I don't know the plant 'Mexican Orange Blossom', but here are some fragrant plants that do well for me here near Atlanta: Gardenia August Beauty (but it blooms in June/July) Tea Olive (Osmanthus fragrans) -wintertime Lavender - summer Carolina Jessamine - a climbing vine - spring Roses - I love 'Fragrant Cloud' - spring-fall Plumeria - as an indoor/outdoor plant - not frost hardy summer Camellia try 'Fragrant Pink', 'High Fragrance', or 'Cinnamon Cindy' for wintertime scent Buddleia - and they attract Butterflies (aka Butterfly Bush) - summer Magnolia - spring (deciduous varieties) summer (evergreen varieties) Calycanthus - Carolina Sweet Shrub - spring blossoms, leaves are fragrant when crushed all summer Leatherleaf Mahonia - winter-spring - just watch out for the spikey leaves when sniffing Bruce

Thank you GaMud! I will go with a different option then. I found an old post elsewhere on GW where someone mentioned the SE being too cold in winter too. I might put in a variegated Abelia (Kaleidoscope perhaps). I have several Abelias already so was wanting something different, but they are pretty reliable for a flowering evergreen in full sun so that might be my best bet. Rosie, thank you for the Spirea suggestion. I have other places where evergreen isnt so important, so I might add one of these there. I am quite liking the splash of lime thing!

Local soils get cold and soggy in winter, making conditions much worse for kinds of plants needing warm and well aerated soils. Even rhododendrons, although adversely affected by heating up of the root zone do not do well in the heaviness of many local soils, particularly if flooding or puddling sometimes occur. Even the locally native lowland Rhododendron macrophyllum is seen growing naturally pretty much only in areas with sandy or otherwise very well - even excessively - drained soils. One site I was on one time had been cleared for development but not yet developed after at least a few years. Hundreds of coast rhododendron seedlings were growing together with those of hairy manzanita - the presence of the latter showing just what kind of soil the rhododendron responds to. The native rhododendron being absent from extensive areas not having perfect drainage is not unusual behavior, many other kinds of plants occur in nature only where soils are just so. Extensive sections in our region having mostly the same small set of native trees and shrubs dominating the uncleared landscape is due in part to glaciation diminishing the assortment but also due to the excellent aeration and drainage demanded by so many plants not being present. If you are on the flat there in the Fraser River drainage the vegetation on your lot, before it was developed may have been most wetland species.

Timing of growth being concentrated in a particular part of the plant is regulated by environmental factors like day length and temperature. Energy stored in stems and roots is used to support top growth, at the same time each year. Food manufactured by the top via photosynthesis, is the source of the energy stored in the stems and roots. The basic general schedule for hardy trees and shrubs is energy use prioritized for new top growth (and production of new roots) in spring, flowering at about the same time or in summer, following by fruiting and then setting of winter buds. After winter buds are mature, in fall, existing root tips elongate markedly - the most of the whole year - as this is the only time the plant is not either essentially inactive (winter) or using energy in other parts of the plant. If you divide a bamboo, since the total mass of the division is smaller than the original, intact mother plant top growth will not be as large as if the stock was still all in one piece. Roots and stems must gradually increase to their original total volume before culms as large as were being made by the parent plant will be possible. As the leaves the division came with or is able to produce at first (from a root fragment) build up the bamboo's energy each year, each subsequent year's amount of new growth is larger than the one previous.