I'm new to Vegas (not quite a year here), and to container gardening (in an apt. now instead of the house I had back in NM) but I do frequent two nurseries that are fairly convenient to my location - and so far, so good. They are Star Nursery on West Charleston and Cimaron Rd, and Plant World, also on West Charleston but a little closer in towards town between Jones Blvd and Decatur. You'll probably want to get seeds started ASAP - we're going to start warming up quickly here in the Mojave.

My initial response is to suggest you contact your local extension office to tap into those resources for gardening in your zone/location. Next would be to visit local botanical gardens to see what does well in similar conditions to what you have to offer the plants & how well your soil/growing conditions meet their needs. After that, check out some gardening books from the library and do your homework--I did tons of research before I ever stuck a spade in the dirt to design my beds and I was a fairly experienced gardener when I started out. Don't lose track of the wealth of information that's available to you thanks to the Internet. Here at GardenWeb are many voices of experience that, if you heed them, will help you avoid lots of common mistakes the rest of us have made (sometimes repeatedly) over the years. Read old threads and learn from our mistakes. I hit the jackpot when I moved here--my folks practiced organic gardening for 50 years before I came so I'm blessed with amazing soil conditions + lots of healthy, plump worms. First lesson I learned was to avoid chemicals--they're marked 'poison' for a reason. Poison the weeds & you poison the bugs & you're poisoning the earth. For every garden situation, there is generally a non-toxic, earth-friendly alternative. For example, I pour vinegar on weeds & poison ivy rather than spraying them with weed killer. Check out a book called 'Trowel & Error' by Sharon Lovejoy--you won't regret reading it. Watering may or may not be an issue given your soil type and zone but again, it doesn't hurt to ask questions of the neighbors or local garden experts. There's generally a garden article in our weekly local paper so it's often a good thing to read those. One tip I can offer is that when you do water, it's best to water at the base of a plant but only when it needs it. A recycled plastic milk jug set close to a plant & with a pinhole an inch from the bottom will slowly let out a stream of water so the plant gets watered at the base. Generally speaking, watering the entire plant during the growing season isn't recommended. IMO grass is the worst invasive plant on the planet. If you just grind it up when starting a new bed, you may never live long enough to eradicate it. I dug up the turf in sections and removed it before planting a new bed. Looking back, it was one of the smartest things I ever did even when I didn't know what I was doing. Did you buy the butterfly bushes or grow them from seed? Did you tease out the roots before setting them in the ground? The roots of nursery-grown plants tend to start growing around and around inside their pots because there's insufficient depth/room for them in the pot. If you don't tease them loose before planting, they'll continue to grow in a circle which ultimately means the plant dies. Ask me how I learned this. While I don't amend my soil (thanks Mom & Dad), many on the forum will recommend you add compost to the soil. Your planting window may or may not be closed at this point but that's a zone-specific question which I'll leave to those more familiar with your growing conditions. I can pretty much plant right through the season except for the extreme heat/dryness of mid-summer where I am but generally consider each plant's unique requirements before doing so. Like you, I have zero interest in annuals other than pansies--got to have pansies as soon as they're available from the nurseries. My focus the past 7+ years has been perennials that perform consistently in the garden with little to no help from me and which attract bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. Keep in mind Mother Nature has kept the planet green for a few million years without our help so take whatever tips you can from what she's accomplished & do your part to keep it going. One last note--check out the Winter Sowing forum. You can grow lots of perennials from seed for virtually zero cost and quickly fill your garden with healthy plants in a short space of time that way. My own garden beds are now filled with perennials I grew from seed via WS. As a result I've achieved my garden goals far more speedily than I ever would have anticipated.

Hi Michael, another zone 5 PA brug lover here, Johnstown, PA! I am not experienced with them like others are here so cannot address the pruning for treelike growth but can share my wintering indoor experiences. Got my first brug 5 years ago and overwintered it in a growing state for 3 of them. After the initial shock of the environment change resulting in a massive leaf loss, we had no problems until Feb or March. Then I would inevitably end up with a whitefly and/or spider mite infestation that I had to battle. This was lessoned somewhat if I ran a humidifier constantly and misted the plant a time or two a week. Unfortunately this resulted in a dampness in the living and dining rooms so I then moved them to a basement bathroom. But this had the problem of no windows so I had to rig up plant lights on timers....and still run the humidifier. You know that old saying out of sight out of mind? It's true, I didn't see the plants all the time and so had a tough time remembering to water them regularly..... So for the past 2 years I have left them go dormant in the garage. My brug was very large, 5 feet tall and probably 4 feet across so it created other problems in the house. The garage also suffers from all the plants coming in for the winter (6 pots of canna, hibiscus, 4 or 5 pots of taro, jasmine and more) but we adjust to it. This year I thought I lost my original brug but lucked out and it came back so I am not sure what I am going to do this year. I have a couple of new ones that I bought, they are still managable from the size standpoint so I think they may overwinter in the bay window this year and I will mist them daily.

Thanks everyone for your help! I got up and went to class today (not being a morning person this is major achievement!) and the instructor helped me figure out what I needed to buy in the way of fabric. Turns out the white fabric was bleached muslin (I found the old receipt buried in the bag, lol). So I bought 1 type of colored print and will use that and the white muslin for the quilt top and the unbleached muslin for the quilt back. All cotton with cotton thread! The down side is the only other participant had a sick child so we actually are postponing class start until next week. Although now I have the book, so I can read & look through it several times between now & next week and get more familiar with ideas,etc! Suz