How cool, Aimeekitty! Up Whites Canyon from Soledad on the hill? Yes, Banksiae and Purezza are completely evergreen up there. And, yes, they both have been successfully grown in pots, much the same way you can bonsai a full sized tree in a pot. It requires excellent drainage, a pot of sufficient minimum size for the size plant you want, a pot of suitable material to prevent it from cooking in the sun/heat and religious watering. I've seen Banksiae grown in five gallon sizes for many, many years. Yes, they become root bound, but preventing the roots from getting to the soil, keeping it properly watered and fertilized occasionally, as well as keeping it sheared to maintain a proper balance between root and top growth sizes keep it alive. It will flower in those conditions, on any sufficiently mature wood and anywhere that wood receives enough sun. The potential for sunburn of the wood is much higher growing in pots because of the water stress from lack of spreading, foraging roots. I've seen it grown as a tiered "poodle" topiary, and as a standard where the trunk was incredibly thick with side buds removed as you would for a standard trunk. The top branches were permitted to grow and were continually kept sheared to maintain a rounded head. Those also flowered in spring, paving themselves over the surface with bloom. It CAN be done. It takes time and a LOT of effort and attention. I had a client in The Palisades who was a very long time gardener. He was widowed and did all manner of odd things for his own amusement. I teased him his garden was like visiting The Island of Dr. Moreau because of the unusual things he accomplished, but he spent every day in his garden. It was his life. You could also train a Banksiae like the braided trunk ficus you see everywhere, then either round the head or allow it to fountain out. They are amazingly versatile and enduring plants. They will suffer just about anything you can think to do TO them, as long as their basic requirements are met. Victorian and Edwardian florists raised many types of ramblers and other climbers in pots, training them into fantastic shapes and forcing them to flower for holiday decoration. Think bougainvillea or even what is done to potted florist azaleas in today's markets and you get the idea. Aimeekitty, you have plenty of room for the Banksiae as long as you aren't afraid to prune and shear it as you would a bougainvillea, pyracantha or other indeterminate shrub or climber. Don't be afraid to prune it. It honestly will thumb its nose at you and grow more vigorously, just in a different direction. If you train it along the top of your fence, you can shear it to form a dense topper which will then flower each spring. Banksiae will make free standing shrubs, totally capable of supporting themselves on the thick wood they will develop. You can see a few of them outside the gates of Scenic Hills along Rainbow Glen, just off Sierra Hwy. Kim

Get the Sunset Western Garden book, Mary Irish's "Gardening in the Desert Southwest", and Judy Mielke's "Native plants for southwestern landscapes". When you get here, make a trip to the Desert Botanic Gardens, with a camera, and shoot what grows. www.desert-tropicals.com is an excellent resource, as are the various city water departments for plant lises. Mountain States Wholesale nursery (www.mswn.com) has a great online plant catalog. Instead of Tipu, think Arizona Yellow Bells or Desert Willow. It's almost impossible to get ANYTHING started between mid-april and mid-July. If you wait until the summer rains start, it gets easier, and October is best for almost everything. Hot-weather growers, like bougainvilla, are best started in mid to late March. Spend a bit of time getting to know your house and PLANNING what to plant. I have a blog with landscape advice - I'm a certified deseret landscaper, trained by the Desert Botanical Gardens. YOu might find the advice useful. Here is a link that might be useful: Landscape Planning Advice

