Welcome to the South and to the Carolina Forum!

Magnolia and Camellia are great choices. Personally, I think there are way too many Crepe Myrtles, even though their bloom period is at a time when color is needed.

You'll also want Gardenia - the smell is amazing.

As soon as you get a chance, find your way over to the SC Botanical Garden on the campus of Clemson U. It's free and gorgeous and you can see all kinds of wonderful plants to add to your new yard.

Well, we're not really south enough to plant tropicals and send photos up North to gloat to our friends.
Probably, your biggest delight will be to send photos of your Christmas/New Years/Valentines Day pansies blooming while your Jersey friends gardens are covered in snow.
My yard doesn't seem to have any plant or tree that I couldn't have grown in Ct.
Just different bloom periods here, longer for the most part.
The fun here is vegetable gardening in the fall when Northern gardeners are putting everything to bed under a layer of mulch.
We have it easier growing zone 9-11 blooming perennials as annuals so we have a much bigger plant selection to choose from.
Welcome, and join us often to let us know how you're adjusting to Southern gardening.

I am also a NJ transplant. The biggest thing that says welcome to the south is Insects, lots of them!!!! There are random bugs of all kinds eating everything I have. If you have a crepe myrtle be sure to put Imidacloprid on it in the fall to prevent Japanese Beetles. Our tree got pummeled so we sprayed Sevin and then we next got attacked by white flies. I also learned that impatients don't grow well here and fescue grass is impossible to keep green in the summer.

Other than that, we love the warm weather. It floored our NJ family that we were outside playing corn hole on Thanksgiving Day.

Don't forget azaleas... they especially love acid soil and are evergreen.

And I plant impatiens every year with great success! Just make sure to keep them out of the sun and well-watered. Mine do well in large containers and in the ground.

I'm in the sand hills; upstate you'll have a lot more clay. Take a few drives around neighborhoods in your area to see what other folks are growing... if they're out in the yard stop and ask! (That's one thing about us Southerners... we're always happy to talk to just about anyone! ;-D) Ask the local nurseries what does well in your area and yes, definitely check out the Clemson Extension office - great resource.

Welcome to the South..,. glad y'all came! ;-D

You can grow several palm species here, even in your zone 7b you can grow needle palm, scrub palmetto, dwarf palmetto, and the trunked pindo palm and windmill palms (and a few others if you have a slightly warmer microclimate). Butterfly gingers, candy corn plant and cherokee bean are three "tropicals" that grow as herbaceous perennials here, too.

If you venture into spring bulbs, remember that winter is a showy season--so stock up on crocuses, reticulate irises, daffodils for perennials. Tulips are truly annuals and with our springs so warm, stick with either species tulips or early season tulips for longest, best displays. Later flowering tulips just bed and drop petals way too fast once you get into late April.

Camellias, yes, but definitely get sasanquas as they bloom in autumn, bringing spring-like floral color of reds, pinks and whites to contrast the gold, rusts and browns of fall foliage.