Hi everyone. Thanks for the replies. Sorry I didnt reply right away. I got caught up in my work again. Carrieb, that sounds like a good find. I love the fairy roses. My knockout roses are finally happy and are blooming from June on, so I now use them for a dash of constant color around the garden. Mmqchdygg, Ill have to look for the Black-Eyed stellas. I prefer that to all one color anyway. I see what youre saying about using different colors in the same tough as nails plants to differentiate between a commercial garden and your garden. Ill keep that in mind when looking for a long lasting lavender. I wont use the dark purple I saw, though I do like it with the hot pink and white carpet type rose. Hi Chelone. I just bought my first Chelone, btw, and thought of you when I did it. I do have a low growing blue juniper. Maybe its the same as you blue one. I do love the contrast with the perennials as well. Ill have to take a look around for other junipers, to see what I can get. Im doing something wrong with my grasses. They dont thrive, or die. :( I havent figured out why yet, but Im on the case. Thats why I looked at the blue fescue so longingly. I need grasses in my life. I love all colors, which makes it difficult to say no to the combos on the strips too. Mxk3, I love my knockouts and Echinaceas too. And I didnt even put them in the pedestrian category, lol. I am oblivious sometimes. And, oh oh, I just bought my first daylily. Its a reddish tone and works for the spot I bought it for. See I already have a common plant garden, so whatre a few more mall plants, right. ;) Dee, most gardens look better than mine. :( Seriously Im not an impress the neighbors, type of gardener. I just dont have the strength and stamina to be a great gardener, so I admire others gardens and take the ideas that hopefully help my garden to be somewhat self care, if there is such a thing. Hence the mall gardens envy rears its head. Kate, I wish my garden looked as good as a mall garden, lol. I do have fun and seldom think enough about the garden, lol. I just buy and plop. :) Well with in reason. I do select for sun and soil, and somewhat color. Bean_counter_z4, your "tough, dependable, pretty" comment hit the nail on the head for me too. Thats what had me looking inside the box for a change. I seldom look around to see what others do and choose, but trying to find plants for difficult areas had me doing just that. I got tired of the slow deaths and the not thrivings. Goodhors, I will try for unique, but Im beginning to think I think Im just unique, because I dont check out the non competition. :) "preparing the garden, designing the layout", I dont understand, lol. I do very little designing, as said before. Maybe I should start, though, assuming the plants take. Fledgeling, I really am a common plant lover and just didnt know it. Maybe I should re visit the definition of common. I have tons of sedum of all different types and love the stuff. I think part of my problem is that I dont know any real gardeners, just virtual ones, and only catch glimpses of gardens around town, so I dont realize that everyone has this or that plant. I love the colour of the daylily I bought, and had no previous preconceptions about the plant. Llinnea2, I am just beginning to think in terms of "anchor plants" etc. Many of these concepts have escaped me, as truly Im a late bloomer in all things. Gardening began for me when ill all the time, and was not planned in any way. Its only in the past year that Ive been almost kidney, and migraine, pain free and that has been fantastic. I am now catching up and enjoying the freedom immensely. I can "really" garden, hurray. I can plan ahead and I can see it through. I can concentrate for more than a few hours and I even can exercise! Im not at full strength, but Im working hard at it. What a joy life is when pain and depression free! Maryl, Ive never heard of Sansevierias. Lol, MILs tongue. Very apropos for some MILs, but my MIL is very sweet these days. I like the sound of these plants. Both statements, "their ease of culture and, surprisingly enough, their diversity", are very appealing to me. I try not to, but often find myself collecting plants. I buy one ofs often enough to suspect that Im really a plant collector, not a gardener, which is why planning before buying escapes me. So if Sansevierias are different and easy, Im in love, lol. Eric,lol, are you implying something? Honestly I have coveted but havent taken. Actions speak louder than thoughts, right? Seriously Id never take without permission, and besides I probably wouldnt take even with permission, as Im not a successful cuttings person anyway. Thanks for the interesting and thought provoking discussion, as usual. Gardeners are so wonderful, arent we? ;) Yeona

I also bought "Plant Combinations" from Fine Gardening. I loved it so much, I gave a good friend a copy, too. I've just planted the following combinations, so we'll have to wait and see how they turn out, but I love it when I put the photos together: Group 1 -- magenta (main color): Penstemon Garnet Coreopsis 'Heavens Gate' Rose Campion Agastache 'Red Fortune' Hypericum 'Albury Purple' Group 2 -- butterfly garden (right side): Rudbeckia fulgida v. sulvantii 'Goldstrum' Aster frikartii 'Moench' Echinacea purpurea Big Sky 'Sunset' Veronica 'Royal Candles' Hypericum x hidcote Group 3 -- butterfly garden (left side): Crocosmia 'Lucifer' Agastache 'Blue Fortune' Asclepias 'Hello Yellow' Ascelepias tuberosa Middle of the butterfly garden: Bronze fennel Miscanthus sinensis v. condensatus 'Cosmopolitan' Vitex

I say, three cheers for weeds! at least some of them. This is the area I see from my deck (although I walked down to take the photos). This used to be all lawn with a few oaks and cherries, and I let the steepest part of it go wild with some added plants as a border. I may have relocated a goldenrod there, I don't remember. The white wood asters volunteered first, and then the goldenrod joined in. I like the combination of the asters, goldenrod, and variegated miscanthus. Another volunteer is a pokeberry in my alley by the side of the house (this is a plain old "alley", not a fancy "allee"). Here the pokeberry fruits are hanging over the one sedum I didn't move out. Claire

While everyone is celebrating Christmas, I'll be hosting 2 Channukah dinners Sunday and Monday and getting our Weber fired up. Sunday is for one of my childhood friends and her family. Grandkids and Daughters coming on Monday. Looking forward to all the kids lighting the Menorah and reciting the prayers for the lighting. Here is my Sunday Menu: First, Pomegrante Cosmopolitans, wine and beer along with Eggplant Caviar. I always go light on appetizers. Salmon on a cedar plank grilled with a dressing of apricot preserves and horseradish Baked Chicken with mustard and capers sauce Potato Latkes with homemade applesauce and sour cream sides Roasted carrots More wine Dessert will be: Homemade Lemon Yogurt Pound Cake (Barefoot Contessa and easy) Brownies My guest is bringing a desseert made from a recipe handed down from her Grandmother (who came from England). More wine and coffee. I love when Channukah falls on the same time of Xmas. I usually just host dinner on Xmas Day regardless. It's become a tradition in our home.