If Cannas grow in your area their smooth leaves may look nice with your Sago. A google image search will bring up pics oc Cannas.

If you want to go with the SW "look," try perrenials such as bulbine,kolanche, red yucca, stonecrops, and other 'succulent-looking' plants that can take all the rain we have.

If you like cannas, mentioned above, you could combine them with taro/elephant ears, gingers and hibiscus for a tropical look with the sago. Oleander also fits in a tropical theme.

Sago palms seem to "pop" in the landscape against shrubs with shiny green leaves, so if you want to make it an accent plant, back it with low-profile evergreen plantsing of hedges such as dwarf buford holly, gardenia, or Indian hawthorne. You could then contrast the sago and shrub combo with some 'spikey'-foliage plants such as agapanthus (lily-of-the-nile), evergreen daylillies, giant liriope, or an ornamental grass.

All of the above plants do well in the Houston area, but have different light requirements, so you need to determine whether the bed gets full sun, part shade or shade. (is it on the North or South side of the house? are there trees nearby?)

I didn't mean stonecrop.

I recently planted pansies in with my potted sago and they're thriving together so far! The sago is producing its first new set of leaves in som time. Coincidence?

Finally a pic!

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:589096}}