Recommend that you also give her a list of books (great going away presents!) like:

The Southern Gardener's Book of Lists (lists of trees, shrubs, perennials, etc organized by conditions: shady, sunny, wet, dry; and by desires: flowering, evergreen, fragrant, etc).
The Southern Living Gardening Book
Month by Month Gardening in the South (Don Hastings)

Thanks to online book sellers, her friends can order these and give them to her before she moves.

You're right about most plants there, will grow here also, but those plants that like cooler temps in summer are goners here. Our hot, and usually dry summers can really cook even some supposedly drought tolerant plants.

Those books will give good ideas to your friend on what will work well here. Just remember to tell here not to look at everyone elses yard here. I think we have enough Bradford Pears in Atlanta already. LOL

What a nice gift you plan for your friend! Be sure to peruse the books by Walter Reeves; he is truly the gardening guru here. I did not know Don Hastings wrote a Month by Month book but I know that Walter has and I highly recommend it. In addition to reading books, your friend should plan visits to some of the regional and botanical gardens.

I would add The Georgia Gardener's Guide to that list of books. I am including a link to UGA's gold medal winners. These plants do exceptionally well here.

Here is a link that might be useful: Georgia Gold Medal Winners

Any book by Don Hastings is great.

My list is:

Azaleas (we're famous for them)
hostas (can't kill em in my shady Atlanta yard)
elephant ears, ginger, and other tropical plants that like hot humid summers
autumn ferns
southern shield ferns
impatiens
bearded iris - They love the partial shade in my yard
knockout roses seem to resist black spot, etc. here
Rosemary thrives in our hot summers, even in partial shade
Hydrangeas of all sorts

the list is endless, but hopefully that's a nice start

Your friend may like to look at broad lists of proven plants so as to compare with the familiar.
Georgia Extension Services Publications:

Annuals

Bulbs

Perennials

Trees and Shrubs

I hope these will be helpful. Nell

ANything zone 7, but here full sun is a killer. Even my roses wilt sometimes.

Butterfly bushes do very well. As do day lillies.

Yes DO NOT plant a Bradford Pear. A house near mine had about 30 lined up on his property and the storm damage from the last 2 years (we had 3 hurricanes 2 years ago) made him decide to take them all out. A shame.

Here's my 2c: plants that are zone 7 also have to be zone 8 to really thrive here. Plants like astilbe or sweet cherry that love zones 4-7 (but not 8) and really don't mind extreme cold tend not to thrive here even though it's technically zone 7b. Similarly, you'll see a lot of plants that are zone 8+ doing well here, but odds are that eventually there'll be a really cold winter again. Only a couple decades back the mercury dipped down to negative 4!

Also, desert plants usually find it too humid here; unless you plant in well-drained soil they'll rot in our wet springs. The same humidity is great for bugs, mildew and plant diseases of all sort so it's best to plant disease-resistant and mildew-resistant varieties of anything you can. But be prepared to seriously water anything that's not drought-tolerant, because every year I've been here there's been at least a month without significant rain and sometimes more than that.

The last item to consider is that most of our so-called soil is heavy red clay, so almost every planting will benefit from heavily amending the soil.

So since you (and your friend, presumably) are zone 8 and we're sort of zone 8, I think any of the plants you're used to will do just fine here as long as they're drought-tolerant, humidity-tolerant, heat-tolerant, cold-tolerant and disease-resistant :)

Here is a list I got from the AJC:

Plants the thrive in clay soil

1. Aster tartaricus
   2. Astilbe
   3. Bee balm, Monarda
   4. Black-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia
   5. Bugleweed, Ajuga reptans
   6. Butterfly bush, Buddleia davidii
   7. Canna
   8. Coreopsis
   9. Creeping phlox, Phlox subulata
2. Crinum
3. Daffodil, Narcissus
4. Daylily, Hemerocallis
5. Deutzia, Deutzia gracilis
6. False indigo, Baptisia
7. Flowering quince, Chaenomeles japonica
8. Gaura
9. Goatsbeard, Aruncus aethusifolius
10. Joe-pye weed, Eupatorium
11. Milkweed, Asclepias tuberosa
12. Miscanthus, Miscanthus sinensis
13. Miss Huff lantana, Lantana 'Miss Huff'
14. Obedient plant, Physostegia virginiana
15. Oxeye daisy, Heliopsis
16. Purple coneflower, Echinacea purpurea
17. Salvia
18. Spirea, Spiraea
19. Sunflower, Helianthus
20. Swamp hibiscus, Hibiscus coccineus
21. Winterberry, Ilex verticillata
22. Witch hazel, Hamamelis vernalis

Here's my 2 cents about astilbes. I've had the same astilbes for 12 or 15 years. They thrive every year. Most of them are in soil that never ever dries out. One is planted in dry soil under trees. I can't reach it with a hose to water it, and it still does great every year. All are in sahde and all of them do great. For me, astilbe is one of the most carefree plants around. So don't discount it.
Some of my other doers that I never have to worry about are autumn fern, chelone lyonii, aquilegia, iris cristata, Siberian iris, Japanese anemone, and, of course, daylilies. Oakleaf hydrangea thrives too.

You all are the greatest. Now to pull all this info. together. I am very glad to hear rosemary does well there. It is a plant we share as friends...along with a killer cookie recipe that includes rosemary. Fitting as it is the herb of friendship and rememberance.

I will be sure to let them know how I came up to find the information and include this forum as a resource reference for them as well. THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!

Well it's only fair that you share that rosemary cookie recipe with us now that you've brought it to our attention...

Yes please share this recipe, I would love it.

Waiting.... I smell rose-mary coo-kies....

I have that Georgia Gardeners' Guide, and i have to say...it's falling apart, and I haven't had it for more than a couple of years. Probably less than a couple years. Yes I enjoy using it otherwise, and do, quite a bit, still I don't think it ought to be coming apart already. Good book, poor binding, in the large paperback edition I own anyway. If it's available in hardback that might be different. I have other large paperback gardening books, which I use just as often and have owned longer, and they're not falling apart.

I'm not really complaining, but if anyone's going out to look for Georgia gardening books, especially ones they plan to give as a gift, they might want to keep that in mind on this one.

Thanks in advance (I certainly hope) for that recipe, oldherb.