camp, I planted some leymus candescens rye grass (I think thats what it is) in the corner, the dirt keeps running downhill covering my gravel which makes me crazy. I found this grass growing in shade at a construction site and dug some up while the men were gabbing, me and my little handy shovel. The area was marked for destruction. It will take shade and forms thick tussocks that are actually attractive when separated from weeds etc. This is very dry shade but as it comes out further plants become more visible. Hakone Grass! Not in this dreadful spot. Its beautiful but I need function and something tough, preferably native since its such a challenging area. I was really falling for the Sesleria autumnalis for the yellow green I even tried the silver leymus 'Canyon Prince' one year, its looked like big dead spiders. I donated it to the neighbors yard and its forming a nice area of blue in their backyard in no mans land (needs weeding but I resist interfering). Probably come fall, I'll place an order with SRG. I promise not to come over there with my shovel and grocery sacks and I'll look up those other suggestions, light colored would definitely be welcome. Here in the central US there are numerous ghosts towns or nearly ghost towns and empty roads you rarely see another car on, miles of grasses, abandoned fields, abandoned farms, old bridges, roads leading nowhere etc. You can make an entire activity visiting the abandoned past and not see a soul for miles all day long. People would think you were crazy if they saw you digging grasses, but I am sometimes crazy that way. I don't know what its like in Great Britain but here a person really can find treasures in the wild without feeling like an environmental abuser, in fact its easy to get lost in the overwhelming miles and miles of nothingness out in the middle of nowhere. I think sometimes we have a tendency to picture something altogether distorted when discussing subjects like plants in the wild. I've dug bluestem plants from the wild along with several other starts of plants. I never thought of it as a bad thing in certain situations and still don't, if you saw what I am talking about you'd laugh at the idea of causing harm. If you hired every person in the midwest and handed them a shovel to dig with, you'd hardly make a dent in a year's worth of digging, the very idea is ludicrous. Its other factors that are problems, like invasive plants for instance just to name one of many. I hardly think any harm is done moving a few small blue stem seedlings from a place out in "The Sticks" like Pond Creek or Lamont, Oklahoma where they are thick to another part of Oklahoma where they aren't currently growing constitutes wildlife or plant endangerment. Once upon a time they would have covered what is now my urban property and now they are growing and multiplying again, instead of a bermuda grass lawn which is hardly good for the environment. I find I cannot hardly get a visual of England in my head, I imagine lots of green and places I see on PBS like "Upstairs Downstairs' or something like that, old cities, great buildings & abandoned monasteries from the reformation period. I am sure its a distortion of reality. This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Mon, Jul 14, 14 at 19:06

In many areas of SoCal you need to plan farther ahead fall color. I find many of my summer flowers will bloom into early December with deadheading (Hemerocalis 'Russian Rhapsody', Rudbeckia 'Indian Summer', Gaillardia, to name a few). Fall becomes a plan for December-March flowers, and the inserting the annual-grown perennials that go until I yank their tired little bodies out of the soil (dianthus, pansies). Freesias are a great one to plant, if you are not in too cold an area. Best deal I know of is a bag for $12 from CostCo in the fall; they will bloom every spring and multiply, so you really only need to purchase them once. Kalanchoe Mirabella can provide red flowers January-April every year. Bletilla is another amazing performer that blooms from about February-May for me. They aren't invasive, but they do grow quickly and can be divided. I started out with 2 small rhizomes, and now there are so many I used them en mass in a sidewalk strip. As Bahia said, it depends upon where you live. Are you looking for sun or shade plants?

Mine goes the same, best colour seems to be in the Autumn. Just as a footnote been hearing about one or two larger specimens blowing over, in other words parting company from their sylvestris rootstock.

My Cryptomeria japonica 'Araucarioides' has remained green as usual this winter. Temps got down to 18F twice this winter. The variety 'Elegans' turned a nice plum color. All the other Cryptomerias remained green. The 'Araucarioides' is not a common plant. You have a nice one. My Sasanqua Camellias are blooming also. Cryptomeria japonica 'Araucarioides'