I see that some people in this thread mentioned using Pentas for a Cottagey feel in a Florida garden, but I think one key to getting Pentas to work is to get the non-dwarfed varieties. As England's Alan Titchmarsh mentioned in one of his specials, "A Cottage Garden should be billowing, blousy and a bubbling froth of flowers." You don't get this from the dwarfed varieties foud in the big box stores. You need the 3-4 ft vaieties which I mostly see at plant fairs and sales. The Lake County demonstration gardens, Discovery Gardens, has an example Cottage Garden section. I will have to swing down there again for some pictures and names, but the stuff they had planted you just don't find at your average nursery, much less the big box stores.

Lou, thanks! I'm glad easy does it works as I'd never have been able to do that all in one shot. Wanda, thank you. I'm glad you like it. Susie, no sprinkler. I had just watered the things I planted this morning. But everything should end up being drought tolerant, so that eventually I won't have to worry about water unless it is an unusual dry spell. That red flower is a Red Rocket crape myrtle. It was just planted last fall so it is very small still. I just love the red color of the flowers. It was the inspiration for the entire area. The plants are: red rocket crape myrtle gold mound duranta purple fountain grass (had a really late trim as I'm still learning) gold mound lantana Mexican petunia African bush daisy variegated liriope agapanthus (lying down after being divided and planted today) Mexican heather carnival lantana dwarf allamanda bush I still intend to get some of the chartreuse colored sedum as well as another gold mound lantana for the front and a little more liriope. Hopefully the poor agapanthus will survive. It looks so fallen over and defeated today.

I see that no one has tackled this question to date. The problem is that yellow leaves is a symptom for several problems. In this case, it could be lower humidity in a heated house, lower light levels, exposure to a bit of cold before you took it in, a single incident of the potting soil drying out, too much water or a combination of all of the above. If the stems are still healthy and you take good care of it, the plant should leaf back out. It may even recover from dying back to the ground. In north Florida, bush allamanda dies back to the ground in the winter cold and recovers in spring.

Anybody familiar with this vining shrub to the top left of the photo? The back wall of the pool I am building in the VI will double as a short retaining wall for a terrace behind it. It'll be about 3.5 feet tall above the water. I'd really like to border the terrace with a shrubby vine that will grow over the wall, looking something like a waterfall. Of course, anything it drops will then go in the pool. The wall is a WNW orientation, so full sun all day....I do not want showy (boug, mande, allamanda, pandanus et al). Asp fern would suffer too much there, firecracker (russelia) would brown in the summer and the smell of rosemary would turn some people off. I don't think the tiny leaves are a big issue, the other end of the pool is an infinity edge, so most drop will end up in the well, not the filter. I've identified the vine as Enodea Littoralis. It is exactly what I want and 'native' to my island, but I am not familiar with it. I would like information on it; it's habits (ie: does it drop a lot? flower often?) and cultivation. Are there cultivars for landscaping use? Is there another similar 'vining shrub' you suggest? I plan to mix in some bromeliads and vining cactus/succulents as well. Thanks