in late summer. C. incana is commonly called blue spirea - it is taller and has lavender blue flowers. Clethra is another one to look for - it has summer flowers, shades of white or pink depending on the cultivar - yellow fall foliage. If hardy where you are, Itea has white summer flowers with some cultivars selected for fall colors. Both, esp. in damp soil, will sucker, but the suckers are easily pulled and cut off close to the base of the parent if noticed early on - toss them or pot them up for placement elsewhere or as a gift. If hardy for you, the Knock-Out roses get taller than the Home-runs do - the 'Rainbow' cultivar seems not to be as disease-free as the others - 3 pinks (1 double, new this year, 2 singles, pale and dark) and 2 reds (1 single, 1 double). Cut to knee high in early spring, feed monthly (or not at all, depending on soil, but they are better-flowered with some fertilizer) and water - they will grow to 3-5' in the summer and need little or no dead-heading, depending on how close to them you get - if very visible, then dead-head, if at a distance, don't bother, they flower anyway. Go to various public venues (parks, zoo, arboretum, college campus, etc.) around your area, and you can see what grows well in your area - much of what I can grow here won't do for you, and vice versa. Also, look at the catalogue from High Country Gardens, out of Santa Fe - they will have lots of plants (while mostly perennials, they do have a number of shrubs) that will be good in your climate.

I have not read any messages above I use a 6" low Azalia clay pot. I set 5 plants that go together (sun) or (shade) in the pot to see how they look togeter and placement, I carefully take them out of their pot one at a time and set them in the bowl and fill with fresh mix. Then I tap the bowl down on my potting bench to set the soil or use the rounded end of a pencil and poke the soil in and then tap down again. I put my rocks for decoration in and then add my top dressing. I wait a week before I water in becauase I want any broken roots to heal over. Try to select plants that are interesting and small growing, plants that all can take the cold or a group that must have shelter in the winter, do not mix them. Dry plants, cactus, certain Crassula will go together with cactus Then select plants that will love low light and a little more water, making sure all plants grow the same time of the year, Adromischus, Crassula, Haworthia, Aeonium, Pelargonium, Gasteria all are winter growers, this is just an example. Select plants that flower a different time, or some are round in shape, differnt leaf forms, foliage color. etc. this will make a more interesting garden, add some larger rocks to fill in spaces that have good color then add the gravel (ground cover) don't let it get too busy, this if for the plants to show off, and its not a rock show. These are few ideas. Go for it and show us when you are finished. Norma

I have been going a little troth Garden crazy this spring. Some of these are hardy to different degrees . We will see what lives in the cold hardy to twenty dish next Spring.. I am testing out info from a source on the web. Some I don't believe but I am going to "act as if". I just could not stop buying Graptoveras, Echeverias, sedums and the rosette forming succulents. Many of my plants are tiny and invisible. I have some brown echeveria and graptovera babies without a name nessled in the gravel There was a question about mixing different mesembs, alionopsis, pleiosipilos,faucarias in a dish. I have included those pictures at the end too. Beachplants (or anyone), I have a question for you, the alionopsis malherbei in the last picture has a babble of tiny growth in ithe center of the rosette. Is that meristem damage, desease, next years growth, flower buds? It is the last picture I kinda blew it on my fertilizing Here are some old troth or CALDRON gardens and a smaller cactus troth that I am always changing up . I have two more A. victoria-reginae that are to be inserted into the cracks of the piled rock. They like to grow on cliff walls in Nature. href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/36613107@N05/7271657012/" title="Pleiospilos nelii and Echeveria by marasri, on Flickr"> Here is the photo with the Alionopsis question about the plant's center.