Brett's slope is really wonderful. Just to see how wrong I can be, I'm going to hazard a few guesses at what's in the picture!

The red stuff is probably loropetalum (Chinese fringe flower), the tall spiky plant in the center to the right of the stairs is phormium (New Zealand flax). The blue cloud down and to the left of the phormium--hard to say, but is that nepeta (catmint)? The tree with the ferny foliage says jacaranda to me. In the back, with the yellow flowers, I'm going to take a flying guess and say euryops (bush daisy). I think I see a few yuccas in there too. In the foreground a japanese maple.

All very drought tolerant and easy-care, evergreen, and I love the contrast of the foliage. What's the fluffy green globe in front of the phormium, and the other tree on the left? Ailanthus? Pistacia?

[I thought I'd put the picture here again so people can refer to it.]

-Matt

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I am very pleased that people like the landscaping. I spend a lot of time maintaining it.

Matt, you did extremely well. The only correction is the tree with the ferny foliage is a mimosa. The tree to the left is a non-fruiting pistachio. They have the same trees at many of the rest stops on route 5 in the central valley of California. I don't water it at all, ever, and it always looks very healthy.

I can never remember the name of the fluffy, globe-like bush in front of the flax. It is similar to Pink Breath of Heaven, but stays smaller and denser. It is a great, clean-looking evergreen plant with the only issue being it gets small pink flowers for a couple weeks in the spring which don't have a pleasant smell, although the smell is quite subtle. Other than that it is a great plant, and widely available at most nurseries here in northern CA. I will try to find out the name this weekend when I go to the local nursery. They know me by name there.

-Brett

Everyone is so helpful and nice here. Matt and Brett, thank you for taking the time to identify the plants for me. Once I get our slope planted I will come back and post pictures (will probably be a while yet, but we are working on it). I only hope my slope turns out half as good as yours Brett. I would love to know what the fluffy globe-like bush is, so if you think of it when you are at the nursery that would be great. Every time I look at your picture I think how that is exactly what I hope to achieve.

-Denise

The fluffy shrubs below the Phormium are Coleonema pulchrum 'Sunset Gold', which is more chartreuse foliage color and also dwarfer in size, but can still get 4 foot tall by across with age.