Hello again all, yes thanks pm2 - I guess it is time for an update! After a late spring with much rain and cold in March, we are starting to dry out and get some sun and warmth. The daffodils are right on schedule, with the dogwoods maybe just a few days behind normal. The blooms are still a bit greenish but in a few days the hillsides will be glorious with white. The redbuds have been out for a week or so now, I just planted one in the front yard, even though we are surrounded by them in the woods, I just love them. There are bluebird eggs in the box on the top of the hill and today is in the 70s so all is right with the world! Because we've had such a long cold wet spring it's been hard to get into the gardens, especially with our clay. I dug out cannas I wanted to divide yesterday and they came up with clods of wet clay attached. Still a bit early to do serious digging. The front shade bed however was easier to dig because of all the compost I added last year so I did add some early color that it really needed. 'Chattahoochee' phlox and 'Woodside Gold' columbine went in to replace the anemones I lost last year to insects. The combination of tiny light pink flowers of pulmonaria, the baby blue of the brunnera, blue with a purple eye on the phlox, and pink and purple columbine make a lovely spring show. I had to watch where I dug however because some of the hostas are so slow to emerge and I risk digging into them. I have to remember to plant some bulbs around them so I don't forget where they are. As to the shrub changes, I moved the Itea to the woods garden after I realized it would take over and sucker in this small garden space. I replaced it with a Chamaecyparis Gold Mop which grows very slowly and will provide that gold foliage I'm looking for. The Sarcococca is kind of sitting there, it looks like it got a bit of tip burn, this area gets winter sun so it may not be happy with that. I never did get the flowers in January, unless I missed them. The Calycanthus is forming flower buds, I can't wait to see, and especially smell them. The clethra is still thinking about leafing out, it is alway late to do so. The spirea and the cornus are leafed out and came through fine, the loropetalum suffered some leaf dieback, but I just picked off the brown leaves and it is now leafing out to the tips. I may have lost the flowerbuds but I don't know yet, this is a new plant for me so it might just surprise me yet. I may have to move it if it gets too big which I'm finding out may be the case. I had to remove the large Foster's holly at the corner of the house as it was too close to the foundation and was beginning to heave and crack the brick so I lost some midday shade. I may move the loropetalum there and replace it with a shrub cutleaf japanese maple or maybe just some perennials. The Old Gold juniper is close by and will probably need the room eventually. I didn't know what to expect with the loropetalum as far as hardiness or size so I just plopped it in and am waiting to see. It's a great plant, the leaf color is terrific and if it blooms I'll get a great mass of bright pink. On the other side I had success with a large Kalmia Olympic Fire but a smaller one I planted next to it is not looking great. The Rainbow leucothoe is suffering as well, I did know they are fussy as to conditions so it may get the heave-ho. The pieris are doing fine as are the acuba. I lost all my azaleas to the Easter freeze last year, I had hoped they would bounce back but I'm going to have to dig them out and replace them. I did get rid of a large yew and replaced it with a Viburnum 'Conoy' which made it through the winter in fine shape and is forming flower buds now. It kept about half its foliage over the winter. It should eventually take the place of the yew and the strugging kalmia. I may add another one instead of replacing the three Glacier azaleas I lost and just replacing the Renee Michelle azaleas in front of it. By far my greatest joy has been the hellebores I added around the two Japanese maples. They have doubled in size and have been blooming since February. Last year they kept blooming into the summer and the foliage is evergreen. I can't say enough good things about them. As for the ferns, the lady ferns are up and the male ferns are thinking about it. I'll probably move the lady ferns to the woods garden, they are just so fragile and in late summer get a bit tattered, so not the best choice for a front garden. The male ferns were sturdy and held up well last year, but are a bit uninteresting. I'll probably replace them with Japanese painted ferns this year. I have quite a few in my back garden and they have done very well and provide that purple color I love. They are a bit more spready though where I could use some more height. I snapped a few photos yesterday of my fav plant combos in the shade bed. The dogwood is the crowning glory! Heuchera 'Amethyst Mist' and lysymachia Pulmonaria 'Mrs Moon' and 'Silver Indiana' heuchera Heuchera 'Frosted Violet' and Hellebore 'Royal Heritage' Heucherella 'Stoplight' and Asian ginger Pulmonaria 'Mrs Moon' and lysymachia Unfurling leaves of 'Minuteman' hosta Columbines Edging tapestry Phlox 'Chattahoochie' and Pulmonaria

We used to have Callistemon viminalis, the largest species. It grows quite gast but can get big. I don't know about the US but over here there are a lot of cultivars to choose from depending on what type of plant you want and what colours you like. Some dont have seeds which is no good if you wanted to give them to birds. "harkness" is popular because it has no seed capsules (so more attractive) and is very floriferous. Here is a link that might be useful: bottlebrush info