Here's my 2c: plants that are zone 7 also have to be zone 8 to really thrive here. Plants like astilbe or sweet cherry that love zones 4-7 (but not 8) and really don't mind extreme cold tend not to thrive here even though it's technically zone 7b. Similarly, you'll see a lot of plants that are zone 8+ doing well here, but odds are that eventually there'll be a really cold winter again. Only a couple decades back the mercury dipped down to negative 4! Also, desert plants usually find it too humid here; unless you plant in well-drained soil they'll rot in our wet springs. The same humidity is great for bugs, mildew and plant diseases of all sort so it's best to plant disease-resistant and mildew-resistant varieties of anything you can. But be prepared to seriously water anything that's not drought-tolerant, because every year I've been here there's been at least a month without significant rain and sometimes more than that. The last item to consider is that most of our so-called soil is heavy red clay, so almost every planting will benefit from heavily amending the soil. So since you (and your friend, presumably) are zone 8 and we're sort of zone 8, I think any of the plants you're used to will do just fine here as long as they're drought-tolerant, humidity-tolerant, heat-tolerant, cold-tolerant and disease-resistant :)

Well, I called another couple of nurseries including Habershams, and managed to find several 3gal there. Meanwhile, I've been trying to cobble together a landscape album to share which covers the last 3-4 years of changes in our yard, including the msot recent stuff like the absolutely amazing new retention wall that Brad Longanecker (aka 'vroomp' here @ Gardenweb, I highly, highly recommend him!) built for us this past couple of weeks. Found some pictures of my last grass-removal experience from last spring and the end results, thought I would share. I am sure people in my neighborhood probably think I'm completely nuts for happily cutting out a good 60% of the grass in my yard and replacing it with veggie gardens and plants, but ... oh well :)

Went out to Telly's today. It was further away than I thought, but it was a beautiful day and I had the time, so I figured I'd go for it. Ok selection, didn't find what I was looking for, though. Its selection included many things I don't find at the nursery I listed previously, but also there were many things that they didn't carry that the nursery I listed before does carry. I found hardy cyclamen, which I have just recieved from mail order after not being able to find it anywhere locally. Telly's also had a large selection of Hellebores. I also found quite an interesting selection of Clematis vines, but unfortunately none of the 5 I am currently searching for were available. Inside there was a large selection of non-hardy fruiting trees (& Passionflower Edulis). It was a good pleasant trip, but I went home with nothing as the items that I may have considered were a bit more than I would be willing to pay. I may have to go back if the cyclamen corms I purchased and have planted don't make it, but other than that I will likely not return there anytime soon. ~Chills Maybe we should start a thread where people request items they have been looking for and can't find locally. I know I looked for those cyclamen all last year before ordering them online. Had I known about Telly's having them I would have gladly gone there.

That besselink site was great! Not a lot of US sites like that. Did you see the section on storm lighting? I never even saw another lighting website that sells storm lighting. What beautiful hurricane lamps! I see what you have in mind, and domestically, rejuvenation is the only major retailer that I know of that might have what you're looking for, but house of antique hardware has a pretty extensive lighting selection, a lot of classic pieces, some colonial (sorry!) but also some that I'd call eclectic. Might be worth a look. Personally I'd skip eating out for a month and fork over the money to buy the besselink fixtures. Of course, if I applied that philosophy to my own remodels, I'd never set foot in a restaurant again for the rest of my life :-) Have you tried posting this question on the lighting forum? You might get more suggestions. Here is a link that might be useful: house of antique hardware