Dahlias do grow easily and well here as long as they get water. About the only problem is that they often need staking to avoid breaking up as they can get so top heavy. You may be having problems finding those specific plants because they are more East Coast full sun plants than what would ordinarily be used here. Varieties of Coreopsis are fairly commonly planted here, and should be easy enough to find. If I were looking for full hot sun plants for a color boost this time of year, I'd also consider any of the different color forms of Arctotis, almost nothing could be easier. Lavenders are really showy this time of year, and readily adapt to hot full sun. Callibrochoa hybrids are also often perennials here, and give nearly 9 months of color with some water. Sweet Alyssum, Lobularia maritima in the different color strains beyond white is also a great filler short lived perennial for full sun. There are so many choices of different Salvias, and so many that are only summer annuals back east but can provide near constant bloom here, such as various Salvia greggii hybrids, S. chamaedryoides, S. clevelandii 'Winnifred Gilman', S. leucantha cultivars, S. chiapensis, S. 'Indigo Spires', etc. Teucrium cussonii or Nepeta species are also really dependable for this exposure, and there are lots of beautiful foliage plants that would fit the bill as well, such as the chartreuse foliage of the dwarf Breath of Heaven, Coleonema pulchrum 'Sunset Gold'. Alstroemeria cultivars and hybrids are also great choices for waves of bloom off and on all year long. You might also consider using some of the new cultivars of Nemesia fruticosa, which seem to stay in bloom almost all year round in our conditions, and things like Verbena bonariensis, V. rigida var polaris, Euphorbias such as E. myrsinites, E. characias, E. dulcis 'Chameleon' are all long lived and drought tolerant. Other great perennials to consider might include things like Erysimum 'Bowles Mauve', Erigeron glaucus or E. x moerheimii, or some of our California natives such as Mimulus aurantiacus, Eriogonum grande var rubescens, or Zauschneria canum. If you want to add some bulbs that really do great here, why not add some Amaryllis belladonna, Scilla peruviana, Sparaxis, Ixia, Freesia, Watsonia or Dierama pulcherrima, which all get larger and more floriferous every passing year. If you want to use plants for foliage color, there are lots of other choices besides Physiocarpus; Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple' or 'Golden Spirit' are really showy now, as is Choisya ternata 'Sundance', or various Phormium cultivars or the silvery Astelia chathamica or A. nervosa. For purplish foliage with lavender flowers over a long summer season, I particularly like Ageratum corymbosa as a smaller sized shrub, and the blue berried Dianella intermedia or D. tasmanica can be impressive in summer as well. A web site that could help clue you in on what great choices we have in our Mediterranean climate would be to browse the Annie's Annuals Nursery in Richmond, California, about 45 minutes to an hour to the northeast of Los Altos, on the other side of the bay. Annie has some of the coolest plants around, and her web site may get you thinking beyond what you are familiar with from back east. Check it out at www.anniesannuals.com. You might also find it interesting to check out some wholesale California nurseries with great photos of their plants and descriptions of preferred growing conditions, such as San Marcos Growers Nursery of Santa Barbara at www.smgrowers.com, or Monterey Bay Wholesale Nursery at www.montereybaynsy.com.

pixie_lou: Nice job on the hardscaping in the front of the house - have you decided what you want to plant in that big empty space on the left? nhbabs: Gorgeous pictures! I love the muted colors, particularly the delicate pinks and the morning mist view. Nothing very dramatic here for the end of September - lots of berries and grasses and goldenrod. The cotoneaster along the wall: Volunteer crabapple fruits: Winterberry with Euonymus 'Silver King': Winterberry with Osmanthus 'Goshiki': Miscanthus 'Cosmopolitan' is beginning to bloom, but the seedheads aren't all fluffy yet: About half of the seedheads are open. The birds are finding them. The old forsythia leaves are turning red: The path to the house is getting wilder: The wisteria pseudo-standard keeps trying to extend its reach and I keep cutting it back. I usually leave some vines in the skirt if they're not a tripping hazard. You can't really see them in the previous picture, but the three big Blushing Knockout roses are blooming. Not a huge flush but still pleasing. Sedums with Juniper 'Grey Owl': A few plants are still green. Maybe it's because of the shade but the slugs haven't bothered these. Hosta 'Paul's Glory' with variegated Solomon's Seal: and Hosta 'Northern Exposure': Claire This post was edited by claire on Mon, Sep 29, 14 at 12:41

