Bestlawn, no offense taken. I'm kind of playing it by ear. While at first I was out to prove that KBG can survive here, My big thing is that I believe in reasonable amounts of maintenance and not wasting money and not wasting time and not driving an hour away to get some professional product during business hours. There is a correlation between the performance of the grass and how much time/money I will spend on it. The minute performance goes down, the minute I leave it alone and go do something else. I don't have it in me to force the entire yard to stay green in full sun and heat in a drought when we get maybe one or two showers a month. Some people can. The golf course manage to do it. But I don't. I'm trying to simulate reasonable amounts of care to see if the grass will grow with average care. I basically follow the UGA lawn calendar for tall fescue on all the cool season grass that I have except the bentgrass which I mow much shorter. And the only reason I put so much effort into the bentgrass is because it performs. It's reasonable IMO. Auteck, please send me an email. Click on my page. I also grew up in So.Fl. and we seem to have the same tastes in flora. I can tell you about what I'm growing. It's apparent we are both allergic to tropical plants and swamp grasses. I can't stand palm trees and bananas. Some people here try to plant them. Douglas fir is a more out-westy tree. If you want to prove you're not in Miami anymore, get some balam firs, red spruce and fraser firs going. The latter two are native to the mts of western NC. I saw some this past saturday when I drove up there. I have a couple of balsam firs in my yard. also have 3 white pines. White pines are native to my area but not all that common this far to the south. You might also try out some of the cool climate birches, Betula lenta (sweet birch) and B. papyrifera (paper birch) Don't forget quaking aspen and lilac and blue spruce. These are just a handful of things people insist do not grow here. I say they're wrong. It's called reverse zone denial.

Rosajoe, I did some searching on the web and this was the best information that I could find. In our area, our plants are threatened with frost and freezing temperatures. When this happens, outside Bromeliads will have to be protected. This can be done by covering them with plastic, a cold frame or a frost cloth. The downside to this is covering plants gets old after a while and you may not always be available to do it in time. In addition, and more importantly, with this method of protection, there will probably be some leaf damage. All Bromeliad lovers know that leaf damage really takes away from the beauty of the plant. The site's suggestion for those who want the plants outside in their landscapes, was this: (1) Plant the Bromeliads in pots; (2) Dig a hole in the desired area and plant the pots in the ground; (3) When there's a threat of frost or freezing temperatures, pull the pots out of the ground and place them in a garage or other protected area until the treat passes. This protected area should provide some light during the day. After the temps are above freezing with no more frost threats ahead, the Bromeliads can be returned to their in-ground spot outside. Mulch can be used to disguise the pot rims and give them a true, in-the-ground appearance. This summer, I'm going to plant one of my pups outside just to see how it goes. I hope this helps. I've also included the link to the, 'Growing Bromeliads Outdoors Overview' below (if it shows up). Hope this helps a little! Bon Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Bromeliads Outdoors Overview

Panicum virgatum (Switchgrass) is a native grass in every state, except 4 Pacific coast states(CA, OR, WA, AK). In Georgia, it is widespread, from the Mtns to the Sea, including several Metro counties. In Florida, it is more pervasive than here, so the story about not doing well because of heat & humidity, lacks substantiation! There are at least a dozen Panicum species native to GA, plus many other types of switchgrass and panicgrass, in other Genera that were separated from Panicum. I can't recommend a source, as I have not noticed any nurseies stocking it. Rb

Although it's not necessarily a beautiful specimen type shrub, I do love the fragrant tea olive. I have one growing in full sun, one that gets just morning sun, and one that gets afternoon sun. The scent that the tea olive puts out is divine. It is by far one of my favorites because of that wonderful scent. It does get tall though.