Thanks Putzer and Rick! The Prairiefire Crabapple and American Smoke Tree both have great red fall color! Exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for, although the AST may be a little large for the space I have available, I'll have to do some thinking about that (but then, what else do I have to do all winter but THINK about gardening :-). I'll have to check out the grey dogwood too. I'm thinking about a couple of red-twig dogwoods and a yellow-twig dogwood mixed in for contrast already. And I don't care if the dwarf burning bushes are really common. I think they are great and some will most likely be making it into my yard too. Thanks for the comment on #182, Putzer! That's a close up of a deep maroon mum surrounded by gourds from my veggie garden - they were a kind of funny accident. All through the early part of the summer, we thought we had volunteer cucumbers, until they started blooming that it! The blossums were huge. Turns out they were gourds - must have tossed one in there to decompose last winter 'cause I sure hadn't raised any before! #68 is a surprise, Rick! Probably not one you'll want to add to your garden since they are kind of invasive in a lot of soils.... not mine though. I have this heavy yellow clay.... Anyway, if you haven't guessed by the description, that curly red top belongs to an Obedient Plant! Would you have ever guessed? Oh, and Rick, you're right about being new garden space. Tom and I were married fall of 2003. IBefore that, he had one little 9' square veggie garden and that little bed of annuals in front of the house. And the trees and a few bushes... that's it! I put in a few peonies that fall, then added the shade garden under the maple in the front yard, a border of perennials in the back, and a couple of hosta beds in 2004. Then more hosta beds, a nursery area, a rose garden, and the beginnings of a combination hosta and iris garden this summer, 2005. I think the rewards will be showing up in the next 2-3 years. Can't wait!

I'm too far north to imagine what the banana might look like, but I bet it would be nice. And the fan palm would be lovely. Chaste tree, Vitex angus-castus, is a pretty southern substitute for lilac, with grey-green leaves and beautiful blue flowers. Desert willow seems like it would be nice, too -- not sure how tall they get. Fothergilla is beautiful in bloom; you could prune it to a single stem I think. Sterile Rose of Sharon, trimmed to tree-form would be an unusual, tropical looking plant. (I did this with regular ROS and while I loved the look, the seedlings were killer!) Hope you find something that works for you -- looks like a lovely space!

Oh no! I do care, so this tree goes into the chipper before its pretty flowers produce seed.

They really did leave you with holes! I don't have any useful suggestions, but I will say that I like the flowering plants on the right side of the doorway. It's a pretty combination.