Here are just a few of my favorites that seem to grow very well for me in Northwest Missouri just north of Kansas City. DayBreaker--my all-time favorite rose so far. Our Lady of Guadalupe--great pink floribunda. Chihuly--super bi-color orange floribunda. Veterans' HOnor-super dark red hybrid tea. Moonstone--Beautiful white w/pink hybrid tea. Pride of England-Super vigorous growing and blooming med. red hybrid tea. Honey Dijon-Neat colored grandiflora hard to resist. Pope John Paul II--Best white HT I have ever seen. Parole--Huge dark pink blooms that take your breath away. Lisa Maree--from Wisconsin Roses. Constantly in too many to count bloom the entire growing season. More rosarians should grow this garden variety rose. Folklore--Oldie but goodie in the midwest. Hopie Girl--Excellent Spring and especially Fall blooming yellow HT. Well worth your money to get this one. JOhn

I have an old farm-style house with a "puttin' up room in the basement which is dark and stays about 34-40 degrees all winter long. I put most of my pots in there, starting with the biggest and 1-gal's go on top of those. I have overwintered some by leaving them outside and taking them into my unheated front porch, but the wife prefers them out of the way as she feels they're unsightly there (the only people who see them (including the mailman) already know I'm a little off with my gardening I counter, but she usually wins). I picked one of the Kadota figs yesterday and my wife had to admit that the inside of the fig was just amazing, but the flesh closest to the flesh tasted a little off (unripe). Next 15 days forcast looks similar to what we've had recently, so no real indian summer this year it seems. I'm still hopeful for my in-ground one, though. Since its started producing it hasn't missed ripening most of its crop for me...time will tell ~Chills

In my yard, they like the different aloes that I have growing, and these bloom mostly around winter, from November through January or February. They love the neighbor's bottle brush tree across the street, which attracts swarms of hummers. They also like my bromeliads and tillandsia, but the tillandsia flowers do not last very long. I have one bromeliad (which has multiplied) that will tolerate full sun, and they especially like that one - photo below. Lars

I just added some variegated irises; even though the blooms aren't white, the white variegation on the foliage will be nice all year, and some of my floppy poppies can lean on it the rest of the time (hopefully). I put in some white-flowered alliums, as well as some frittilaria as well. For butterflies, I'd consider Asclepias Ice Ballet, buddleias, maybe beebalm or verbenas? My annual flowering tobacco reseeds every year, I'm so glad I planted it now, those would be high on my list as well. HTH, Celene