Wow! Thank you all so much for responding! Firebush - How far away from the fence would I plant it, and where is the best place to get it (HD, Lukas - pricey)? Solstice98 - I would love to take you up on your offer for some blue sky vine cuttings! Thank you! I do have 2-3 varieties of honeysuckle and passionvine but I'm waiting to see if they come back after the freeze. The leaves are brown and they're very sad looking right now. Laura1 - I have heard that Simpson Stopper is very slow growing. Is that not the case? Does this grown in full sun? I would love to try this as well. Again, where is the best place to purchase Simpson Stopper? imagardener2 - I love bamboo but it's soooo expensive. The white bamboo sounds really pretty. Do you have a source? I'm going to have to look into the Tithonia (sounds very interesting) and the Durantas and walters viburnum. I spent so much time last spring and summer getting my garden cut out, mulched and planted and I'm pretty sure I've lost over half of what I planted. I'm definitely planting florida native, cold hardy, heat and drought tolerant plants from now on. I would love to trade cuttings but I'm afraid everything I had is gone; however, once I get things started again I will be more than happy to share cuttings. Thanks again everyone for all your suggestions! PS Castorp, my 4 legged daughter's name is Amazing Grace and the kennel name of her papa is Kelly, hence the handle gracekelly:-)

Hi Jim, Thank you for the detailed account of these two sweet plants. I have been to a talk about what triggers blooming, and it is mostly photo-periods. For some tropical plants and bulbs it could be the onset of dry season or wet season. One consensus is that there seems to be no "blooming hormone" so to speak, and a plant will bloom when it is mature and well-nourished. Since your fiddlewood is healthy and mature, maybe you can adjust your watering schedule to simulate habitat rain pattern. Many plants do bloom better when they are stressed a little bit. I am growing quite a few plants that are not hardy in my area. One Artabotrys is already over 6' tall and I wonder if I will be able to see my Cananga odorata seedling bloom before it gets too tall. I guess we just have to accept that these plants will only provide a shorter than normal period of enjoyment out of its native range, but certain plants can last quite some time. For example, I saw many Osmanthus fragrans f. aurantiacus in half-barrel containers with 4"-diameter trunks in gardens in Beijing. They must be at least 20 years old and they bloom reliably at very manageable sizes.

Citharexylum fruticosum Fiddlewood can be shrubbed to just about any height over 30". The leaves are medium green and are from the ground up. Plus, most of the year you get a very fragrant white flower and this is a Florida native that will grow in your zone. Here's a great website for further information on Fiddlewood. I have three in our garden: one that's a multi-trunked tree with the tallest lead well over 12' tall, the second is from a three-gallon shrub, leftover from a landscape job several years ago. It's in the ground as a foundation plant and I keep it windowsill height. Unfortunatly, it's in too much shade, so I don't get flowers. The last one is a cutting from a sterile hybrid, originally grown as a standard. That tree died - poor location - however, the cutting is now a multi-trunked small tree, topping off at around 10'. This is one shrub that just doesn't get used enough in the landscape despite it being one of the best choices for hedging, small tree, formal shrub, focal point, you name it.

I have 2 simpson stoppers and mine are slow. They are small leaved but not really hedg-y. They want to be trees with interesting trunks not bushes. I have mine planted in an informal hedge between our house and next doors, mixed in with native coffee and a variety of other natives including porterweed, hercules club, wild lime and many others. A new choice I've just added in the hedge to block the view is jatropha. It's bushy,flowery, butterfly beloved and will get tall. It's my new favorite in the hedge.