I like your home, it looks nice and well kept. It is warm and welcoming.

If you want to try a few things, I would suggest:

There are lots of right angles so I suggest some rounded shrubs vs. a hedge where all the plants are of a similar height.

The garage door has all those squares, the squared ficus next to it looks out of place. A simple naturally-shaped shrub would really soften the look.

The right side has no windows and a grouping of small trees would be great there. Mix in some smaller flowering plants like azaleas in front of and under the trees.

Although not landscaping, adding some color trim is something you might consider. The roof/siding is very light and thus the white trim is less effective. Just painting the shutters and some trim to match the garage door would help the house blend into the garden.

be sure to post pictures when you are finished.

Good luck.

Take out the Ixora coccinea immediately in front of the Front Door. The line created by the plants is currently leading the eye away from your major focal point (front door) and down the driveway or off to the right.

I like your idea to add an extension to the flower bed on the right side of the house, which extends past the edge of the house.

The overall bed shape will then be convex and the yard concave. With a convex yard shape and stategically placed gap in the shrubs (or plant lower growing plants) the front door will be a focal point.

Thanks to you both for your comments and suggestions!
I have always loved azaleas, so look forward to finally being able to have an excuse to use some in our yard.
And for the notes on lines and soft edges and focal points, great eyes!
As soon as this cooold weather clears out, I'm off to the nursery to look for plants and trees.

If you can grow Ixora coccinea, you can grow lots of beautiful tropicals. When you extend your flower bed, don't forget to include some plants with large green leaves to contrast with the finer texture of the Ixora. Large-leaved plants such as Colocasia and Alocasia will be calm enough to look nice with your brick and still mix well with palms. Can you grow Cordyline in your zone? Lots of nice foliage colors to choose from in that group as well. A large shrub with medium-sized leaves and a tropical look that would make a nice background is Clusia rosea. Also look at cycads to mix in with your flowering plants, they offer structure, grow slowly, and can be part of your evergreen base. You have many many choices!

Thanks for your ideas. We're actually heading out to San Diego next week!
I really like the Clusia rosea so far - nice wax-like leaves with pretty flowers. And bonus, it's a FL native plant that requires little maintenance.
Yes, I love Cordyline - we've got some in our backyard. Love the large leaves. I've also got it in a bed with variegated shell ginger which has similar style leaves. We've also got some Colocasia (elephant ear) in the backyard growing well with several banana trees.
I like that you said those plants will look calm enough - I'm very much an orgainzed person, I love the look of other people's wild flower beds, but just don't think I would be able to handle that myself. Although, I was just thinking that today - I love how wild black eyed susans look but have always been cautious about them, but I was thinking, I may just need to try it out, what's the worst that could happen?
Here's our cordyline the day it went in, its purple and green leaves. There ginger's now in this bed too along with the jasmine and the crotons.
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And our bananas and elephant ear
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I guess a lot of it depends on what types of plants are available in my area - it's off to the nurseries this weekend.

I like the third, without the Queen...

Thanks for your input! We got the robellini in last weekend.
Below is the bed from a side angle, I'll get a better photo this weekend.
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And below is a doodle for plants I'm thinking about. Ignore the orphaned yucca on the bottom, he should be up with the other 2. Any suggestions for this bed? The robellini is planted and doing fine, now we just need to add some plants around it before we get the edging and gravel (pea gravel the shade of sand). I LOVE the daisy bush (Gamolepis chrysanthemoides) and have wanted to plant one for a while, and they stay green throughout the year when they're not flowering. The yucca is ok, it's hardy and green (maybe look for soft leaf yucca). I'm open to suggestions!
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I think we need more color. I was looking for the name of the plant I know as Thai Plant, it's thin stalks aboud 3 ft high to start and has reddish pinkish broad leaves. Anyone? I think we'll add a small coquina or two to this bed too.
So suggestions are appreciated, also, has anyone dealt with pea gravel instead of mulch? We're just tired of the fading and replacing the mulch several times a year, so we're really leaning toward gravel. I know it's more expensive up front, but less work in the long run?
Remember, I'm a newbie to gardening! :)

I think you're looking for Ti plant, Cordyline fruticosa and terminalis. There are many named varieties; check out 'Pink Diamond' or 'Red Sister', 'Sherbert', 'Black Magic'. If you want tropical, take away the yellow daisies and replace with a colorful croton or Aucuba japonica 'Gold Dust'. While these plants struggle a little in California, it's my understanding they do better in Florida, so check it out. Lots of color, no deadheading to do.

Incidentally, I like your choice of putting the Roebeleni by the house and the Veitchia merrellii on the lawn. The Christmas palms will grow a bit taller and you can see the house through the trunks, a nicer view, just my 2cents. See that's another plant I can't grow here, winter days are too cold and wet.

Oh, last thing, nix the pea gravel. If you search this forum, you'll find all sorts of negatives about pea gravel. Mulch feeds your soil, which feeds your plants. The best mulch is compost -- maybe not so decorative, but very healthy for your garden. Big rocks are good, too, even mexican beach stones, or river stones, but no pea gravel!

Thank you for your comments! And yep, Ti plant is what I was looking for. I was just spelling it wrong :)
I also liked your earlier suggestion of Clusia rosea, but can't find it in my area. We have Colocasia and cordyline in our back yard and they've done well. I agree the daisies don't belong, I just wanted to fit them in somewhere - guess the back yard!
I see you're from San Diego - we just got back from there. I wish our orange bird of paradise grew and flowered like it grows all over San Diego, it's beautiful there!
And thanks for the note on pea gravel. I chose that because we wanted something other than mulch and the pea gravel was in a neutral shade. They also had larger stones similar to river rock that we can go with if it's better for the garden.

Your ideas are really shaping up.

I am wondering about the "lavender Formosa azaleas" though. Are these the ones that get really big, like Southern Indica's? If you use azaleas you want to get one of the smaller varieties that won't eat your porch, so be sure to check.

Thanks for your note about our azaleas. They are a Southern Indica variety, and they say they can get up to 15ft in height. We're planning on keeping them short, around 3 ft. high. Others in our area have these same variety and they've been able to keep them under control and full of blooms.

I went out this weekend and went a little crazy. So far, this is what we've got - I counted, I planted about 21 plants last weekend (that's not including the multiple transplants of canna from my neighbor's yard!)! We went with yucca cane on the right corner, agapanthus, aztec grass, society garlic, flax lily, golden dew and canna - but many many of each. Flax lily, golden dew and canna are all in the back, not very visable in this pic. Most of the grasses aren't supposed to fill more than 2x2ft, so in a year or 2, I think it'll look full enough to be tropical, but not too full.

Last addition to come soon will be a Mandevilla (Dipladenia) 'Sun Parasol Crimson' aka Red Riding Hood that I'm going to try to train to climb the small part of the fence shown at the left, it's about 6ft high and 3 ft wide before the swing gate.

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