To answer Grant, ASUdevil & Waterbug; the plants you see growing on the fence (The fire stick) were all simply branching parts of a much larger plant from another property we have that were trimmed off (I wanted to get some of it for this purpose as we had sold the other property) for the exact reason of covering the less sightly chain link fence. You can VERY easily propagate these plants (and pencil cactus too) I simply let them "callous" over for about 1 1/2 days (some of the stems that we cut were over an inch across and took a little longer to dry out) to avoid rot - then I just stick them in the moist soil and they root! Mine that I've grown in my own yard here in CenPhx do NOT turn as red as my yard just seems to provide too much of a micro climate so they are mostly green most of the year. . . Couldn't be easier and I've NEVER had ANY summer damage from heat or direct sun - you can leave them unwatered until they start to "wrinkle" in the stems and they will literally bounce back. Only problem I've ever had is from frost . . .

Lots of plants flowering in the yard right now. Canna 'Ripples' Canna 'Angele Martin' Canna 'Gigundo' Canna 'Bengal Tiger' Longan tree Tecoma 'Sparky' Tahitian pummelo - Finally showing signs of new growth all over the tree. I've been worried about this big guy for over a month now. All my citrus trees have already flushed new leaves and are done flowering except this guy until now! All its been doing is dropping leaves. I'm guessing it's still stressed from being uprooted and replanted to my yard. Mango 'Lemon zest' flower spikes all over. My new Dwarf Namwah Banana corm finally pushed a new leaf out. The 90f temps probably helped out a lot on waking this guy up. Green and red sugarcanes - lots of new canes coming out.

By variety, so I can get a log going on yield and flavor, the best flavor so far was scintilla, oneal, and misty, bountiful blue has yielded the most but flavor is just ok and they have noticeably larger seeds. This is just my first full year with blueberries, the key for me has been selecting varieties that have low chill hours needed, keeping soil ph low and shading south and west in summer, first season I fertilized with ammonium sulfate at 1 tsp per gallon of water, per plant each week with supplemental watering in between as needed to gain size quickly, and have backed off to every two weeks this season. So far so good.

Great pics and information, iAndy, thanks. I've seen the firebushes around town both happy and sad. I LOVE the happy ones of course. I've seen some amazing ones in crazy full fun with that nice dark color you've mentioned, plus plenty of flowers. I'm tempted. I'm not quite sure I could deal with that delicate of a watering schedule though, LOL, so I think before I jump (rare for me when it comes to plants, hah). I really only have drip on citrus and one raised bed (flowers in summer/veggies or flowers in winter). The 300 plus pots on the patio get hand watered and I'm away on the road fairly often, so my lifestyle may not suit the firebush. I love yours though. Now an established bottlebrush could tolerate my schedule though, so I'll keep that one in mind. I just don't have much space, and while fun, those uber-dwarf 'Little John' ones just don't have the impact of the large ones. Hmmmm..! Here's a few things looking good this morning. Seedling #13 of my hand pollination of stapelias--this one is in 3/4 sun and is tolerating it very well. Good old "chaste tree", Vitex agnus-castus making some random summer blooms (huge flush of flowers in early summer then a nice random blooms all summer and autumn). And let's not forget the common, easy, but beautiful "vinca" Catharanthus roseus, which I've planted en masse in a raised round bed around a 'Parfianka' pomegranate. Such easy plants for 9 months of flowers. I grow them in full hot sun like this one if they're in the ground, but I give potted ones some afternoon shade (yup, they'll have to survive on their own in deep plastic saucers of water while I'm away several times this summer). Pretty when you take time to appreciate them. Finally, a plant I'm growing as a houseplant, a miniature type of non-climbing hoya, Hoya lanceolata 'bella'. It just wants a sunny windowsill and water when quite dry. Happy gardening all, keep the updates coming, pics or no, Grant.