If you are near Los Angeles State and County Arboretum (Arcadia), Huntington Botanical Garden or Descanso Gardens I am sure a visit to one or more of these would reveal potential selections for your project. Maybe the Sunset demonstration gardens in Menlo Park would be worthwhile, I haven't been there. If you are down near San Diego, Quail Botanical Garden (Encinatas, near the freeway) has shade plantings as well.

Have you considered planting a few trees to help shade the house? I have three on the east side of my house to keep the sun off of the roof until about 11am. I wish I could plant some on the other side, but the fenceline is too close. How much room do you have around the deck? How wide can the shrubs get? I wouldn't worry at all about bees. Bees that are collecting nectar are single-minded and rarely take time to sting unless you grab them. Most shrubs don't bloom for more that a few weeks a year- so it's not a huge issue. The classic hard-to-kill shrub is the wax-leaf privet. It gets flowers for a short period of time in the spring, but most people prune them so they never flower. One of mine is very old and is now a small tree about twelve feet tall. I have others that screen off the neighbors. They are deep green, drought tolerant, insect and disease resistant, and can take the heat. Another nice shrub is rhaphiolepis or Indian Hawthorne. They flower in different colors of pink or white. They get wide rather than tall, although you can buy them as small trees. Renee

FAWNRIDGE: Thanks, I thought about Agave and Aloe as they are pretty common around here but am still holding out to see what my quest turns up. LOU: would you believe I thought of that this morning! When I go away a few days I do that with my herbs, except I coil the rope on top of the soil and bury it under the mulch. It wicks what it needs from a big bucket of water. I was going to ask if anyone thought something like that would work but thank you, you have confirmed that for me. That is excellent. HESTER: Container gardening is all IâÂÂm familiar because IâÂÂve never owned a home but IâÂÂve been keeping small herb/veggie container gardens for about 20 years. Putting plants around my screen porch is going to triple/quadrouple my container gardening work load, and IâÂÂve never grown flowers/shrubs before except a few short lived annuals. The easier, the better. I am going to order that book you recommended on Amazon right, thanks so much, I just wish you could get royalties for selling it. All my container gardening books are from the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens up north and have been pretty useless since I moved South a few years ago. AMBERROSES: Yes, thatâÂÂs along the lines of what I was hoping to do... get some pots around with easy, sure-fire plants and shrubs. IâÂÂll probably add annuals in the mix here and there. Yes, majority of my pots are plastic, and IâÂÂve just inherited a big stack of plastic milk crates I plan to line with grow-bags and poke holes in them. I can camouflage them with some window boxes placed strategically in front of them or some dollar store plastic mini border fence I have. CORRIE: Lantana I recognize, and they always have it at nurseries around here though I never grew any myself. Your suggestions sound perfect, just the kind of thing IâÂÂm looking for. I also found one on my own... butterfly weed (not bush), a native weed but colorful and orange. Sounds hard to kill. Everyone, thanks for all the help... YouâÂÂve given me some great suggestions to look into and by all means keep them coming if you have any more.

Have you thought about Callistemon (Bottlebrush) - quick growing and make an ideal low maintenance screen. Also, Elaeocarpus reticulatus or eumundii (not sure of the common names of these) I'd go Bottlebrush!