Hi guys, I'm glad to find this forum. My wife Michele and I are into our second year with our front butterfly/hummingbird/varmint garden. It's about a thousand square feet and we've re-loaded it this spring with perrenials and annuals and vines and some veggies. Also this spring we built a small garden bridge built partly out of free wood pallets over an area of the garden. I think we have some pictures on facebook.com/ronhmason and on youtube.com/ronhmason. So this year we intend to concentrate more on the backyard where there is less sun. Also if any of you have native Alabama fruit trees we sure would be interested in making some trades for them.

Wow, thanks everyone for the warm welcome, great suggestions, and wonderful pictures. Brian, I had a similar experience with some honeysuckle left over from the folks we bought the house from. They had 2 separate wood piles that were unidentifiable and a dog kennel that was nearly as bad because they had let the honeysuckle go. I believe it was the Japanese honeysuckle Dawn referenced. I think the passionflower is a lovely, unique looking flower and may well be worth experimenting with in the right location, at worst I may feed some caterpillars, right? Lisa and Ilene, great pics. I have a couple clematis vines planted in different areas and they are not yet as established as yours are. I look forward to them filling out and blooming like the ones in the photos you both posted. Lisa, I am a little further south than the Westville area and everyone thinks it's too far out in the middle of nowhere. My Mom moved down with me, this is were she grew up, and she went to school with all our neighbors. We all tell one another, that we live just far enough away from each other for the peace and quiet (about 1/2 a mile), yet close enough if we need each other. I have loved it down here since I was young and visiting and I'm glad I was finally able to get settled here. Dawn, I have one crossvine and have wished since I had gotten more than one. It was kind of a late season save from the nursery and was a little sickly, so I didn't get many blooms, but it grew tremendously well. I know they bloom fairly early in the spring, are they one and done or do they continue to bloom off and on throughout the summer? I have to say I'm quite intrigued by the cypress vine. If I were to plant it or some of the other mentioned annuals in containers, how big of a container would be sufficient? I have a couple of areas were having something container grown would be excellent. I have this small windmill... and a small trellis at the birdbath.... This is one of the arbors I mentioned initially, I have one on each side of the driveway/carport. It is where some of my hummingbird feeders hang. I have bee balm planted in the bed underneath. For the replacement, I can't decide weather to build wooden arbors or go with a cattle panel arbor. Any pros or cons, suggestions? I also have this trellis out by the building [ pardon the sat dish, did you know when you need a new one they don't take the old one? I do, now : )]. I think I would like to have something here that would still provide some structure and maybe a little cover for the birds in winter. I have strongly considered one of the red honeysuckle varieties here. I do worry a little about powdery mildew, then I see pics like the one Ilene shared and I worry a little less. I have browsed pictures for most of the recommendations and it makes me want to find other places to fit vines into the yard. As for the cypress vine and the hyacinth bean, is it better to start seeds inside, or sow outside and let them go on their own? Thanks again, everyone.

Hi I have rosemary I can try toroot some cuttings also have one rooted Rue, can do coral honeysuclke. Marcie

Crossvine seems to like full sun. It handles it very well and blooms heavily in it. I've only seen it sucker from the roots once you have removed the vine by cutting it all the way to the ground. Survival instinct kicks in for the existing roots and it send out suckers several feet from where the base of the vine was. So, it takes a few year to remove completely, IF you ever decide to remove it. Otherwise, it does not sucker. It's a much better plant than trumpet vine, which should be banned. My neighbor planted the supposedly mannerly 'Madame Galen' trumpet vine. Even 'Madame Galen' trumpet vine unleashed a terror on both his yard and his neighbor's yard that took many years to resolve and lots of chemicals/herbicides. A true nightmare plant. You can't compare the much more mannerly crossvine to that. Crossvine gets very, very large in time ... it became much too large for my needs. FYI, my favorite vines by far are Carolina Jessamine & Coral honeysuckle (the native honeysuckle not the invasive Japanese import). Randy