Annette, Out with the lawn. lol FlowerLady, I don't usually plan a design for my own garden. When I am working in other people's gardens the designs are done formally and presented and the work completed as they wish. My own garden, I pretty much buy or grow seed of plants that I like....then find a place for them......I usually use the plunk method and hope it looks good there. haha Lorna, you will have to show us your new gardens as you move along with them. Canterbury bells are easy to start from seed. The only things on your list that I am not growing from seed this year are canterbury bells and hollyhock. I have considered the hollyhocks for the pink area, but they usually get rust here and don't look very good. Keesha, Ohhhh I have started working on it...Of course my garden is covered with 5 or so feet of snow. However, I have decided on many of the plants I am going to use. Plus I am starting many of them from seed. The delphs and lupins and catanache have already been sowed indoors under lights. The siberian iris and daylilies have been ordered, and the shastas and purple and white iris are already in my garden, just have to be split come spring. ------------ The only reason I am using a plan for this side, is because I hate to be out on that side. The plan is to get that work done as fast as possible, so I spend as little time out there as possible. That neighbour is truly awful, even with a 6 foot fence and a lilac hedge between us. I am hoping that the lilacs will grow another 2 feet or so this year. Most of them are just about 6 feet tall now. There are a couple of shorter ones a little further back.....I had other bushes there that had to be replaced. I also thought this colour scheme would be more mellow considering the situation on that side. Now who wants to bring me 6 yards of compost. hahahaha. DH is going to love this. ;-))) Sierra

Hi FlowerLady! and thank you again for your kind and encouraging words. Sometimes we are so busy doing what we do we lose sight of it all! That lovely blue-flowering shrub is Ceanothus Impressus 'Victoria' ("California Lilac") - there are many other varieties and I chose this one for the colour, growth habit and because there's lots of it around here so I know it will thrive. When I mapped out a landscaping design for the front part of our lot which began as 1/2 acre mess of brambles, mint, horrible landfill and rock - I needed a fast-growing evergreen screen for what is now a parking area that can take three vehicles. In three years it grew to 10' tall; it's now 12' tall. In midsummer it is literally covered in those gorgeous blue blossoms (in fact another name for it is 'blueblossom'). Sitting in the rose garden on a warm summer afternoon you can hear the background bzzzzzzzzzz of countless bees as they do their work on those lovely blooms (much too busy to be bothered with anything or anyone else). We love it. It's taken quite a beating this winter with the snow (unusual for this part of Canada where we get more rain than anything else) but it's quite resilient. I would imagine it would do alright in Florida? One of the plus factors is that it originated as a desert plant and is drought resistant; we don't water it at all even during the hottest summers. The shiny leaves retain water naturally and aside from tidying it up a little with my pruning shears it is maintenance-free. Here's some photos for you and a link to read more about it: and this is a close-up of the beautiful blooms (can you see the bee?)

'Puget Blue' was selected at the Seattle arboretum sometime prior to 1945. It is thought to have been grown from seed of Ceanothus papillosus sent by Lester Rowntree (of California). A plant labeled 'Puget Blue' grew for years at the entrance to the old arboretum offices, however the late J.A. Witt (arboretum curator) felt that this specimen was not the true item. So stock originating with people helping themselves to cuttings of this prominently located plant may have been circulated erroneously as 'Puget Blue' in the past. The original 'Puget Blue' may have been selected, grown for a time at the arboretum and then lost (to the arboretum) decades before the one at the offices was present. I bought C. thyrsiflorus 'Oregon Mist' recently, it originates with Xera Plants wholesale nursery in Oregon. From their web site: Very odd that a genus cherished in California and Europe- with many native representatives in Oregon has NO selections made from this state. WeâÂÂve decided to change that by selecting a form of Blueblossom from near its northern native limit. From Coos County we chose this variety for its deep green leaves and striking turquoise blue flowers. Large growing evergreen shrub that should provide superior cold hardiness. Also, it is a great representative of this species in the wild. We took cuttings of this plant where it grew simultaneously with a salmon flowered variety of Rhododendron occidentalis inbetween California Bay (Umbelluaria) and blue flowered Iris douglasiana. Interesting that this shrub grew in heavy clay soil where running water flows during winter. To 8â tall and as wide very quickly. May grow larger in optimum conditions, tip prune to limit size, increase density and blooming wood. Flowers late April to late May. Excellent shrub for low water native gardens. Underplant with Pacific Coast Iris which bloom concurrently and have the same cultural requirements. May also be used as a small garden tree Most of the interesting dry climate shrubs and related items appearing at local garden centers in recent years are being supplied by Xera Plants. See their web site for photos and descriptions. Note that the hardiness zone designations they make are too optimistic, as is often the case with commercial sources. As with other nurseries if you add a zone to the one they give you will often be closer to the true picture. This post was edited by bboy on Thu, Mar 28, 13 at 15:19

I have a bunch of it outside I have to keep yanking and throwing away when it outgrows where it is planted. It grows just by laying it on the ground. At least it's easy to break loose by hand. I don't have any indoors but I imagine it would be a bit fragile when it would start to hang down over the sides of the pots. I would think the weight of the vines would soon break off any that got too long.