Further searching suggests it is Eulophia graminea, a non-native invader. ==>> which would explain why you dont remember planting it ,.. eh??? ... even as i become more forgetful ... mysterious appearances have me looking for birds.. and invaders ... as in.. its near the bird feeeder.. under an eave.. near a fence... etc ... really??? apologizing in a garden forum.. for your finger nails.. my response to the pic was the polar opposite.. how are they so clean.. in the garden.. lol ... ken

Just FYI, you should put your Sunset zone. USDA zones are pretty useless in CA. The Sunset Garden Book is the acknowledged "Bible" of all Western gardeners. It doesn't look as if any of your beds are very deep - they all look around 12-18" or so. Consider that you don't want to block your shutters, even if they're only decorative, I'd do a shrub pelargonium, such as this one (to those that have seen my recent February Flowers slideshows in the Gallery, you've seen this photo before). It stays about 18" H/W. They're very floriferous in our climate and don't take too much water, either. You do have to be careful; there is a lot of variation between pelargonium hybrids; some get to a gangly 6' tall. But this one stays neat and compact: I would warn you in that second photo, that spiky leaved clump looks suspiciously like Fortnight Lily, aka Cape Iris, Dietes iridioides (there are two, one white, one yellow-flowered). If it is, once established it gets a full 3' or more around (big, round clump) and takes an axe to remove. It will behave itself if you starve it for water, but if you've got lawn sprinklers, there will be no holding it back. I have narrow beds on both sides of a walkway on the south side of our house. It isn't easy to keep those plants from sprawling outwards. The following plants are ones that have proven well-behaved/upright in these beds in our Oakland hills garden: - Dwarf cannas (variegated ones need some shade or they'll burn) - Kalanchoe - Shasta daisies (deciduous, however) - evergreen bearded iris (in fact, if you live within driving distance of me, I will GIVE you some rhizomes. Mine is an heirloom dark purple iris that multiplies like the proverbial rabbit; if it were edible it would solve world hunger in two years flat) - Aeoniums, some sedums and crassulas - Some of the upright, smaller perennial salvias - Mini or smaller shrub roses, like J&P's Ladies in Waiting. - Liriope (for foliage, but once a year it has very pretty purple flower spikes) - Hellebores: the newer colorful hybrids only. They stay small and neat; like partial sun only. When a bed is not very deep, it's important that you consider a couple of things: 1) It's difficult to "layer" a shallow bed. Normally an interesting garden grouping is done with subtle layers: High/Tall, Medium height, and Low/Short, with each layer providing visual interest for color, shape and texture. 2) Because of this difficulty, you are very dependent upon the ***basic background colors*** of your site. This means the house color, trim color, permanent shrubs, and lawn color. Too many people think of flowers, and forget that flowers are transitory. Here in coastal CA, leaves are EVERYTHING. The most boring beds are those where the flowering plants have green leaves the exact same color as the lawn and/or shrubs. This means that except for the 6 weeks or so your plants are in flower, the rest of the time they fade into one big sea of grass-green. Although this is a wider bed (3' deep, shady side), you can imagine these foliage plants in back of a green lawn and understand how height, texture, leaf shape and color still allow them to show up in contrast to grass: Roses love the Bay Area but many, even in tree standards, grow "out and around". This makes them unsuitable for narrow beds unless you have the "head room" - you don't want to fight rose thorns when you're mowing the lawn, trust me! Roses lean towards the sun; the only tree rose I have that stays quite upright is partially shaded by the plants along the fence so it naturally seeks to grow up and not out like the others do. It's "Intrigue", and as you can see, it has spread over 4' across seeking the sun: As mentioned above, plants lean towards the open spaces, like this long view. The bed on the left is 18" deep; on the right it's 12" deep. The "Intrigue" rose shown above is about 3' past that big flowering pink "Delany Sisters" standard on the LH side: Here is a closer look at the top of the 18" bed against our tan stucco house. L-R, top layer: Variegated golden euonymus, "Double Delight" tea rose, "Delany Sisters" floribunda tree rose, J&P "Ladies in Waiting shrub rose. L-R, bottom layer: green-leaved shrub pelargonium, black flowering Aeonium ("Rubrum", I think), yellow kalanchoe, variegated Iris pallida, ceratostigma groundcover (which I would never plant again, it's impossible to remove): Opposite this stucco wall is a 6' dark wood fence. This is a great backdrop for lighter colored or variegated plants, like the following ones. L-R shows a variegated rhamnus (nice narrow tree, gets to no more than 12') shading orange-flowering clivia (shade plant) at its feet; fancy-leaf pelargonium hybrid "Vancouver Bicentennial" with its reddish-orange flowers; silver liriope; variegated English boxwood: HTH, and good luck!

