Mine grew quite high before it put out flowers. It definitely did not flower until it was around 5 -6 feet. Mine are already 8 feet and no flowers yet, I hope Mark is right :-( And, it was never "covered" in flowers like on the picture of the seed pack! I didn't notice any Hummers going near it either! Last minute decision to try it since I knew it would grow fairly quickly and I decided to put in hummer attractors way too late. From what you say it probably won't get a second chance, I'll only post back if otherwise. Have you seen any hummers? Sally says she is seeing a few. Tom

I line up my 5-gallon pots near a fence (in an area that has bad clay soil in an area I haven't improved yet) and let them climb the fence. In a separate area, alongside the dog's fenced-in play yard, I place the 5 gallon buckets in a row about a foot from the fence and put a round wire cylinder tomato cage around each bucket, with the tomato cage resting on the ground. The vines grow and cover the cages and then meander over to the top of the fence, which is more or less even with the tops of the cages. In this way, I can have vines cover the fence and give the dogs some shade.....but the dogs can't destroy the vines, like they did when I tried to grow the vines directly on the fence itself. I have grown them in 5-gallon buckets with only a 3' tall wooden stake. The stake, though, wasn't meant to be their whole support....but just something for them to climb early on. They went up that stake and onto the fence. By midsummer the stake was completely buried under mounds and mounds of foliage. If all you have is one stake for them to climb, the first vines will climb the stake, and then other tendrils will climb the first vines, and so on and so on. Both Lowe's and Wal-mart usually have some fairly small portable trellises you can stick into a large pot, or into the ground near a large pot. Dawn

OK, first, I do like the planters. I also think there are ways to plant some things inside the planters that would help get rid of (by hiding it) that hot, brown fence. So, for the first option, I am going to pretend that your backyard and patio are MY backyard and patio, and I am going to tell you what I would do. Now, obviously, your tastes and my tastes may not be alike at all, and you may hate all my suggestions. And that is fine, but at least maybe something I say will strike a chord with you and give you something to try. THE TROPICAL PATIO: I do like the blue fescus grass, yucca and the ice plants and would try to keep them and just add plantings around and near them, even if I had to dig them up and shift them around a little bit. FOR CONTAINERS: I'd get four large containers and plant one cold-hardy banana, Musa Basjoo, in each of them. Since some of the courtyard corners already have planters in them, I wouldn't put one container in each corner. Instead I'd probably put one at the mid-point of each courtyard wall (including the back wall of the house) if I wanted a formal look. If I wanted a less formal look, I'd group them closer together wherever I wanted shade the most during the hours I'd be out on the patio. Once the banana tree was planted and watered in, I'd come back and add ornamental sweet potatoes and purple hearts at the base of plants, probably putting one ornamental sweet potato and one or two purple heart plant in each. These will be decorative, of course, but also will help shade the soil and and container, especially as the ornamental sweet potato grows enough to cascade over the edges of the container. I ALWAYS have underplantings in my tropical containers and they make the containers look more 'planned' and integrated into the whole design. If you think 4 bananas would be too much, you could go with 2 bananas and 2 of something else.....maybe 2 cold-hardy windmill palms, or 1 windmill palm and 1 Texas Star Hibiscus or some other hardy hibiscus. By having your ornamental sweet potatoes in the containers instead of growing on the fence, you'll have happier plants, because they won't be exposed to as much sunlight and reflected heat in the planters as they would be if grown in planters on the fence. In the long planters that have blue fescue grass and which will have pink Muhly grass added next spring, I'd HAVE to plant a vine to grow up that fence and shade it. I just cannot emphasize enough how much cooler it would be to temperature-wise to cover the fence with something green. My choice probably would be an annual vine for the first year or two so I could be sure the vine, muhly grass and fescue can peacefully coexist. I'd probably plant a combination of morning glories and moonflower vines from seed. They grow quickly, have lovely, lush, tropical-looking foliage and you'd have morning glories in the morning and moonflowers at night, although you probably won't have blooms until midsummer. The moonvines, by the way, have a deliciously lovely fragrance, which is a bonus if you sit outside at night. If you wanted something with purple flowers, you could plant hyacinth bean vine which have lovely wiseria-like flowes. If you wanted something with flowers in a hotter shade of color, you could plant black-eyed susan vine with its orangey-yellow flowers or mina lobata. Later on, if you wanted a cold-hardy perennial vine, you could plant 'Madam Galens' trumpet creeper or American Crossvine. In the Northwest bed along the back of the house (3rd photo from top above) that has the yucca and ice plants, I'd add a crape myrtle. It would shade that window from sunlight/heat during the hot months and the flowers would add to the tropical look. The flowers would add to the tropical theme, and the leaves, which are pretty small, would be easy to clean up in the fall. Crape myrtles grow fast, and their trunks would add winter interest to the garden. In the ground level beds that currently have hosts, I'd dig up the hostas, and plant a row of tall canna lilies. They'd get 5' to 6' tall or taller and would provide a cool green screen of tropical-looking (but cold-hardy) plants in front of the fence. I'd replant the hostas in front of the cannas if I could strateically place containers nearby to shade them. I might even put the hostas in containers so I could move them to the shadiest part of the patio. (I have real concerns about the survival of hostas on a hot south-facing patio.) If I planted the hostas in front of the cannas, I might not add something else there. Or, if the hostas go into containers or into a shadier spot, I'd plant reblooming daylilies in front of the cannas OR some kind of shorter annual flower like portulaca, purslane or gomphrena. I might put either another canna or two or a pink muhly grass or a Texas Red Star hibiscus near the AC unit, but not so close that it would impede the very important air flow. Then, after all that was done, I'd have to add a couple of potted plants that I could move around as needed to fill any gaps. You might use those pots for annuals so you have a little planting space to 'play with' each season: zinnias, angelonias, begonias or sun coleus or other sun lovers in summer, mums in the fall, pansies or snapdragons or petunias in the spring. That's what I'd do for a topical look, and I am sure there are lots of other plants you could add, as needed to get a tropical look, including: Mexican Petunia (ruellia), lantana (a half-hardy perennial), rainlilies (zephyranthes, Gold Star (Esparanza/Tecoma Stans), etc. If I had room somewhat for some sort, compact shrubs, I'd probably go with one of the dwarf nandinas. Along the back wall of the house, if there is soil and not bricks, I'd be tempted to plant a row of cast iron plant with liriope in front of it. And, if you don't like the look of crape myrtles, you could substitute a desert willow, which is neither a desert plant nor a willow. Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis) is related to trumpet creeper vine, is relatively fast-growing, very heat and drought-tolerant and has lovely flowers, usually in pale lilac, although white-flowered and burgundy-flowered ones are available. That's it for the tropical look. I'll be back in a while with suggestions for a different look or two. Time for lunch....and, in case you think I'm trying to make you spend a lot of money, we have a plant swap coming up this spring and you probably could pick up at least some of these plants there. Dawn

No. It is an annual in your zone. But they are so easy to grow, planting seeds every year is no big deal. filix