Thanks a lot for the compliment Bananafan! I appreciate it! I definitely try to make the best of my climate. Luckily there is a lot of moisture year round by me so that does give me the opportunity to grow a lot of vegetation. Every year I get more and more species of plants, it's hard to keep up with them all after a while, but so far I've managed pretty well. Not sure what purple sedum you are referring to (is it the purple heat vine?), but that, the arborvitae and the passion vine are all cold hardy here so they are one of the easier plants for me to grow! Arborvitaes are a little bit overused here so I'd rather have something else in my yard other than them, but they look nice and are expensive (and just as expensive to dig up and replace) so I'll be probably be keeping them for many more years! The passion vine is probably my favorite bloom. Not only is it cold tolerant, but it's a fast grower too. I got it as a small plant for 2 dollars at a local nursery in July 2010. Now they cover a huge portion of my pool fence and there are seedlings popping up around my yard (they dont seem too invasive though). I know that the Pacific Northwest has some of the best gardening in the country and it is definitely cool year round so I would agree that cool climates are actually great for a lot of flowering plants! It gets pretty hot by me in the summer so that does limit the number of flowers I can grow a little bit.

Thanks everyone for your kind words. orchiddude, is that the name of that Pine tree? I planted it years ago and it shot up like a rocket. mastiffhoo, I do like to label everything. Here's some more photos of the front yard: Left to right: Bottle, Coconut and Spindle. The coconut is in a pot and gets moved to the greenhouse in December. (Right to left)Far right: Euterpe edulis, Reinhardtia paiewonskiana, Chambayronia macrocarpa (triple) and Normanbya normanbyi. Dypsis decipiens

I got up and hooked up my 33 gal trash can to my roof runoff drain and it stopped raining. Weather.com said it would rain all day but as usual they were completely wrong so I go no rain water. I have noticed that my 10 warmest established plants (along the south side of my house) have the most inflo development and my coldest plants are still totally dormant. These 10 also have the warmest night locations with the house radiating heat from the day. Plants with more day sun but are exposed to more cool at night, are still behind. Shows how complex the factors are for coming out of dormancy and inflo development. Also, i think the flower is a fluke (is almost open today) as most of my plants are on par for mid May to mid July for flowers, but these 10 should be flowering in April (Bali Whirl, Vera Cruz Rose, Cindy Moragne, Kimi Moragne, Cerise, My Valentine, Moragne 23, an unknown white, and a so called Bill Moragne which is more like an Eva Lani). Time will tell. Bill

Gorgeous, gorgeous Boxofrox! hurray! And I love the fish fountain, but your lovely fish statuary in your Garden area with the cascading rocks I like EVEN BETTER if I dare say! Your fish is much cuter by a long stretch! But that is a beautiful resort, so peaceful and FANCY! I just love the arrangements of palms, and bursts of petunias and snapdragons??? or whatever those spiked flowers are! And wow, what is that mass of magenta brilliant pink??? What plant?? Very beautiful! And with mountains in the backdrop too! What a wonderful vacation! By the way, Boxofrox I wrote in your other thread how much prettier your pink rhododendron turned out than my version. Mine is just pom-pom "cute" but doesn't have that vivid, gorgeous, lacy contrast that yours does. Mine is the same type as your pink one (not your St. Broward's).