Thanks for all your answers- Thanks Ken for the link- the "Clerodendrum ugandense" just might be what I'm looking for. It fits the description and is just the thing some off the wall catalouge would feature as a new novelty plant ( I dislike some of the plants these catalouges over glorify to unsuspecting customers. Then these people end up with something that wont survive in their zone or worse yet, takes over their whole yard). I will print some of these discriptions and show to my customers- hopely we will have solved the mystery ;) Thanks again!

Lilac blooms once, and may do so at a time that is not particularly hospitable to sitting out on the deck, depending on the variety you get. Once it has bloomed its isn't the most attractive bush and at least in our part of the mid-Atlantic prone to leaf-disfiguring diseases. The butterfly bush, by contrast blooms, most of the summer, but its foliage is weedy for close up. Attracts a lot of butterflies, bees and wasps. Consider chaste tree (Vitex) attractive summer foliage and spikes of color in the middle of the summer. It will get that big, if you let it, but is easy to keep smaller. (Cold winters will keep it small by "pruning" it for you.) Sadly its scent is a negative. 8 X 8! why plant Just one thing? That is enough space for 1 biggish bush and several smaller shrubs that would let you trade off bloom times, foliage and other things. So you could have a viburnum for spring scent and summer flowering caryopteris, which in my garden attracts many moths and butterflies. In a public park I saw a white butterfly bush surrounded by Gaura (a perennial) called whirling butterflies. The whole effect was quite nice. Gaura here bloom all summer.

Thank you leafhead, now you are just exhausting me! :-) I am out of room for any thing larger than Marigolds, snapdragons and yes, asters. I cannot decide which asters to get. They recommend Aster lateriflorus 'Lady in Black' and Aster novi belgii Alert (red), for my area. I did find a great plant list just for the Texas High Plains, so I think I will try their local varieties. They also sell plants, however it is a long drive, but they do have native milkweed, several varieties, I would like to try. Next year I will have time to put in more garden space, as I do away with more lawn, but for now I am full-up! I think I will learn alot this summer, and by next spring I should know more about what is good for me as far as natives, and if I see butterflies I did not expect, I will plant what I can to meet their needs. I am very excited about my first season. I don't think I have a chance of seeing either a Giant or a Tiger Swallowtail. The sulfurs we get are happy with grasses, so I have that covered. I do need Violets! The list never ends.... Thanks again, Debra

If you do want to plant some taller varieties, you could separate a group by a stepping stone or two. I agree with the pentas - the pipevines are really going after mine this year. I planted the Butterfly Series red ones, and they get about 12-14" tall. You could also just grow some nectar plants in pots and people surely won't step on the pots! LOL! Lantana would be okay, but it is a plant that spreads and will overlap your 1.5' width. Look for dwarf plants of all kinds. Marigolds would be good, too, as well as the smaller zinnias. You can get a smaller lavendar plant, which is a good nectaring plant. There are a lot of Californians on this forum, so I hope they pop in here with suggestions as to what will grow and bloom all summer for you. If your area is all sun, parsley may wilt because it likes some shade, IMHO. Aristolochia fimbriata would do well in your zone and is low growing, too. It is a creeper, altho some have trained it to a trellis. That would attract the pipevine swallowtails. It is a pretty plant, too, green with white veins. Of course, you might want to plant most of your strip with it because the pipevines can demolish an entire patch! LOL! Susan