Its hard to imagine the amount of work it took to do that. What perseverance! I love the art car parade too, what a great concept. Just might be worth a trip to Houston. The only time I've been to Texas we didn't go there. :( But I liked Austin a lot. Kathy

Sounds like a fun idea. Will you be growing mostly the plants listed there (not counting the big trees and non-hardy ones of course), or will you be interested in other things? If so... Agastache rupestris has a root beer-like scent. Horehound cough drops always smell a bit like root beer to me, so maybe horehound itself (marrubium vulgare) smells the same. I think chocolate was on the list?? Berlandera lyrata is a daisy-like flower that reportedly smells like chocolate, as do chocolate cosmos (Cosmidium). And this may be totally irrelavant to you, but Stachys coccinea 'Hidalgo' smells exactly like 7-Up. I have gotten it to overwinter in a protected spot, but should be treated as an annual in colder zones. Might be a fun companion plant to the root beer plants ;-) CMK

Hello, I've been away from this group for an extended period but noticed it's still vibrant and I even recognize some old-timers :-). So hello! There seem to be certain topics that foreign gardeners fond of Japanese culture tend to repeat over and over, sometimes in spite of themselves. The relationship of gardening to "zen" (I use the word rather loosely) is one. Personally, FWIW (and please notice the FWIW), I differ with quite a few of the sentiments expressed above. While I agree with some that the background religions of Japan have played a huge role in the culture and development of Japanese gardens over the centuries (hence somewhat disagreeing with the stance advocated, say, by the JOJG), I have observed that for the most part, Japanese folks are not particularly religious in a conventional sense. Many folks familiar with Japanese culture have already noted this in various contexts, and it is (somewhat) supported by polls that have been conducted in various countries. Fact is, there is a huge difference between a background culture that has evolved over the centuries vs. someone's own involvement in that background as a spiritual tool. In other words, it could be the case that the vast majority of folks take their spiritual culture for granted and do not necessarily persue it as an individual discipline :-) Hence, a personal involvement in gardening as a "spiritual" persuit may say more about the individual than any particular norm they think they are being faithful to... I personally have noticed Japanese seem to get a big kick out of foreigners interpreting their culture as somehow saturated with zen, enlightenment struggles, yada yada...It's a source of amusement. Since this is a topic that reoccurs often in this forum and is very contentious, I don't plan on a lot of follow-ups myself. Just a personal observation, take it for what it cost you. Regards, Jim

The Landscape Design forum is far from dead, although as a Houzz default forum it garners a lot of traffic that has nothing to do with landscape design :-) And responders that have nothing to do with landscape design either other than offer personal opinions. There is also a Japanese Gardens forum, but traffic there IS very slow.