I am on the 8b/9a border, and a few of those suggested plants are very iffy for winter survival here: bougainvillea, ponytail palm, jatropha, and plumeria are all likely to die without significant winter protection. However, you can overwinter a potted plumeria in a dormant state in a cool, dark (but not above-freezing) location such as a garage. Potted ponytail palms can be easily overwintered in the house, since they are happy in the dry heat. There are also many plants on that list that will reliably survive the winter, but will defoliate or even die back to the ground in the cold. Some of them are plants that are evergreen in central/south Florida (hibiscus, passion vine, etc.). You asked for perennials, so maybe you don't mind winter die-back, but I thought I'd mention it. If you want something evergreen to add some height and structure, you can use Indian hawthorn (as Carol mentioned above) or ligustrum. For a deciduous shrub or small tree, crepe myrtles (mentioned above) are great. If you get a bigger type and let it keep most of its crown growth (no coppice pruning, a.k.a. "crepe murder") it will eventually make a nice tree and give you a partly-shaded area to plant under. Knockout roses (mentioned above) grown in full sun will reach 5'-6' or more in a couple of years if you don't cut them back too aggressively. If you keep them cut back, you can maintain them at 3'-4'. They will defoliate briefly in the coldest part of winter, but generally don't drop their leaves until the hard freezes hit - so often they are green past Christmas. For edible landscaping, the blueberry bush (decidious) can be attractive. It has white flowers in spring, of course followed by the tasty berries. The dwarf Sunshine Blue only gets 2'-4' tall and has pink flowers. Blueberries love sun, but you have to maintain an acid soil. For an unusual color on a bigger shrub - IF you are willing to mulch very well and water regularly - loropetalum will do great in full sun. It has beautiful purple foliage and the brilliant pink flowers in spring are a bonus. My next door neighbor has some beautiful ones, and there are several apartment complexes and shopping centers that also have lovely ones that get all day sun. I am not kidding about the mulch and water, though - they will die or look terrible if you stick them in full sun without adequate mulch and moisture, and I'd wait until fall to plant them. They will need the cool months to get their root systems established before facing the heat next summer. Their foliage is much denser if grown in full sun, dense enough that they can be pruned into shapes - rounded top shapes are popular around here. The native saw palmetto or the king sago (cycas revoluta, which I believe Carol mentioned above) can be an effective backdrop or centerpiece for your perennial flowers, too. They are almost bulletproof. Ornamental sweet potatoes are a pretty ground cover to weave among your flowers. While they are not supposed to be hardy, mine have come back after the last two winters. Mine are out in the brick mailbox planter exposed to dawn to dusk sun along the street. However, the grocery store sweet potatoes I planted with them (some that had sprouted after I failed to cook them soon enough) have grown even more vigorously. I leave them in the ground all winter. One last thought: I bought some pretty purple African Daisies from HD this spring. They have done really well, repeatedly blooming in sun and poor soil with no deadheading. They were labeled as perennials, but since I just got them this year I can't report on their actual hardiness yet. Good luck!

