Now, I talked ALLLLL about the labor involved in expanding this bed to put in a tree and more flowahs on the other blog, so I just want to put more full-garden pics here and talk about what I put in that was new, what I took out, what I moved around, and, in short, provide a complete list of what's in here now (as a record for me later, and for other flower-obsessed persons...)
Like I said before, we wanted another small tree in the front yard that will (eventually) shade the front porch and the picture-window therein. So the anchor to the expansion, which has taken the bed from an oblong shape to something more like a fat kidney bean, is a "Natchez" crape myrtle (large thing far right in the cleared area), which has white flowers and is one of the taller tree-forms--it could get 20 feet).
I really oughta call this bed the Salvia and Crepe Myrtle bed, since there are now, four, count 'em, FOUR crape myrtles of varying sizes and shapes, besides the "Natchez," is the original "Centennial," which is a smaller, red, tree form (12-15 feet); a red, large shrub form, "Victor"(ca 4 feet); a red-violet weeping dwarf variety, "Sacramento"(18-24 inches), and the even smaller pink, weeping "Pocomoke" (8-12 in.--it's the little tiny chartreuse guy on the far left in front of the crossvine). In the shot below you can clearly see the Pink Muhly grass, which isn't blooming yet in early June but quite big; the crossvine was also growing rampantly and trying to grasp everything around it, so I got three poles and put them together tee-pee style for it to climb, which is why it's kinda Christmas-tree shaped. (BTW click the pics for bigger views)
One of the main things I had to do when expanding the bed, was to move the low-growing plants that were planted along the original 'edge' out to the new edge, and then get a few more tall items to fill in the new middle. I had also brought an
Esperanza bush from one of the shadier backyard beds when it started to come back from the ground (they are very tender) in the spring; this is the sunniest bed and it should like this a lot better--it got moved farther toward the middle in the expansion since it can get quite large (3-6 ft tall and 3-4 ft wide)--it's not blooming now, but they have bright yellow, tubular blooms that attract butterflies. Some plants were getting TOO much sun in this bed--I had a day-lily getting burnt close to the cross-vine among others, and I've moved them either around the base of the Natchez or on the side closer to the neighbor's yard (background above, or foreground below, where the overhanging branches of a live-oak in that yard provide more shade). Other than the Pink Muhly, I've got a couple other grasses in here, one--that I LOVE, is the
Zebra grass toward the left of the pic below--it's bright green with yellow/cream stripes--should get much bigger and have big cream blooms later.
I've had the darndest time with the street-side of this bed--it gets really long, hot rays of the sun all late afternoon and until the sun goes down, and is of course dry. I am serious when I say that two sets of the full-sun succulents: Hens and Chicks ('
Sempervivum'-- "Always Living"? NOT!) BURNED UP out there! I think these were
'sempervivum globiferum'; I've had better luck with a harder-leaved variety, "Purple Beauty." A tough little dianthus "Frosty Fire" and "Blue Spruce" Stonecrop (sedum) has been there since Spring and seem fine, and I just put out another succulent,
Lampranthas or "Ice plant" that has little purple daisy-like flowers--we'll see what that does. Also wanted to note in the pic below that the massive mum just starting to bloom there was planted from a 4-inch pot last October!
Other plants in here, besides the ones mentioned above include: "Floral Lace Crimson" Dianthus; "Blue Daze" Evolvulus; "Sentimental Blue" Campanula, "Loke Viking" Aster (raspberry), Blue-Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium), "Red Poll" Daylily (cream with red throat), "Pardon Me" Daylily (cranberry w/ yellow throat); Standing Cypress (
Ipomopsis rubra--supposedly tall with stalks of red, tubular flowers, but hasn't done much yet); several
dwarf yaupon hollies, red and hot pink miniature roses, pink gazanias, Texas Scarlet flowering quince; Red Autumn Salvia (
salvia greggii), "Lipstick" Autumn Salvia, "Raspberry" Autumn salvia; "Lady in Red" Salvia (s. coccinea),
Russian Sage ( '
perovskia atriplicifolia' -- silvery foliage, blue flowers);
"Strata" Salvia (
salvia farinacea, also known as "mealy cup sage," this variety has blue and white flowers); "
Sunny Blue Border" Speedwell or Veronica;
"Longwood Blue" Blue Mist Spirea (
Caryopteris hybrid; also silvery foliage and blue flowers), and "Blue Hair Grass" (
Koeleria Glauca, this is supposed to get tall, be blue-toned and then golden-brown in Autumn, but so far it's done a bunch of nothing--probably because it got too much sun where first placed and then moved a couple times...)
Mums planted last fall from small Wal-mart pot; behind it is "Black and Blue" salvia, and next to that Texas sage (I need to move that over, it will outgrow that spot)
Here's those damn hollies planted along the front porch. Why anyone would want needle-sharp, constantly growing bushes along the porch and encroaching on the entry-way is beyond me, but they'd been growing there for over 30 years (oh, and there was one euonymous in the middle that looked ratty and never grew as tall/fast as the hollies). When we moved in, we literally had to cut back the bush right up next to the sidewalk in order to get us and our stuff to the front door. 
Here's the "After." I laid out 12 in. square cement patio blocks up against the porch and put a lot of my big potted plants down there--much more space on the porch now. In the pots are Foxtail ferns, jasmine, bouganvillea, bay tree, a potted mini rose, and that nameless purple plant I got at a nursery this fall (many of the above will have to come inside this winter). Then in place of the hollies I planted iris divisions from around back, 2 roses, 2 rose of sharons (one day these will shade the porch), a couple salvia, and some annuals.
