Thanks everyone! I found a source for grevillea near me, they are at a nursery where I always admire the abutilon so I'll pick up at least one of those too. I'm always up for adding more salvia, and I've been wanting to get a Meyer Lemon for a while now so onto the list they go! I am in Sunset zone 14, but we get occasional arctic incursions that freeze the more tender plants. I love aloe flowers but we usually get into the teens a couple of times every winter, my neighbor has a hardy banana at it gets frozen to the ground at least once a year. Honeysuckle is another favorite of mine but I already planted a couple of Lonicera ciliosa on the back fence, which is the only place I think is suitable for them in my yard.

It's difficult for me to think of containers as needing less maintenance. I guess if you don't have a couple thousand of them then perhaps it could be true. But once you put something drought tolerant in the ground it really doesn't need any care after that... the only real hassle (unless it's larger shrubs/trees) is weeding. As far as tropicals... to me a lot of the lush and leafy stuff is a waste of time, espcially things like Cannas and bananas. They seem to demand a lot of water and fertilizer and even then sometimes fail to perform well in cooler summers. It's the drought tolerant exotic plants - not really tropicals - that I continue to appreciate and grow. I'm not quite done with this - it needs a little revision - but here's how my old garden looks after 12 degrees last winter. http://www.desertnorthwest.com/articles/freeze_08_10.html Getting back to the weather, I thought I'd pass along this splendid bit of information... Public Information Statement Statement as of 4:00 am PDT on November 4, 2010 ... Record for all time warmest November day in Seattle tied on Wednesday... The high temperature of 74 degrees on Wednesday tied for the warmest all time November day on record in Seattle. The other November 74 degree day was on November 4th 1949. Wednesday was only the fifth day ... including records at the federal building which go back to 1891... where the high reached into the 70s in November. The following is a summary of 70 degree days in November in Seattle. 1. 74 degrees 11/3/2010 2. 74 degrees 11/4/1949 3. 72 degrees 11/2/1970 federal building high was 72 4. 71 degrees 11/4/1980 5. 70 degrees 11/3/1970 federal building high was 73 When the federal building was the official weather record site for Seattle... 1891 to 1944... there was never a day in November with a high in the 70s. This past Summer... June 21st to September 21st... the high temperature at Seattle-Tacoma Airport was less than 74 degrees on 60 out of the 93 days... so almost two thirds of the days this Summer were not as warm as Wednesday. Out of the four years where a 70 degree day has occurred in Seattle in November three of the years... 2010... 1970 and 1949 are La Nina years. 1980 was a neutral year. It is interesting to note that the previous 74 degree day in 1949 was during a moderate to strong La Nina event. A moderate to strong La Nina event is predicted for this winter season. The 74 degree day in November 1949 was followed over two months later by the coldest month on record in Seattle... January 1950 where the average monthly temperature was 24.9 degrees ( 16 degrees below the current normal of 40.9 degrees ) and when the all time record low temperature was recorded ( January 31 1950 0 degrees ).

For future plantings, what about considering choosing from local natives? These are adapted to your soil, and you would therefore have no need to "correct" it - ie alter it to resemble soil from elsewhere - to make them grow well. Many of us would LOVE to be able to grow all those wonderful flowers that we see when visiting Girraween National Park, but have to "correct" our soil like mad to achieve it, and even then we end up with plants which are short-lived because they are never really happy in the different soil. I believe there is a branch of the Sociey for Growing Australian Plants in Stanthorpe which should be a good source of information and plants. I seem to remember a very good nursery in Eukey road, too. I remember they had that local Hardenbergia with the black leaves... Best of luck with it all. Trish

frost would be my guess