How about coreopsis zagreb? I have a garden very similar to yours, heavy clay, afternoon sun. Lost tall garden phlox (David, supposely mildew resistant), mini hollyhock, veronical sunny border blune, and Salvia Maynight due to the poor drainage. The following worked very nicedly: coreopsis zagreb, My most favorite, carefree and abosultely beautiful. blooming June to September here (30 miles north of Chicao), choose the ones with medium height. Mine grow to ~ 18 feet. but do leave lot of space as they get wider. The nice neat foliage stay nice and green until frost. Sedum autum joy, they can grow to ~ 2 feet. but have done well in this wet spots for me. RUDBECKIA fulgida var. fulgida, (drawf black-eyed susan) for me, it has stayed below 18", has bloomed from mid-july and still going on now. DIANTHUS PINK, they are one of my favorite. very low, blooms from late May to end of July, if you dead head, you will get longer bloom. White and purple corn flowers, choose the medium height one. It has very long bloom for me here and did not mind the wet clay soil at all. Of course, how could I forget Day lily, choose the Stella D'oro variety. Since I have coreopsis zagreb and the drawf black-eyed susan, they are yellow and golden, so I ordered the purple and peach variet of the Stella D'oro last year. And they have done very well. They bloom first from early June to early July, then on and off for a couple weeks, then strong bloom again in early august through mid September. I also planted Salvia, Royal crimson, there. It has nice purple spike bloom, from late June until mid September, if you remove the spent spike. The bright purple color contrasts well with other colors. Good luck, Vivian

Fun thread, keep us posted. I love cosmos by the way, but I just don't think they're that good of performers in most of the desert SW. I'm a huge fan of the small-flowered angustifolia types of zinnias though. I'm growing some Z. 'Highlight' and having great fun. I've done 'Magellin Mixed' the last few years and always had bumper crops of blooms--think about giving them a try if you ever give up on cosmos. :) And definitely let us know who the lucky winner is on your wall. Below is a not-great pic of one of the alluadias I mentioned growing in very similar conditions. They need help climbing of course. Mary, I adore Bach's down in Tucson of course--what cactus nut doesn't, LOL? In the Phoenix area I'll buy a cactus or succulent ANYWHERE of course (oink oink) but I have a three-way tie for favorite cactus/succulent nurseries: I do love Desert Foothills Nursery off of Cave Creek Rd just south of the Carefree Highway, and I really love AZ Cactus Sales down in Chandler, and good old Shady Way Nursery out in Apache Junction always has an amazing selection. Alluadia procera on north-facing wall, shaded from the east and west--full sun in summer, shade in winter. Take care all, Grant Here is a link that might be useful: My alluadia on north-facing wall

I just saw this post today, so, perhaps, you have already acted on your problem. I have planted with a great deal of success a California native commonly called 'coyote bush' or Baccharis pilularis. They get to be about 6-10 feet tall, 6 to 10 feet wide, and I never water them after getting them established during the winter rainy season. They stay green all year, take high heat (115 one summer), cold down to 0; they can be inundated, deer don't like them, and they grow fast. I grow them in very dense clay soil, in very shallow soil and in sun and shade. They can also be cut down to very low for rejuvenation if the bottoms get too straggly. Is this not perfect? I don't know why it is not more popular, but as a precaution (to avoid babies everywhere)I would get just all male bushes. I easily cloned mine so they are all the same sex. A bonus, they have a wonderful,albeit, elusive smell when it is damp. Try one.

We've been waiting on the company we found to do the repairs so we're just trying to get by for the time being... they are pretty back logged apparently. I have a follow up question regarding venting. Our second floor tenant was complaining that his radiator was not getting hot so we replaced the vent, which was actually broken and not letting air out. For the first few days there was even heat on the first and second floors but then all of a sudden we stopped getting any heat on the first floor. We figured this was an overventing issue so we closed the 2nd floor vents more and opened the 1st floor vents more. Because the thermostat is on the first floor, the boiler has been running non-stop. We've turned off the thermostat for 2 hours to try and get all the radiators cold and "reset" (not sure if this is what we should be doing, but with my understanding of vacuum in the system, this was required or the 2nd floor radiators would still keep taking all the heat regardless of any venting changes we make) We've done this several times and still no heat on the first floor. Since the change in venting is what caused this issue, what venting change do we need to make to get heat back on the first floor? Are we correct, that the system needs to go cold before we can see if any change we've made to venting works?