Neat foliage. I envy you guys down there in zone 9-10 sometimes (EXCEPT in hurricane season).
;-)
J.D.

Me too JD, although I think we are becoming zone 9 here, lol
I can never find upright EEs

They are on the list for the next time I go to Houston tho

Wonderful plants and pics Jim

Hey BossJim,

Since I see what appears to be dianthus and lobelia in the border there, can you tell me how long your dianthus hang on? Do you treat them as perrenials?

I bought a bunch and planted them as a border out front last fall hoping for a "Merry" red and white peppermint pattern for the holidays. (I didn't get my Swiss chard planted early enough to add the green.) They're still hanging in there though and looked absolutely gorgeous this spring. I've back planted the ones in the very front fully expecting them to give up in the heat of the summer. Do I have hope of actually letting them go, just cutting them back when they look stressed and having them be beautiful all fall and winter again?

If so, I need to rethink my current color scheme!

Cool leopard plant BTW. Why's it called leopard plant with no spots? Anyone know?

Jolana, when you come to Houston, give me a call, and you can come here. I'll dig you all the up rights you want. I have this one called 'Persian Palm', and a smaller version. The smaller version, multiply like crazy, and I have to thin them out often.

Bobbi, my dianthus look a little straggle in the hottest part of summer, but come back like gang busters in the fall/spring. I do have to cut them back occasionally to promote more blooms. The ones in the picture are planted, for the first time this year, in what has been a shade garden, till Ike took about a third of the top out of the pecan tree. I'm hoping it will continue to be a shade garden, but won't know till the tree leafs out completely.

The Farfugiums are all, generally referred to as 'Leopard Plant'. Probably because the most popular one, and the one most used in gardens, does have spots.
Jim

Sorry, J.D., I didn't mean to leave you out. I was going to say, that this plant is suppose to be hardy to 0 deg., but might not like your low humidity.
Jim

Neat plant. Nice grouping Jim. Zone envy. But, you know its about to the time of year where your heat index helps me out with that. ;)

We didn't get out of the fifties yesterday. Needed a sweat shirt and sweat pants to mow yesterday. I wore a jacket to do yard work all weekend.

We were above average in late winter, and now for most of a month we've been running on the seasonally cold side. Good ol Panhandle weather. The one constant the last several years, not much rain.

HAHAHA, RC, I know that is true, I was begging for a cool spell the last couple of weeks. high 90's is too hot for me in early May
Thank you Jim, I will give you a call

Jim
If you look at a color Texas map, I'm right in the area where it begins to fade from green to brown. Some days we'll have oppressive humidity and heat, others we can be horribly hot - and dry. Does keep things interesting.