Look into some of the Bambusa multiplexes varieties and also the bambusa textilis varieties. Both will tolerate extreme heat and cold down into the single digits for a few hours and below freezing for a few days without much damage.

Oh no!! You said the "T" word......topping. In the wrong hands this word can lead to permanently damaged landscape plants, especially trees. You could agressively trim, but why go to all that trouble? Just choose plants whose mature size will fit into your space and save your free time to enjoy your pool and landscape. As for vines, there are several to choose from. Forget wisteria here, but perhaps Lilac Vine (Hardenbergia violacea) would work. Lady Banks rose (thornless in white or yellow) grows fast as does Pink Trumpet Vine (Podranea ricasoliana). You don't want Bougainvillea with your pool or you'll be constantly fishing out the colorful leaves/flowers. Heres a link to Landscape Plants for the Arizona Desert which has over 200 low water use plants with photos and descriptions. You'll need to water your new plants correctly for the first few weeks so refer to page 14 of Landscape Watering by the Numbers. Page 9 shows how much water to apply based on the size of the plant. Most of the valley cities have free landscape classes offered by their water conservation offices. Of course folks on this forum always have great advice. Good luck!

My zone 4 has changed to 5a with global warming ==>>> there is no global warming.. and dont waste more time with such.. as i predict you will have a z3 winter.. soon enough ... i have had two z4 winters in a row.. in my z5 MI ... and you will lose a lot of money.. if you start investing in z5 plants... based on a politicians opinion ... ken ps: know how i know my winters were z4 ... i lost a lot of very expensive conifers.. that were z5 winter tolerant ... go figure on that loss ...

I can't change my name to add my zone. Houzz in its "infinite wisdom" has decided you can only change it twice a year! I had a lot of trouble getting in to my account and ended up changing my password -- which again Houzz has now decided that it must contain symbols as well as letters and numbers, It dredged up a very old account name and stuck _gw on it (for garden web). Getting to Houzza help was impossible for me. Sorry for the rant and being off topic, but I've not been happy since garden web joined up with Houzz. Just finding Name that Plant is difficult from Houzz's main page.