Annalyssa, I am so glad you like The Generous Gardener. Please make sure you look at more pictures of her since I've only captured one aspect of her personality. Before I tell you my feeding regimen, I just want you to know that I am quite ignorant when it comes to roses and I don't have children. Once or twice year I top-dress the soil with compost or manure or even sometimes left-over potting soil (moments of desperation). Once a month (usually April through September for me) I feed my roses but I try to switch things around because I "feel instinctively" this is the right thing to do. So at least one month a year, I feed with Rose-Tone, which is an organic granular product popular in the U.S. When I use this, I water the rose with a hose and count to 50. Another month I will feed with fish or seaweed emulsion. In-between-months I make my roses smoothies. I've always done the Rose-Tone and fish emulsion thing, this is my first year for smoothies. I have had much better disease resistance, rebloom, new growth, etc. this year (but smoothies are only one part of my effort to improve my rose cultivation). I get out a big bowl and add 2-3 cups of alfalfa pellets, some old bananas, that day's coffee grounds, maybe some egg shells, maybe some stuff bound for the compost heap, maybe some of the water leftover from boiling kale or steaming asparagus. I add several cups of warm water and let it soak for an hour two, then I use an immersion blender (add more water if necessary) to make a smoothie. I add a heaping cup to my watering can and fill it up with water. I usually give one gallon of the watered down smoothie to each rose, less if it's a band, more if I "think" the rose needs it. It sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it? It isn't really. I just do it in the kitchen sink while I am doing other chores. And I don't try to do all my roses at the same time. I enjoy pampering them :) Well, that's what I do. There may be problems with it because, try as I might, I cannot be scientific. I am interested in what advice others give you! I'm constantly amazed at how much knowledge the posters here have gathered and how generous they are in sharing it. In common with you, I've fallen in love with Albas this year and have Felicia and Cornelia on my must-buy this fall list. p.s. Thanks, Janet. You're wonderful.

I used to grow them in my pond. I don't think they are a good choice for your situation. Ivy grows well in those conditions and it always looks good. I have concrete containers with dwarf variegated ivy, blue festuca, jade plant, and some hens and chicks tucked underneath out of the sun. I have others with wire plant, echeverria, jade plant, blue festuca and a CA rush. Both are watered twice a week, though. Here's a photo of one that gets some shade. I don't know if the echeverria would do well in full sun.

In general, plants with thick waxy leaves and those with fuzzy leaves are more tolerant of dry conditions as well as those with silver leaves as DtD suggested. Along the lines of dealing with the drying out factor, you might also want to suggest that your mom add a product to the potting mix that is often referred to as water crystals. They are made of a polymer that when dry looks and feels like rock salt, but when water is added, absorbs much more (maybe 40 times) their size in water so that they look and feel like gelatin chunks. (It only takes a very small amount to do the trick, and before starting use of these, I killed many, many pots of plants.) The plants grow their roots to these little reservoirs which slowly release the absorbed water. It means that I only have to water once every day or two for my south and west exposure pots, rather than 2 times a day. Don't use little bitty pots, since they will dry out faster, and glazed or plastic pots will dry out more slowly than unglazed terra cotta or those coir lined wire baskets. Your mom's window boxes, unless lots deeper than standard, will probably only be useable for succulents since they just don't have enough soil to prevent drying out. I also have grown thyme, lavendar, bay, and rosemary in pots and they have done well, though only the thyme and lavendar will survive the winter here, and the lavendar only if I tuck it out of the sun and wind so the snow will bury the pot (which I leave on its side for the winter so that it doesn't get too wet during a time when the plant isn't using water.) Your mom, being farther south and in an urban environment, may be able to keep all these except the bay plant alive outside. I have grown pots of mixed succulents, both hardy ones, like some of the lower growing sedums or hens and chicks (Sempervivums) and annual or tender perennials like jade plants, echiveria, portulaca, many of which do just fine inside for the winter. Licorice Plant (Helichrysum) is a silver (or chartreuse or variegated) stiffly trailing plant that does well in pots. Many of the flowering annuals like trailing petunias, million bells, lobelia, etc. won't do well in settings where they may dry out, so unless you get some other suggestions, she may have to stick mostly with plants with interesting foliage. Old-fashioned geraniums (Pelargoniums, not perennial geraniums) are amazingly drought tolerant, though ivy leaved geraniums aren't. I've grown both flowering geraniums and scented geraniums and wintered them over on sunny window sills and started new plants from cuttings. They may need more water (especially the scented geraniums) than some of the others, but are probably worth trying. As for flowering perennials that she can leave outside all year, I'd suggest she try some southwest natives that like it dry and let the soil dry out between waterings. Some plants to try might include some of the hardier western Penstemons and Agastaches. The general rule of thumb for overwintering perennial plants in pots is that they should be about 2 zones hardier than plants in the ground for that zone, so in zone 7, look for zone 5 plants. Other places you might have luck would be to ask in the container gardening forum on GW or to Google for images of "succulent pots, mixed." There are also books you might borrow from the library, like "Designing with Succulents" or various books on container gardening. One final thought, though I haven't tried this: if your mom ends up with annuals in some pots, she can get bulbs in the fall and plant them after the annuals are done, leave the pots out for the winter, and start bringing them inside in late winter/early spring (maybe February?) to force and have some early spring color.

None of these wood species are inherently weather resistant. They all depend on the paint, stain or sealer finish for weather protection. So the answer to your question is found in how you propose to finish the door. Maple is a light and very hard wood, It will take stain, sealer or paint equally well. Douglas Fir is considered a soft wood, but one with great structural ratings, when used in framing lumber. It is a light wood, but not one that is particularly attractive when stained, IMO. Mahogany is a dark wood, and probably the most naturally weather resistant of the three. It becomes even darker when stained or finished with a clear sealant. Painting Mahogany makes little sense. Hope this helps. Good luck with your project. So much depends on whether you will paint or stain the door, or you think you will leave it weather naturally. The latter is probably a mistake.