Hi Rhoni Ann, Lots of people are painting red/orangey-red brick homes nowadays. If you're a fan of the Fixer-Upper TV show on HGTV, you've probably noticed that Chip and Joanna Gaines have totally transformed the exterior of many brick homes by painting that red/red-orange brick in all sorts of lovely shades of gray, creamy white or beige. After they add new trim and sometimes shutters and window boxes (depending on the style of the home and the look they're going for), along with new landscaping, those homes look just as transformed on the exterior as they are on the interior. Keep in mind that once you paint your brick, assuming you are going with a lighter color, it will reflect heat and light, but I have found there are lots of plants which grow well on the hotter west and south sides of homes that what a person might expect. First of all, if you will amend your clay with compost or some other organic material before you plant, then your plants will do so much better that it will blow your mind and you won't have to water nearly as much. We have dense, thick red clay (the kind you could use to make clay pots) that had zero organic matter when I tested it when we moved here in 1999. When they dug the holes for our percolation test for our septic system when we built our house, most all of the water remained in the holes after 24-hours, which explains why we have a lagoon instead of leach lines. Along our south and west facing walls, cannas have done really well in only lightly amended clay. If you plant the tall ones that get 4-7' tall, they will form their own mini-wall along the bring wall, and they don't really mind the heat as long as you water them occasionally in summer. They die back in winter, but you can cut off the ugly dead foliage at the ground so you don't have to look at it all winter long. Cannas are very strong, resilient plants, fitting into my favorite category of plants that I describe in this manner: they won't die and you can't kill them. In front of those taller cannas, you could the short, compact evergreen shrubs of your choice so you'd have something green there year-round. Some of the shorter varieties of hollies would work, and hollies come with many different leaf shapes from the very small leaves of yaupon hollies to the larger leaves of other forms of holly. If you don't want evergreen shrubs on the west side of the house, you could plant daylilies, lantana, gomprena (aka globe amaranth), zinnias, cosmos and some perennial members of the salvia family. All of these do well in well-amended, well-draining soil and only need moderate amounts of water in summer as long as they are well mulched. Or, you could plant ground cover type plants that thrive in full sun. Purple wintercreeper is a lovely greenish groundcover that is low maintenance. We just cut ours back to the ground with the string trimmer once or twice a year. It turns purplish-green in the cold season. Its flowers are not very obvious but then they give you lovely little berries. Hollies, by the way, are one of my favorite plants for clay soil because once they are established many of them are really drought-tolerant as well as heat-tolerant. If you like crape myrtles they are very heat-tolerant and come in all sorts of sizes, from more tree-like forms that can attain 20-40' Crape Myrtle Trails--Varietiesin height to weeping forms only a couple of feet tall. Be sure to purchase named crape myrtles varieties so you can Google those varieties before you buy to ensure you're getting the right size for your area. Sometimes the ones sold at places like Wal-Mart don't give a variety name on the tag, so you have no idea what you're getting. There's nothing worse than planting a big variety of crape myrtle in an area that is only appropriate for a small to medium sized one because you'll spend tons of time trying to prune back the big one to keep it small enough. Depending on the color you ultimately choose to paint your brick, you might like some of the Black Diamond series of crape myrtles with their purplish-black foliage. They would look striking against a lighter colored wall and they don't get too large. To give you an idea of the many kinds of crape myrtles available, I'm going to link the page of the Crape Myrtle Trails of McKinney, TX, which is my favorite website for Crape Myrtle information. I haven't tried Rose of Sharon on the west side of the house, but it probably would be alright. I have several kinds of hardy hibiscus in the border around our large veggie garden and they are both heat tolerant and drought tolerant. They are growing in heavily amended clay in raised beds, but there's a couple of smaller ones at the lower north end of our heavily sloping garden and they are equally heat and drought tolerant, growing at grade level in soil only lightly amended. Another perennial flower (often considered a reseeding annual, but perennial in my garden) that doesn't mind the west side of a building is tall verbena, Verbena bonariensis. It is one of the most heat-tolerant and drought-tolerant plants I've ever grown and is a real butterfly magnet. I use lots of autumn sage (Salvia greggii) plants as they tolerate heat and plentiful sunshine. They are perennials and are semi-evergreen. Sometimes they bloom on and off throughout the winter here in zone 7b. I just shear them back pretty hard right before new growth begins in early Spring to keep them more compact and more manageable. There's tons of options for the west side of a house. Just avoid things like hydrangeas that must have afternoon shade in our climate and avoid plants that need perfect drainage. Good luck, and if you have more questions, I hope you'll ask them. Also, watch for the Master Gardener's plant sale in your county, which has a very active MG group that puts on a great plant sale in the Spring. This year's plant sale is May 11th. More info about it can be found on the website linked below. Pottawatomie County Extension Service Webpage The Master Gardeners have a display garden at the ag extension building and you might visit it to get some ideas. Dawn

I have no head for heights and that makes me feel a bit giddy but it must be fun to look out from there on a sunny day... I think I would grow the rose up the wall on the left and a clematis along the railings.. I would plant the clematis on the right at the corner junction to train the clematis along both railings. However, depending where the sun rises, you might find most of the flower stems try to grow on the other side of the railings away from you and some pulling back in and training this side may be necessary, so you get the most benefit. I'm not sure if I would use 2 individual pots rather than 1 large one. I grow a rose in a pot that's much smaller... it's about 1 foot from front to back, about 2 and half feet lengthways, and about 2 feet deep. The rose I grow in it is 'Benjamin Britten' and it's been there for 3 seasons now and is thriving. It will be good for another 3 I should think and I won't change the soil until I see signs of deterioration. It's about 5 foot tall and I've had about 4 flushes this year, and it's trying for a 5th but the weather has cooled.. I grow bulbs, Pelargoniums, Violas, Candytuft, along with the rose during summer.. nothing too invasive rootwise though. 9th Sept '16 'Benjamin Britten' in a pot... ..you can see a glimpse of my container here below, it's quite narrow across the top. I was taking a photo of my Molinia 'Karl Foerster'. I know I'm a long way off but just trying to give you some encouragement. Hope all goes well....