Nomen, I'm sorry you seem to have misunderstood the entire point and tone of my post, which was totally supportive of GW and everyone I've talked to here. I love GW, my friends here, and that's why I visit as often as practical. I wasn't trying to prescribe rules for anyone, which I'm not interested in doing at all, just talking about what I do and what I see, and comments were directed at nobody in particular at all. *I'm* not one saying "it was better with the other people." Is that not a turnoff? And no, the people posting "is this a fern?" in a discussion from 10 yrs ago about lilies are not doing so from searching. The 2 comments I made about new posts & searching were unrelated, and separated by other subjects. I apologize if I didn't make it clear that I meant searching within GW. That's the kind of searching I was referring to. And there's a huge difference between a pictureless post that says, "Can I prune a dragon tree," a question that has a yes/no answer (it's yes) or a philosophical one about what variables might contribute to success or failure, how it theoretically might be done, vs. one that has a pic & asks, "Should I prune this dragon tree, and how if so?" That's a question that can only be answered personally, and is the start of a unique new discussion. If someone read any old discussion and has something to add or say in the topic of that discussion, that's GREAT! Anyone who wants to contribute something absolutely should do so. And from reading what people post here, I've learned so much. Is there something wrong with saying I don't advise about plants I don't know well (without saying that's what I'm doing?) A lot of new people probably come here from mentions of GW and from seeing stuff I and others post from GW in other places, which I do constantly and know many others do too. It would be unreasonable to expect every new person to find this as entertaining as we do, and if they post once and never come back, that's their prerogative. I don't see that as a reflection on anyone here. If they didn't want to talk, bemoaning their absence is silly. Just saying that if that's all that's missing, more posts of little substance, and that's causing some perception of decay, it's probably not a bad thing. A busy forum isn't necessarily synonymous with a good one (depending on what your definition of a good forum is.) GW is still awesome, IMVHO.

The idea of an 'American Prairie Garden' popping up in places like England reminds me of a few years back when 'The Santa Fe Style' became all the rage in the US. Books were published and home & garden ideas abounded. After the new wore off, stuff was showing up at places such as Dollar Saver and Walmart, items from towels to toothbrush holders to lamps. Furniture stores entirely devoted to the SF style sprang up around here. Then the Colorado style crept in and sort of overlapped it. Pines, the log cabin-look, rustic etc. The American Prairie Look craze, if thats what it is, offers the nice perk of letting people imagine they are being ecologically friendly for a change and they can feel good for planting 'a tiny butterfly garden' to save the planet (even if other critters are not welcome). I think thats part of the 'sell'-- the Feel Good aspect. When things like gardens are merely styles, they tend to come and go, get over done, then people get tired of them and want something new. At this point they are described as 'outdated'. Anyone still doing that is sorely behind the trend. That sounds like the situation you are describing in England. Its great to visit a region that has its own authenticity and ambience, a place that looks like what you expected and different than where you live. I guess what bothers me about these trends is the way they tend homogenize the whole country and even leak out into the UK. I've mentioned several times how glad I am to see Oklahoma City adopting the so called 'American Prairie Garden'. The thing is, it should not be considered a trend toward a style, rather its a long overdue appreciation of the surrounding countryside down here. Personally I'm so tired of the boring homogenized look that is made up almost entirely of non native plants. The concerns of conservation, invasive species, growing strictly native etc that gives some people the impression that Americans are over zealous is an entirely different matter than choices of plants for landscaping and gardening. People are passionate about both subjects but they are two distinct subjects. From what I can gather, impressions people have seems to be a result of confusion over who is talking about what. When I discuss selecting plants for my garden its a different matter than my concern over some of the horrors I've seen popping up (or disappearing) in the countryside. The two things only overlap in the sense that I would avoid activities such as intentionally adding invasive species just because I selfishly liked a plant or digging up, for example, cactus in the wild because I selfishly wanted it in my garden. It doesn't mean I am a slave to local native plants only in my own yard although that is exactly what I want to be able to keep seeing in the countryside, so I try to be careful and hope others are careful too.