Talking about color and the use of color in the garden is one of those things that tends to put people in defensive/hostile mode because it's difficult at times to clearly describe what exactly one means when talking about color and the use of color in the garden. So things get misinterpreted or overly simplified as each person brings their own biases and interests to interpret what was said. There is (an annoying :-) ) tendency in some quarters to dismiss color - particularly flowers - as a sort of frivolous, unimportant 'icing on the cake' element in designing a garden. That sort of dismissal of color irritates me greatly. But it also irritates me when the 'any color goes with any other' sort of line is thrown out as an oversimplification. Because the perception of a color can very much depend on what color it is partnered with. Change the partner and you change the effect. So, for me, how I use color in the garden/where I place a particular plant depends on what effect I want to create there. In my early gardening days I went through the polychrome 'anything goes' color phase but became unhappy with that because I began to see, as GP1 said above: ' "Too much color is the equivalent of no color at all". It becomes like a street lined with billboards each competing for attention and no color stands out. ' Now I try to think through what I need to do to create a desired color effect. I don't always get it right - and it can take years to gradualy change the plantings to get to where I want to go - but it has made a noticeable improvement (to me at least!) in my gardening outcomes. GP1 - as a trained artist, you (and the gardening artists in your neighbourhood) probably intuitively use color in your gardens to create desired effects whereas for plebes like me it's something that requires deliberate thought and 'misses the mark' more often! :-) Playing with color to create effects is fun - and not limited to gardening :-) Below is a picture of DH wearing a 'tumbling blocks' sweater I knit about 17 years ago. I was aiming for an 'autumn leaves' color effect. Not perfect by any means but it's still one of his favorite sweaters. The link below is to a Google image seach that shows other sweaters of the same design in different color combinations (the fifth one is DH's sweater....) so you can see how different the sweater looks depending on what colors are used and how they are combined. And that brings me to the issue of 'rules' and styles etc. 'Rule' is one of those words that also immediately gets one's back up because most of us don't particularly like the idea of being ruled! :-) Styles tend to imply a lack of originality - a 'follow the herd' sort of mentality and we all want to be thought of as individuals. But understanding what a particular 'rule' is trying to achieve, and the consequences of breaking it is useful when assessing whether it helps or hinders what you are trying to achieve. 'Rules' can be a sort of distilled 'wisdom'/short cuts that can be useful in getting you where you want to go without having to reinvent the wheel each time! Styles, in a gardening sense, are often a response to particular times, places, cultures environments, etc. Understaning why they are/were popular can be very useful in helping you decide which styles - or elements of a style - can be used or adapted to positive effect in your own garden. That's one of the reasons I like to read widely in garden history - the more I know, the clearer I see what appeals to me and how to achieve it. Certainly my interests and tastes have changed over time but change is a constant in the garden so I'm always looking for ideas that I can incorporate - harmoniously - in the garden. The constant that drives my garden is the desire for it to have a peaceful and harmonious feel while still being a vibrant space. Here is a link that might be useful: tumbling block sweaters

For shorter asters with late blooming, try Purple Dome or Violet Dome at around 2'. For other cascading ideas over the wall, try Saponaria ocymoides -- it can reseed, but will be less of a problem on a wall. Also look at miniature roses (aka "groundcover roses"), many of which have a creeping habit that works cascading over a wall. And some vines can cascade over a wall -- I have a Lonicera periclymenum 'Harlequin' that works well. The catmint (Nepeta fassinii) suggestion is a great one, since its foliage shoots up early, recovers quickly from cutting back after bloom, gives a second round of smaller blooms, and looks good pretty much throughout the season. Buy one plant, divide it every spring, and you're set for life! As for lilies and daylilies with your 18-inch height requirement: Asiatic lilies, Oriental lilies, and Daylilies (Hemerocallis) all have dwarf cultivars that would fit your bill. Stella d'Oro is an infamous Hemerocallis dwarf cultivar... but you can easily pick out other dwarf cultivars of lilies, for example, that fit your color schemes and height requirements by ordering bulbs to plant this fall (e.g., see Hallson Gardens at perennialnursery.com which has a variety of dwarf varieties). One other way to keep your plants within your size range is to think about pruning/cutting back strategies. The Perennial Garden book by DiSabato has extensive info on how to do this for many different flowers. By cutting back many plants by, say, half in early-to-mid-June, you can easily turn a 3' plant into a fuller 2' plant, or a 2' plant into a 18-inch one, etc. By cutting back later (e.g., early July), you can turn a late-Summer bloomer into an early-Fall one, too. The bonus of cutting back is that you'll also get fuller plants that won't require staking. (But don't cut back your lilies or daylilies!) Note that the garden mums option is also best with a few rounds of pinching! And the Sedum spectabile 'Autumn Joy' suggestion can be shaped with pinching, too, to keep it at 18 inches or smaller... see DiSabato's book for an extensive discussion on this point.

Thank you for the Baggelini suggestion, ellendi. I have found some online, but need to get to the local mall to actually see it. It looks perfect with all the compartments. Kswl, I also plan on stopping by Nordstrom's to check out the Longchamp. My DD has one that she uses as a handbag on occasion. She loves it. Mel, DD's bf did have some kind of underlying heart condition and was on meds for high blood pressure. We are still waiting for the autopsy results. It won't change the outcome but will allow some sort of understanding of why this happened to a young athlete. Luggage and totes are a diversion....trivial, but needed, KWIM? Thank you so much for the suggestions.

Thank you for the specific information everybody! Going to look over the options and view the websites for different sights this weekend and see what interests my daughter as well. I really liked Seattle, Boston, and San Francisco when visiting there myself. I guess we'll have to see what is available in hotels and air travel too. I have been looking at those resort places here in TX though, but I ruled out Hyatt's Lost Pines. Too close to home for wanting to pay for staying there overnight. I drive by there everyday and it is less than 20min from the light at Riverside off 71 in traffic to get there. I was looking at the ones in San Antonio, Galveston, and Woodlands. Edit: If anybody has any specific hotel recommendations my budget is pretty open as in I'm willing to pay higher than the average rate, but don't want the really really high ones as I don't think with as little time as we'll spend in the hotel room that it is worth it. I generally prefer a 4 or 5 star hotel. But really what matters more to me is that it is clean, family friendly (as in allow children) and close to everything and transportation since we won't have a car. This post was edited by lyfia on Fri, Aug 2, 13 at 9:32