Sometimes time is not an issue on threads as researching plants goes, I was grateful to read from experiences and settings esp micro zones of ones landscape needs .. So Love Your Purple Queen, Thomas too! I have an orange Boug that is a bright deep orange, Im in a 10a micro setting for it, as afternoon intensity suddenly upon it then later day til sundown fully in west blazing heat and the soil is sandy sortv a clay as is close enough to foundation, the only saving grace for it is that being morning condensation likely gives it some sustainance of moisture. It became a forgotten experimented twiggy thing lol after planting about say 2yrs of season cycles. Well, we had a drought as well during this time and we too had had some happenstance excess water there on it during the spring timing accumulate from a nearby piece of plastic just one certain weeks worth. IT WAS BLOOMING more Bolder than When we bought it!!! Discovering it still alive, we gave it some surrounding soil help/ breakup some hardness and watered with a barely noticeable vinegar amount solution of water with drops of white vinegar. Its going to be possible to be our privacy fence we needed Badly. We had a purple queen with no activity as well along a south fence, left it alone, not blooming we feel too low to get enough sun, then planted another PQ boug near but in more sun, it's fine and watering it in as well w one weak tweek of the white vinegar drops in water. The fuscia bougainvilea are almost invasive BUT MOST DEPENDABLE !!! The power company trimmed our fuscia HALF to death, it came back with a bloomimg Vengance LL!!! Good for it, though it's the one of the colors that's most thorny, only use it for keeping a kind of security placement plant away from people or where they shouldn't go. It seems too that planting depth is a sneaky seemingly adapted issue But one that is how success is acheived overall. We have planted Tibuchinas (Princess Bush an Asian/India tree that has african violet soft leaves and deep purple blooms/ isn't hard on allergies! and is semi-decidious) it is fussy only how planted /different situations and with tests came to realize how much it as with any plant any where how much you need to adjust the root ball as plant so it's in the right height/depth from the soil surface, it's immediate drainage-retainage for the plant's life and seems to help some doubtful plants cheat problems. It's an adjustment to watch for if failing in first weeks, a chance to replant it quick could help, as we did with these Tibuchina trees saved within a month, became showplants of neighborhood. Bougainvilea as attested, have determined tap root systems so reach down below the heat and make it so well without us understanding how, thus, in a planter I Would Never put a fuscia hot pink one against a house (again L! it's far too big anyway), the purple one grows smaller lesser thorn-harming secondary to it in activity plus will obey better, and very much can trust the deeper orange one to cooperate as well less and shorter thorns yet like PQ than the fuscia monsters!L/ LOVE THEM THOUGH as they can protect property and the Most beautifying even in drought!! ... These boug's petals are the solid colors, the boug with pastels petals of pinks and the gold ones are not much help coloring landscape or even bloom or height and tho have lesser thorns and train easier, I'd rather have that coloring and believe in the deep purple such as Purple Queen if want height almost the small tree size or the deep orange for sure it is workable and both bloom magnificently almost as much as the fuscia, if have a little nudge of help that you'll likely learn more as time goes with them. Bougainvilea are so rewarding they are addictive, help make the deep orange ones more prominent! I too relate with finding west faced plants and slender trees in narrow spaces in hot climate too, so yes, keep thread going. THANKS!!

I admit I'm an addictive plant book collector and just went to my shelves to see what I had on natives. What I found interesting is that I don't have any books specific to woodland natives, except for some that includes them and some that are about shade but not exclusive to natives. I have lots on prairie plants however. I really need to catalog my books someday - not during planting season though! In addition to the Diekelmann book, these are some of my native gardening books in no particular order: Gardening with Wildflowers and Native Plants published by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Record 1989. -a little book of collected articles, still relevant. Jones, Samuel B. and Foote, Leonard E. 1990. Gardening with Native Wild Flowers. Timber Press. 195 pgs. -My first native plant book, and still one of the best. Ladd, Doug and Oberle, Frank. 2005. Tallgrass Prairie Wildflowers. Morris Book Publishing. 263 pgs. -a very good field guide with excellent photos. Plants grouped by color. Johnson, Lorraine. 1998. Grow Wild!:Native Plant Gardening in Canada. Denise Schon Books. 154 pgs. -Lorraine Johnson is to Canada what Bill Cullina is to the US. A very useful book from coast to coast. Smith, J. Robert. 1980. The Prairie Garden: 70 Native Plants You Can Grow in Town or Country. University of Wisconsin Press. 219 pgs. -charts for habitat, color, and bloom times Wasowski, Sally. 2002. Gardening with Prairie Plants. University of Minnesota Press. 285 pgs. -I consider this the essential book for prairie gardens. Sternberg, Gus and Wilson, Jim. 1995. Landscaping with Native Trees. Chapters Publishing. 288 pgs. -Often we forget about planting native trees. Good info. Daniels, Stevie. 1995. The Wild Lawn Handbook: Alternatives to the Traditional Front Lawn. Macmillan. 223 pgs. -My first book on banning the bluegrass! Funny I live in Kentucky now. Also several local native plant guides and books on planting natives for wildlife habitat. And books on "natural" gardening that showcase natives but include some exotics, I'm thinking of the Druse books in particular. I'm going to have to pick up some of the books you have mentioned. And then get around to cataloging and organizing my library!

Purple ground cherry is its common name. A low growing plant with purple flowers found throughout the S.W. and into the midwest. I got a few old seeds from someone but none germinated. Cheryl Here is a link that might be useful: purple ground cherry

The bible for the NT is Native Plants of Northern Australia by John Bock. It has very good photographs and descriptions, and even covers traditional Indigenous plant uses. It is one book I would definately recommend, and the Wrigley and Fagg book is another excellent one that covers plants from the whole country. Enjoy your travels and good to see that you have included the NT in your travels - most travellers bypass the Top End for the east coast. I might be biased but you will be in the best part of the country when you come here....