Originally posted by nordberg
oooh, i've been gardening for 8 years, but perennials are my specialty not trees.

hardy trees down here (close to the same climate as you) are crape myrtles, cypress, and of course live oaks. bradford pears are good too, but don't live that long. the crape myrtles we planted are doing great!
Yeah - most people around us have crape myrtles planted and I think they're beautiful, but - everyone has one I was thinking about some sort of holly bush? (what needs to be replanted now are not really tree trees - I think they're called red tipped photinias?) ... I just don't even know what to look for or where to start - I'm horrible with plants - I killed an aloe vera plant for cryin' out loud!

We used to have one guy do our lawn that was just spectacular - did a wonderful job - we had those little bush lookin' flowers - begonias maybe? <looking at pictures> no - not begonias - little bushy lookin' little thing with little red flowers growin' on it - couldn't have been more than 6" high - and those white flowers with the little red dots in teh center??? maybe I can find a picture of our house, then ... *sigh* I have a black thumb) anyway - planted all around the outline of our house ... since he left, we haven't had any more flowers planted

Goodness - I really have no idea what I'm talkin' about when it comes to planting stuff ...