Hot Lips has wintered over very well for the last three years in my Shoreline garden. As for soil, large pieces in the mix. In the spring and summer don't water unless soil is really dry - about half way down the pot. Fast drainage is the key - even more important than full day sun. Fortunately, the plant is not very expensive so if it does freeze buy a new one in the spring. You can grow lots of different salvias if you consider them annuals. The hummers will thank you and give you hours of joy watching them. You could also try Grevilleas and fuschias.

If you've rooted them in water it's best to continue keeping them in water... eg a sealed pot full of marbles, clay hydroponic balls etc plants grow different type of root in water vs soil so if you change to soil they've gotta reroot all over again. I don't think bamboo/dracaena need much "free draining" properties like C&S or Orchid, I've seen them growing fine in any old dirt. :) I find perlite too light & squishy for potting tall plants, better to give it more weight for stability. If any LB comes my way right now, I'd be tempted to stick it in a clear jar of Turface MVP ;)

It is not "wee critters that munch on the wood" that causes the problem - it is how well the wood will hold up to soil moisture. Wood exposed to water rots, some woods faster than others. Douglas fir is not all that long lived when in contact with moisture....only 3-6 years. Pine ditto. But cedars (western red cedar, Alaska cedar, incense cedar and eastern red cedar) are very rot resistant, as is redwood, black walnut, white oak and eucalyptus - anywhere from 10-25 years. Treated doug fir is also good (up to 30 years) but untreated, not at all. And a liner can extend the life of raised bed wood just by virtue of keeping wet soil from direct contact. As to soil appropriate to a raised bed, garden soil enriched with some compost works perfectly fine - you don't need to get overly creative in the mix. A raised bed is just an elevated garden bed, nothing more. If you do not have sufficient soil available to fill your beds, bagged garden soil or bulk 'garden mix' will work perfectly well although I'd want to add some OM if none included in the mix. Raised beds sometimes have solid bottoms and are sometimes located on solid surfaces like driveways or patios but open to the ground on the bottom is most desirable, especially for good drainage. So no rock or stone base. This also allows deeper rooted plants to penetrate down into the indigenous soil as well. Decent drainage is usually a given, just based on the bed's elevation. The "standard" configuration for a raised bed is one that is 8' long by 4' wide. This allows the gardener to access all the plants easily by reach alone without actually entering the bed itself. Height is your choice - if you are growing deeper rooting plants, you might want a deeper bed - but anywhere from 8-16" is about ideal. Obviously the deep the bed, the more soil required. Watering can be done with a soaker hose, drip, by hand or with a sprinkler - it really doesn't matter as long as the plants receive adequate moisture as needed.

I don't think they use dirt but rather sphagnum moss. Any vine should grow thru it as long as the sphagnum moss is kept moist. Look here for info on how to rebuild http://www.hort.cornell.edu/livingsculpture/pdf/sphagnum_topiary.pdf