Wow, Shannon/garden_witch, you sure put together a special package!! I was so excited when I saw the mailman pull up and carry my package up to the porch! Ok, well first of all, there was a card with beautiful flowers on it, and such a pretty envelope, I loved it! And I really enjoyed reading your letter, and learning more about you! I liked seeing the photo of your backyard, looks like you've sure got your work cut out for you, like I do with my yard! But you've got a great, fresh space to work with looks like, and I'd love to see more photos this summer once you've got some areas of that yard filled with all those plants from your winter sowing! And here's what was in the package: A great coffee mug with a garden-themed picture on it of a watering can and some other things, I will be using it later for my coffee; and even better, it was filled with mini candy bars! Mmmmmm.... :) I tried one of those Midnight Milky Way bars, which are made with dark chocolate around the outside, (I love dark chocolate, the richer the better,) and oh my goodness was it ever good. I'd never tried those before, and now I'm really wishing there were more than two! I NEED more!! Must... go... buy... more.... see, look what you did to me, Shannon! LOL. Okay, moving right along. A pretty pot with hand-painted flowers on it that I love, (I love pots, and am always wanting more of them, so it was perfect!) And in the pot, was a baggie of several different kinds of seeds that I can winter sow, (woohoo, I love seeds! lol) and a beautiful anklet with jade colored stones in it, which is great because green is my favorite color, and I love jade colored things. Then there was a beautiful little garden ornament, which is right up my alley, I absolutely love those types of things! I have to find a special place to hang it now... Also, some pretty faerie gifts tags and book plates, a wonderful smelling homemade candle, (it is lit as we speak,) and last but certainly not least, a great gift! It was a bag labeled "Seed snatching kit." And in it, was a little notebook, a really cool gel pen that writes in several different colors, some seed envies, and a pair of Singer thread snippers, which I never would've thought to use for this purpose, but it is just perfect for snipping off seed pods! They will go to great use, that's for sure. And a couple of the gifts were inside these very pretty handcrafted bags, which I just love. And Shannon, where on earth did you find that alien wrapping paper? LOL! I love it. :) Everything is wonderful, and I am very thankful that you are my new pal! ~Summer

The property behind mine has gone into foreclosure and is now up for sale by the bank that took the loan through the FDIC after the previous bank (holder of the loan) went bust. To give you an idea of relative property values here since the crash, this 10 acre tract sold for $3.3 million about 4 years ago. That's $330,000 per acre. It had been a private residence and then a paso fino horse breeding farm for the years prior to its purchase by a developer who wanted to put a bunch of high price homes on it. The developer spent much money and effort trying to get the property re-zoned from Agricultural to Residential. After a two year fight, they succeeded in getting approval to put 28 houses on this property and its adjacent 5 acre tract on the corner of my street. .....only to be met with a market crash just prior to ground breaking. Now the property is listed for sale at $1.1 million or $110,000 an acre. I'm hoping the property doesn't sell as a 10 acre unit and the bank wants to carve it up and get it off their books, cheap. The back 2.5 or so acres is directly behind my property and would hopefully cost significantly less per acre than the going current rate since it would have no access to the roads. So, I am saving my pennies... Harry

Correction ... the Pink Palace where Evita lives is actually called the La Casa Rosada "Pink House". And Florida Street is actually Calle Florida (pronounced FloorEEda). We had so much fun walking around Florida and nearby streets. Calle Santa Fe is another popular shopping area across town. My travel partner had been to Buenos Aries four times before she and I went there and she had never had anyone tell her about the taxi ride safety issues. If your mom has a chance to take a city bus tour, encourage her to do so, BA is a big (but manageable) city for tourists. The city bus tour at the beginning of her visit will really help her figure out where she wants to go. Cafe Tortoni is the popular tango show a few doors down from our hotel on Ave de Mayo. Ask any cab driver, they will know. Reservations are a must for most tango places and the shows fill up quickly. Getting around BA is very easy. While there we took the subway, buses, taxis and even had a private driver when we invited to have dinner with a wealthy family that lives just outside the city. I am fascinated by Evita so had to visit the Evita museum which is snuggled in a residential area off the beaten track. Well worth the trouble to find it. You still see evidence of Evita's power over the country all around. Evita posters, souvenirs and Viva la Evita scrawled in graffiti. The Puerto Madero area which is right down by the water is a great place to eat. I hope your mom's not a vegetarian because Argentina is all about the beef! My daughter, an Argentine Tango dancer wouldn't last a day there because of her eating habits. I was going to post some photos I took around BA but Photobucket is down for maintenance right now. And yes, I went to Antarctica in 2006. An 8 day cruise with four expeditions on the continent and peninsula. The experience of a lifetime! You've been here at the KT a while, I'm surprised you haven't seen some of the many penguin and other Antarctic photos I posted. Jodi-