Thanks for all those photos Silvia. I really appreciate the input. The violas are really so very sweet and you can't help but smile when you see them (a quote from my 4 yr old daughter) As far as the SunHosta, just by weird chance, I linked up to a local grower in Naples "American Farms" on Facebook. Holy moly they have some beautiful plants and a CROP of hosta growing. All their pics are amazing. Crenda, those stones will give off a lot of heat. I had luck with them around my palms where they get a tiny amount of shade but lots of air flow. The ones labeled "SunPatiens" did much better than the New Guinea Impatiens (which actually did say part shade). I got my 10 Amazon Dianthus in this morning and I LOVE THEM! :) Back to surf the American Farms photos and see what to look for next :) Oh and they have that Lady Phlox I mentioned above too, stating Phlox for florida! :) Here's their crop of SunHosta

Ok good to know, and in future I should be better able to navigate the site, so I won't be making these mistakes again. I hope! Thanks for understanding. I noticed this morning that there are little marks on some of the leaves, it's a new development. There's very small but have come on quickly. They're brownish in colour and from what I can tell from looking around online so far, it's probably some type of fungal infection. I have no idea how to treat it, or if it needs treating. Being that in the UK our regulations on fungicides etc are different than the US, and I wouldn't know how to figure out which treatment would be right, or even if treating it would be the best option at the moment. I need to start digging around! I'm also wondering if maybe the top needs something to protect it's trunk, it's always been like this. It came from a bigger Yucca that was chopped up. I'm going to post the new photos on the other thread, and link to that thread here too, once I have. I hope that's alright with everyone. Gosh, this poor plant has seen it all on my watch! Two black thumbs I have. Update: Here is the link to the photos and update on condition of the Yucca, in case anyone is interested: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/4694976/zone-9b-unhappy-yucca-leaf-curl-no-growth-advice-pls#20153636 

@Fori -Thanks so much, I think that is a great solution for the bay area. I think we may end up going that route :) All of the fences in our neighborhood are supposed to be 6 ft but somehow most seem to be 8 or even 10 :) I was reticent to ask, because we get along really well and I didn't want to make them feel pressured to do something to the shared fence that they didn't want to, but I think that is probably the best idea!

if you bought a bargain bag at bigbox ... just treat them as annuals.. and be done with them in fall ... and dont even bother with winter storage ... the peeps who get into winter storage of things.. are usually the hardcore collectors ... whose bulbs are valuable .. and their passion high .. two thumbs up for them.. but for the rest of us.. whatever .. lol .. up here in my ground freeze MI ... they are basically sold as annuals .. hence my opinion ... ken