What a wonderful plant! I adore red and would get it in a heartbeat even though I am on the edge of it's hardiness zone like NHBabs. Babs did you end up getting one? If so would you give your experience with it.

I was in Charleston near the Air Force base. I was working at a physicians office programming some equipment. One of the docs came in and got me. He took me to his office where he had a TV on. One tower was in flames. We watched for a bit and then he and the other doctors returned to seeing their patients. Minutes later I saw a second plane smash into the other tower and I heard someone scream........it was me. One by one the phones in the physicians personal offices began to ring. All I heard was "yes sir, yes sir" and then the back door closing. Within 2 minutes every doctor had left the office. I learned later they were all in the reserves. The office grew still and quite so I left Charleston for home. The roads were deserted. The memory of that day feels like a haunting....a cold stillness that comes back to mind every September 11th. Ronda Born and raised in Ohio. Current resident of South Carolina

It's still looking like I may be able to make it but not 100% sure. I've also got a few Curry Leaf Tree (Murraya koenigii) seedlings that I can dig up and I can try to root cuttings of Mexican Oregano if anyone is interested (if all else fails, I can bring cuttings for someone to root). I've found three Dwarf Powderpuff seedlings that should be small enough to transplant. Tom, I've been accused of being willing to try most anything, although vines have become one thing that I've said no to (I'm fighting to remove a number of vines from the yard, some invited - most not). Sterile is a selling point. I can add the lime to my citrus collection. keiki, everything you mention sounds good. I've had a "banana" for the past 10 years which has bloomed twice and produced fruit once just in time to freeze before it could ripen. I believe it's a plantain and would much prefer a more palatable fruit. My wife has been searching for some old angle wing begonias that she used to have so I'll always take them. I tried to collect heliconias a couple of years ago but only have a couple of the common varieties left. I've acquired a number of bromiliads over the past few years as well. Necklace pod is a hummingbird plant. Not sure where I have room for one now but (with a little work) "there's always room for one more". Steve in Valrico

Pretty good effort you made there. It is going to be real cool. Sort of reminds me of the space down the side of my restored Teahouse. I call that narrow strip the "allee" or walkway (guess that is where we got the English version alley.) A lot of landscaping books show ways to "force perspective" on such spaces, to distract folks from seeing how narrow they are, and also to make it feel longer than it is. They put the large leafed plants at the near end, or front, and gradually reach the small leafed plants down near the gate. And if I can find the picture of the way a gate is built to make it appear further and smaller, I'll post it for you. A "secret garden" gate at the end would be perfect. Then put your bistro table and two chairs back there. The space overhead created by the arbor could have a couple of hanging baskets. I heard you say the other day you were potting up baskets and such. Try about 4 of those in gradually reduced sizes as you reach the back. And, if you could possibly do so, make the path sort of undulate just a smidgen off of STRAIGHT, so you could place a large hosta as a feature and focal point as you are walking down the path. Or, a cluster of small hosta with a nie statue springing up out of their midst. Maybe hakone grass cascading there too. I love such found spaces. It makes me feel so good when I take an ignored space and make it something special. Our allee was a disaster and will be looking good shortly when I remove the leaf litter. I'll show this picture from last year, first year it was set up. Our privacy fence is to the south, the garage/Teahouse is on the left. I cut down the fence that was attached at the far end of the Teahouse, so we could walk completely around the building. To give a focal point, I situated the plain metal arbor on a center line with the stepping stone path, and set up Our Lady of Grace behind it. My passion vines grow on the arbor (Gulf fritillary butterfly host plant), and the big bananas behind the Blessed Virgin sort of screen off the neighbor and our chainlink fence. Love what you're doing, I get real excited about such projects. It is amazing how much difference it can make. BTW, I uploaded a few pictures of the space back there and it was really crude. I've always done my projects in "layers" instead of trying to make em perfect the first lick. That way, each layer improves the whole space, instead of just one small part, and you can modify the project as you see how it comes together well before the end result is visible. That's just the way I do things.