I couldn't get that photo to work but if you want low growing shrubs the ixoras are low and you can pretty much ignore them. Hydrangas are nice but they would have to be trimmed and plumbagos grow like weeds here but even more trimming.

Pat

Unfortunately, no access to that pic URL.

You are in zone 9, so that in itself adds another challenge, as you can grow many tropicals all except for the reality of a couple days of freezes every or every other year.

But, I think i read you enjoyed cottage gardens. YOu can modify a traditional English cottage look in Florida easily with combining the textures and durabilities of Florida natives along with exotic favorites. So, for example, you can utilize the silver saw palmetto, dwarf walter's viburnum, FLorida anise, etc intermingled with lower sweeps or clumps of Agapanthus, shore juniper, amaryllis, asiastic jasmine, loropetalum, or dwarf Petite Pink oleander, etc.

Then add your perennial salvias, rust-resistant daylilies, oyster plant, and other verbena family plants and you can reasily create a nice cottagey border with a Florida tropical twist witht he seasonal (yet root hardy) taros and elephant ears, masjoo banana, etc.

If you like somewhat of the formal front yard entrance look, use asiastic jasmine as a groundcover, accents of sasanqua camellias, drifts of agapanthus and Little Rev flax, loropetalum is a purple leaved "substitute" for barberry, you can use knock-out roses for clumping mounds of color and even a few of those oakleaf hydrangeas in a shady, up-against-the-north-side-of-the-house areas.

Lots of ideas.

I think another way to get some tried and true recommendations is for you to post a pic of a garden or look (doesn't need to be a local Florida pic) and ask forum buds to suggest lower-maintenance or easy to find plants to substitute for the same look but are perfect for our climate.

Good luck.

Let me re-post the picture.......take a look, and thanks for the answers so far!

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