Hi, parupudi! : ) Houston is generally considered zone 9a, but I've put a link below that will let you enter your zip code, so you can make sure of your zone exactly where you are. I have a handful of little things to tell you; others here will have amazing advise they will chime up with (this is an amazing group of people)... AZALEAS--Feed them when they're done blooming. HIBISCUS--The danger of frost has passed, so it is safe to prune these. Cut one of the branches and have a good look--do you see any green? If so, it is alive! If not, it might be anyway--some of my hibiscus only had brown and white in the middle, but they are putting on new growth. I'd say give them another month before you really start to worry. My tropicals are waking up now and starting to grow, but they were looking pretty twiggy for a while! There is very little you need to do for hibiscus here, other than keeping them mulched and pruning them to help them be bushy and not leggy. OLEANDERS look very ugly after the winter's over--all grey and dead-seeming like a plant in a Tim Burton movie--but they come back. I pruned mine a couple weeks ago and they've got buds on them now. Oleanders are very dramatic about cold weather, but they usually come back in Houston without any problems. ROSES: We prune roses on Valentine's Day in Houston (just because mid-Feb. is the right time here, and doing it on V-Day makes it easy to remember). For your spring pruning, I recommend having three good thick stems coming out of the baseroots (let these be a couple feet high) and cutting off the rest--cut off anything thinner than a pencil, anything that is diseased or dead, any branches that are getting in the way of each other (we need good air circulation for roses here, or they get bad blackspot), etc. I have made the mistake of not pruning heavily, and I had very leggy, weak rose bushes that year. If your roses are well established, they can take being cut back hard like this. But don't forget that climbing roses bloom on old growth, so be sparing when you prune those, and try to keep the canes as close as you can to horizontal for good blooms. Here is a WONDERFUL site for how to grow roses in Houston: http://www.burger.com/roseindx.htm MANDEVILLA: If they're established, cut them back now that all danger of frost is over. They'll return from their roots. : ) Here is a link that might be useful: GW zone finder by zip code

I think the "rules" imply pool builders are not to give themselves pats on the back, but I've seen several home owners do so. Alternately you can allow forum members to e-mail you via the website (some protection against spammers). Some sites (like Photobucket) allow one to resize as the photo is uploaded. Alternately there are a variety of freeware applications that will display, re-size and make other changes to photos. I personally like one called "irfanview", but that may be just because I've used it for a long time, others might be better. Caveat: irfanview is for a PC (google for it's download site), don't know what would work for Apple, Linux, et al.

WARNING - DO NOT USE GULF COAST POOL COMPANY of Richmond TX! I am the owner of the pool you see above. We have had the WORST experience with Gulf Coast Pool company and Mike Caruso, the owner. We have had so many problems with our leaking gas lines, shoddy stone work, electrical issues, etc. etc. They have repeatedly refused to honor any of their warranty work, and keep telling me I have to go hunt down the subcontractors they chose to use for any warranty work. In our opinion, Gulf Coast Pools has terrible workmanship and is the most unprofessional company we've ever dealt with. It has been so bad, that several other cutomers of this comapny have contacted me to tell me their horror stories with this pool builder, Gulf Coast Pool Company in Richmond TX. Some of those stories are right here on Garden Web, just do a search and read for yourself, and search for them on google as well. Also notice that their BBB rating is currently a D- !!! Learn from our mistake! I would strongly advise to stay away from this company!

We used Hamilton-Steele (see link below)who we saw at a home show earlier this year. They charged $500 for the design. In the end we didn't go with them to do the project because after 3 revisions to the pool design it still wasn't right. I think one problem was that the salesman acted as the interface between us and the architect. We never met with him so something was lost in translation. However I think it was worth it to have a good starting point to work with other pool builders. One of the things we liked about Castlerock the salesman (owner) realy liked freeform pool design. He worked with us for many hours to get things just right. I hope that helps. Good luck in your journey. There will be bumps along the way but it is well worth it in the end. Here is a link that might be useful: Landscape Architect.