I live with a grass hugger. There is only one person in this household who protects grass and misses it when it is gone. He fusses when I dig up just the teeniest more piece of turf. I think, "Grass paths" he thinks, "Sweeping lawn." The Turf Wars are in full force at this, our new garden.

There are so many new plants. They are seductive, luring me with wondrous names, new blossom colors, larger flowers, colorful foliage, more resistance to heat, insects, and/or disease. Some even take into consideration a dwindling rainfall and are water wise.

Agastache 'Black Adder'

Fall is the perfect time for yet another trip to the landscape center for more bags of compost to ready beds that will encroach just a bit on the turf. (By the way, you know you are a fanatical gardener when the landscape center people know your first name.)

Hollyhock Old Barnyard Mix

Hemerocallis Daylily Moses' Fire

Do some blossoms fade too soon for your taste? This false holly, Osmanthus heterophyllus ‘Goshiki’ scores. Who needs flowers when this shrub will light up four to ten feet in all directions of the landscape? Maroon, pink, and bronze flood the foliage in early spring. In summer, the leaves are backwashed with yellow, silver, and deep green sponge painted with freckles, splotches, and flecks of cream. Best of all, it is hardy to minus 10 degrees F.

Amaryllis 'Aphrodite'

If you have hellebores in your garden, you know just how seductive their winter foliage and earliest spring flowers can be. A new one, H. ‘Ivory Prince', has up facing, flattened flowers that open white and fade to a rose and cream layer over light green. This one is going to squeeze into my winter border.

There are two new dianthus with unusual color to put on your "to try" list, ‘Inferno’ and Raspberry Surprise™. They are on mine. The photos of these two lovelies are scrumptious. They will blossom forth nicely in your, and my, early spring garden.

Scabiosa Vivid Violet is a lovely new color. If it lives up to its promise, it will have long-lasting larger blossoms than the scabiosas that have been available. All scabiosa flowers bounce atop springy stems as long as they are sited in total sun. Part shade can cause them to get a little floppy. Even if they droop, they are not flops.

New plants beckon. Lawn or flowers? Silly question. The answer is simple when you are a plant fanatic.

---Posted by Coach Anne, October 15, 2007---