"OmManiPadmeOmelet" wrote:
Many thanks... :-)

De nada.

I will miss my Cannas but they did badly this year with less water.
Mulch helps some and I have some leaf mulch black bag composting I'll
add to them this winter. The poor things never did bloom! Perhaps with
more composted mulch, they will do better next year. At least they are
still alive.

Cannas are pretty hardy in parts of Texas. We tried to remove some from a
garden in Grand Prairie, TX, and we never did get rid of them. 'Course we
didn't try an extended drought :-)

Xeriscape isn't an all-or-nothing proposition. It is perfectly acceptable to
have some plants that need a little more water than others. The idea is to
group those plants together as much as possible, use efficient watering
systems like drip irrigation, and limit the areas that need the most
supplemental water. Of course, in any kind of landscaping scheme it makes
sense to group plants by their need for sun, water, soil type, and drainage.
I belonged to the Xeriscape Garden Club of Austin when there was one.

Xeriscape proponents like to disuade people from the notion that a Xeriscape
garden is a rock and cactus garden. But since you find cactus gardens
attractive, I'd like to point out that there are many cactii and cactus-like
plants which will over-winter in central Texas. In addition to native and
adapted Cactii, there are Agaves, Yuccas, Sotol, Beargrass, and related
members of the Lily family. I happen to think some bushes like Texas Sage
don't look out of place in a cactus garden. It is probably too difficult to
grow a Joshua Tree or a Seguaro in central Texas, but the "skeletons" of
some of the plants in Arizona and New Mexico can be very attractive.

Oh, the irony ... it is flooding in Phoenix!

j jhnsn