Beautiful! Are those 'Ruby Star' coneflowers? I have some growing in my xeric bed and I love them. Since you are looking for water-saving plants, I'll list a few that I have growing in my xeric bed. The bed is all the way out at the end of our driveway. My hose doesn't even reach that far, and there's no way I'm lugging watering cans back and forth. These plants have required no extra watering from me, except when initially getting them established. -'Silver Mound' Artemisia - Sedum....lots of it. I have Dragon's Blood, Tri-color, Blue Spruce, Autumn Fire, Autumn Joy, and another I can't recall the name of. I love them. - Lantana (gonna have to cut it back soon. It's taking over the bed! And I never water it.) - Russian Sage - Lavender...3 different varieties. - Blue Fescue - Lavender Cotton (aka, Santolina) - Portulaca - Dwarf Andorra Juniper - 'Old Gold' Juniper And that's just a partial list. A bonus is that deer don't find too many of these plants palatable unless they're starving. Have fun!

I have Juniperus horizontalis 'Andorra Youngstown' which is supposedly to become purple/purplish in winter, except I can not see it for 3 months, are still under 1 ft of snow. They will be green again in spring, will be 1 ft high, 4 ft wide.

The sidebranches of the sidebranches from the 'Pendula are weeping, not the direct sidebranches. ===>>> i speak english as a first language.. and i couldnt have said it clearer.. lol .. nor used sidebranches more often in one thought.. lol ... if you wanted to go one step further.. plants like green arrrow .. side branches.. droop .. so .. you now have 3 variations on sidebranches ... here it goes .. ones with sidebranches that go up.. one with sidebranches that go out.. and one with sidebranches that go down ... one of my hates in the conifer world [and the plant world in general] .. is the term PENDULA .... which means at least 3 to 5 differing things ... whats that all about???? a tree can be pendulous in multiple phases .... thx for the chuckle joy .... ken

There is a ground cover Cottoneaster, not sure of the Latin name on it, or even the common name for that matter. I ordered it as "Ground cover Cottoneaster". It keeps most of it's leaves through the winter, and also has berries for winter interest as well. It doesn't get much taller than about 18" or so. At least not the ones that I have. They root as they spread. I planted (3) small plants, not more than a stick in the spring of 2007 and they have covered an area about 3'x6' in that short time. That along with the standard ground cover Rug Junipers, or possibly the Juniperus chinensis 'Saybrook Gold'. It gets 2-3 high but spreads out to about 6'. I'm not sure if it roots as it goes though. Good Luck! Eliot S. Walters