This is a new reply to an old post, but there are native live oaks in the area roughly between Ft. Worth, Abilene, and Wichita Falls, Texas that should work beautifully in your area. For some reason, nobody has developed commercial cultivars from this area. Live oaks, especially along the northern margin of their range, can vary in their characteristics. The ideal would be one with dense foliage that stays dark green all winter on a non-stoloniferous tree that branches With strong crotch angles. For commercial growers, it would probably require two trips to western North Texas—one in February/March to identify trees with the right characteristics, and once again in September/October to collect acorns. Maybe ten years of field trials would be in order after that. Of course this would be more of a long-range project than collecting an annual or perennial, but it could fundamentally change the landscape in Tennessee, Kentucky, and the Eastern Seaboard up to Philadelphia or maybe New York.

The problem with drainage issues in container gardening is due to the physics of water and gravity interplaying with the dynamics of plant growth. I'm no physicist, needless to say, but the situation has been simplistically explained to me thusly: Gravity, as we all know because we don't fly off into space, pulls everything toward the center of the planet. The bigger the mass, the more the gravitational pull. The water residing in the moist soil of a container (referred to as the water column) drains out faster in a big container than a smaller one, particularly if the plant isn't particularly well rooted out or growing vigorously, because there's a bigger mass of soil. Shallow containers are offer more potential drainage issues than deeper ones, because of the shortess of the water column. That's why commercial plug trays consist of deep, narrow cells. It may seem counterintuitive, but, believe me, in the nursery industry it's a known issue. That's why such incredible amounts of money have been spent on finding the perfect potting mix which will drain adequately while supporting plant growth. Notice that all those plants you buy in 4", quart and gallon containers are potted in bark mix, or peat/vermiculite/perlite, etc and not garden dirt or topsoil. Have no doubt, growers would use regular dirt if it worked -- it would be an incredible cost savings. But the structure of garden dirt in a small mass simply doesn't drain well enough to insure good results in a pot, although it's fine, of course, in the hugeness of the garden. Hope all that makes sense! I'm paraphrasing a presentation I attended at the Chicago Botanic Garden that was held by the Perennial Plant Society of America, so I'm not making it up. :) Here are some cedar glade plants. Some of these grow outside glades, too. First, perennials, in the order that they happen to occur to me: Dodecatheon meadia - Shooting Star; wants part shade Phlox bifida - Glade Phlox; a moss phlox/thrift relative Hypoxis hirsuta - Yellow-eyed Grass Sisyrinchium albidum - Blue-eyed Grass; despite the specific epithet, our local type blooms a delightful light blue Echinacea simulata - Prairie Coneflower Echinacea tennesseensis - Tennessee Coneflower; a wonderful garden plant for something so rare in the wild Oenothera macrocarpa - Missouri Evening Primrose Liatris microcephala - Dwarf Blazingstar Other Liatris also - L. aspera (tall), L. spicata (medium), L squarrosa (short to medium) Amsonia tabernaemontana v. gattingeri - Glade Bluestar Baptisia australis v. aberrans - Glade Blue False Indigo Helianthus divaricatus - Woodland Sunflower, although it's quite happy in 1/2 to 2/3 sun Opuntia humifusa - Hardy Prickly Pear Cactus; yup, perfectly hardy here, really pretty orange-centered yellow flowers in late spring; a good way to keep someone from cutting across a corner lot :) Verbena canadensis - Rose Verbena; grows wild in Wilson and Rutherford Counties in some incredibly inhospitable spots Ratibida pinnata - Gray-headed Coneflower; tall, very showy in mid to late summer Penstemon calycosus - Smooth Beardtongue; this is a plant about to be discovered by the gardening public, IMO; takes sun to part shade; showy rosy violet florets in big heads Shrubs, in case anyone's interested: Rhus aromatica - Fragrant Sumac, also the cv. 'Gro-Low', which stays about 3 ft high) Hypericum frondosum - St John's Wort, incl. the cv. 'Sunburst', more compact and longer blooming than the sp. Rosa carolina - Carolina Rose, pink single blooms in late spring, stays low, spreads gradually. Foresteria ligustrina - Glade Privet; not a true privet and not a thug, but can be sheared into a hedge like privet. There are more, but some cedar glade plants just aren't being grown on a commercial scale and so aren't available. But a whole lot of what I listed above is findable, and some is quite common. Two non-natives that I see naturalized in the glades, BTW, are bearded iris and the related blackberry lily (Belamcamda chinensis). Both tough plants! HTH, Marty

My husband and I walked thru what felt like every model house or home under construction in our area just outside Nashville over the past few years. You can contact a local realtor or just get a Sunday paper and look for new construction open houses and once you find those neighborhoods you should have several homes in various stages of construction to inspect. If you've any plans to visit Murfreesboro please feel free to email me and I can give you several developments you can walk thru around here.

I used to live outside of Nashville. I absolutely second Jodi on The Bluebird Cafe. Fabulous little hole in the wall for amazing music, up and coming songwriters. You will need a reservation, probably won't get in without one. They have a website. I was there twice and loved it both times. Just loved it! Don't miss it!! I'm not much for Music Row with all the bars and bands. Like the bands, not the bars. Too loud and crowded for me. For anyone who goes to Nashville with children, the science museum in great fun, but skip the Nashville Zoo. However, if you drive outside of Nashville to Murfreesboro (less than 30 mins on I-24)) there is a fantastic children's museum that is worth it, tons of fun and inexpensive. It's all along a greenway on the Stones River and wetlands, so that's a bonus. Really a top stop if you're in the area with children.