Favorite flower/shrub?

[razz]

Never planted them until this year and they are lovely and such a variety of colours as a border plant.

The past few years have been planting Nicotiana .... flowering tobacco. It requires little care, is pretty and blooms profusely!

[Zoe Girl]

I like salvia, i usually have had purple and sometimes a red. When i rented each year i put in 2 more in the parts of the yard that were hard to water. Super great in dry climate, needs little care, and pops back in the spring. I would trim off the dead parts a couple times over the summer so they would perk up. They were a big part of my drought resistant yard plan

I love purple, i hear there are a huge number of varieties but not always available locally.

[Float On]

I love lavender. Trying yet again. I just can't seem to over winter it.

[herbgeek]

I just can't seem to over winter it.

I'm in Zone 5 (or at least used to be before usda update) and I shouldn't be able to overwinter lavender. I have about a dozen plants against the south side foundation, and have "mulched" with stone. The stone holds just enough heat to keep the lavender just a tiny bit warmer and it survives. It also cuts down on fungal diseases since the soil isn't splashing up onto the leaves of the plant. I've made a little micro climate and have had these lavenders > 10 years.

[nswef]

Zone 6 here, lavender Hidcote and Munstead do overwinter. Provence...can't get it to do a thing, all in the same area. I love them and the hummingbirds light on them..not sure it they can get any nectar, but they hit at them.

[Float On]

I like salvia, i usually have had purple and sometimes a red. When i rented each year i put in 2 more in the parts of the yard that were hard to water. Super great in dry climate, needs little care, and pops back in the spring. I would trim off the dead parts a couple times over the summer so they would perk up. They were a big part of my drought resistant yard plan

I love purple, i hear there are a huge number of varieties but not always available locally.

Love it too, really brings in the hummers.

[Float On]

Annuals: lantana
Otherwise to be honest if it's anything other than thorny, ivy, vinca. I love it. Oh cactus are an exception to thorny, like them too.

[Rogar]

Sunset Hyssop. It blooms late when there the rest of the garden is about done. The leaves smell very similar to root beer and the showy pinkish flower spikes last well into late summer or early fall. It attracts bees and hummingbirds (another name for it is hummingbird mint). It's a southwest native and drought and rabbit resistant. Mine tend to be slightly short lived for a perennial, but some of mine have lasted 5 or years.

[Gardnr]

I love lavender. Trying yet again. I just can't seem to over winter it.

Where are you? We're zone 4 and lavender is like a weed that is immune to everything! It's monstrous in our yard.

[Gardenarian]

Daphne odora is one of my favorite flowering shrubs. It's one of the first to bloom and the fragrance is rich and wonderful, like Jasmine tea and lemons and roses and lilacs, and you can smell it yards away - but somehow, never overpowering or cloying. The rest of the year it's an elegant, easy care shrub. The blooms last a long time - over one month this year.

Roses are probably my favorite overall though - so much variety, so much beauty.

Lavender is lovely too, though so common here that I do tire of it.