This is a good thread. We have more annual rainfall than you Californians, about 40", but have long summer droughts and very heavy soil, somewhat compensated by the garden's being on a slope. We get snow most winters--last winter was a wet one, with five feet of snow that melted however promptly--but temperatures rarely fall below 20F, tending to stay in the thirties and forties much of the time during winter. I grow my plants as others have described here: roses and shrubs underplanted with subshrubs, perennials, bulbs, and self-seeding annuals. We don't water plants after the first year. Last year we went four months with one centimeter of rain: most things survived. We keep a heavy mulch on our beds. My plant list: Bearded iris, which I DO like; this is unkillable if you don't overwater it. Also I. orientalis, more commonly known as I. ochroleuca. Snakeshead iris, an iris relative, is good. Lavender, mostly lavandins (L. angustifolia x L. latifolia) and L. angustifolia and close relatives: these are hardy and don't mind heavy soil. L. stoechas may need looser soil; my finely cut tender lavender died to the ground last winter but is coming back. L. lanata is supposed to be tender, but I've never seen cold damage on mine: it has brilliant silvery foliage and violet flowers, and does well in hot, dry places. Artemisias of every kind, perovskia. I hear some of these can be invasive; in my garden I think they employ all their energies just staying alive. Caryopteris is good and handsome; sometimes it seeds. Thymes don't hold up well, but I think they might do better at the feet of roses with some protection from sun and wind. Mother-of-thyme (Thymus serpyllum) does very well this way as a ground cover, as does the caraway-scented thyme, the botanical name of which escapes me. Common culinary sage does well for me and is a handsome plant that the bees love; if it's particularly happy it will self-seed. The form with purple leaves dies out, but the yellow-variegated kind does great without summer water: mine stays prostrate. I'm beginning to discover the ornamental sages. I was recently given S. microphylla and S. 'Indigo Spires'; the giver tells my they both do well in a dry garden, but I'm watering mine as they're in their first year. S. guaranitica is a magnificent plant, but it gets big (think two meters tall and wide, though somewhat open in growth) and needs a little shelter from sun and wind, but it's not fussy. Rosemary in its many forms. It can be killed by a very wet winter, but I just plant a new plant: like most of these aromatic plants it's very easy to grow from cuttings. It stretches out and roots as it goes. Dahlias and kniphofias (red hot poker) are surprisingly modest in their water needs, at least if they're in heavy soil. Spring-blooming bulbs do their growing in winter and early spring when there's water, then go dormant in summer during the dry period. Daffodils, tulips, crocus all thrive here. Many of them need winter chill, and critters like them, except for daffodils, which have the enormous virtue of being poisonous. Common daylily (Hemerocallis fulva) grows everywhere. In California I'd be checking out the native bulbs. More aromatics: every kind of Nepeta; lavender cotton (Santolina) in all its varieties; Phlomis, to which a friend recently introduced me; this year I'm trying hyssop in the open garden. Field poppies, the annual red poppy that you see in Impressionist paintings; that stately weed mullein (it does take up a lot of space its second year). Then there are the drought-tolerant shrubs, but that's another discussion. Gardening is always an experiment. Our garden is influenced by our deep and heavy soil and by our usually generous annual rainfall. Since we don't water in summer we usually can grow plants like rosemary in heavy ground, but if we do get a lot of rain in late spring or summer, rosemary can die. A dry garden in summer means that we usually don't have to worry about our tall bearded iris rotting or losing our daffodils. We have enough winter chill for temperate climate plants. There are so many factors that influence a plant's growth that it's worth trying ones you like. Melissa

Gunnera and darmera are really similar, and I've tried them both - I like plants with big dramatic foliage. I don't have a wetland, my yard is a small in-town lot (1/3 acre) but I dug out a small low spot in a shady border in hopes of providing the kind of area bog plants would tolerate. Maybe next time I've got energy to spare I'll re-dig it and line it with plastic - probably would have to remove about 2 feet of soil for that to work well, so to be honest I probably won't ever find the time. There are 2 awesome clumps of gunnera, about 6' tall, in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. They're growing in standing water, which is how I got the idea for my little wallow. I thought I had a photo of them, but I can't seem to find it.

I love questions such as this. They allow me to research and revisit the work of such talentented designers as Lutyens. My thoughts on your questions: 1. I find many references to Lutyens returning to former houses he designed and working on the landscapes, including the addition of a Japanese garden in some situations. He is credited with the ability ..."to build in a style that combined the best of the east and the west". He is also known to have a love of paradox...contrary to common sense. Plus, estates of that period had many types of gardens and it is not uncommon practice. So...if you are in the hands of a good LA well grounded with Lutyens and his brilliant career the addition of a Japanese garden should be acceptable. 2. You are fortunate to obtain the old marble parts to construct an herb garden. Your planned use arranging them into a formal shape works. Too bad that you could not also purchase the marble urn. Somewhere the right urn or statue lurks to replace it. With some searching you will know it when you see it. I am surprised that your LA has not given you guidance on planting an herb garden. Usually they were bordered with a low, neatly trimmed boxwood hedge and planted with culinary herbs and flowers. Lots on on-line information to aid your selections. 3. There is a Hydrangea Forum here on GW with many knowledgeable gardeners posting. Suggest asking this question there where you should find all sorts of suggestions and advice.

Straw: Thanks for the verses on giants. In various areas of Pakistan, people have strong believe that once upon a time, there used to be giants living around. However, many people do not include them amongst humans.... they think they were genes or some other creatures, not humans. These are the photos of Deosai Plains. Deo means a Giant (from genes, not humans) and sai means land. Deosai means Land of the Giants. Located at 14000 ft above sea level, it's a strip of 60km x 40km and one of the highest plateaus in the world. As per the local legend, once upon a time giants used to live here. Deosai plains remain under snow for around eight months and remain open only from June to September. During these 4 months, millions of wild bulbs and flowers grow here. Most of them are fragrant which leaves Deosai travellers with an intoxicating feels. One loses sense of time when your are sitting in a huge natural grassy lawn just next to a crystal clear stream amongst thousand of wild bubls with intoxicating fragrance. BTW, ancestors of many of the bulbs that we grow in our houses grow here. Deosai is a national park and therefore, no construction is allowed here. What you can see here is just a few kiosks that are established during tourist season. It is also home to the Himalayan Brown Bear.