Peonies and delphiniums are what I would grow if I could declare one bed to be zone 5 or 6.

Oh Sylvia, you've hit a hard one here LOL.
I have zone envy for a list of about 100 plants.
From Hosta's to many tropical's and the Himalayan Blue Poppy would be to die for.
I've just learned I have to live with what I can have, not what I can't WAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH
I love fuchsia's, they have these all over in Co. and just fell in love with them.
I tried one from HD and it died of course.
Oh, the pines in Co. are beautiful. I lived there for 8 years and then again for 2 years when the kids were young.

I have zone 10 envy. I hate cold. The plants I love the most hate cold too. I don't think this is a coincedence! I would have no clue what to grow in zone 3 or 4.Everything that I love is at least zone 7. PJ

I always want to plant fields of asian lilies, hostas, delpheniums, torch lillies, toad lillies, larkspur, BEARDED IRIS!, liliacs, you know, one of those great English looking gardens. Buschart gardens in Victoria B.C. is about the most gorgeous garden I've ever seen. None of it will grow here.
I'm with PJ on the cold. Having a fit today! Had to find some blue jeans. Thank goodness it will be back to the 80's in a couple of days!

Sylvia-clivia should grow for you. They do excellent in a pot and with protection tolerate some cold.
Tally HO!

I agree with bossjim.

pj, you can have zone 10 envy.

beachplant-
I finally have one window in one room where the cats can't dig &, uh, you know.

So maybe I'll try some clivia in a pot this winter (reckon anybody'll have some at the Ft Worth Swap?)

Bearded irises won't grow for you?

Is the soil too sandy?

(It couldn't be the heat; we had 105 & drought this summer, & mine are doing well.)

I think I'd go into a blue funk if I couldn't have irises.

I know what you mean about the English Garden look;
I love it myself.

I wish somebody would write a book on the lines of
"English Style Gardens Using Texas-Friendly Plants".

'course they'd have to write about 5 different books for all our different environments!

WOW, I looked up the clivia, beautiful plant but pricey. 79 bucks for one.

Whaaaaat?????

There's gotta be a cheaper clivia out there somewhere.

Mail order nurseries & on-line plant sellers are sometimes awfully high:

I once found some bamboo on-line...for $49 a pot.

for bamboo!

I'm gonna keep my garden fork in the trunk & see if I can't get some from the side of the road this winter.

I would love to have Gingers and banana plants all over and them not dieback in the winter.
I'm sure there is more, just can't remember now

Bearded iris won't take our humidity and hot nights. Even though ya'll get hotter we stay hotter longer. And we don't cool off at night.
Jolana, most of my gingers go dormant in winter.
Keep an eye out at Lowes or Home Depot, they usually get orange clivia in the spring, around $20. Yeah, the different colors and the variegated can run into big bucks, hundreds for one plant. They grow really, really slow.
Tally HO!

Beachplant, it's gotta be the increase in humidity/wet soil that gets them. It stays hot (at least 90 a lot of times a bit higher!) during summer at night in Fort Worth.It also seems humid but I'm from a very dry area so my sense of what's humid might be off.It is NOT cool at night in summer tho! I have yellow bearded Iris that's been here forever even unwatered. A few ladies have entire beds of all kinds of Iris too. PJ

I used to envy people up North, 'cause they could grow tulips. Then I lived up North, and I don't envy them at all anymore.

I don't care if I never grow another tulip. I can have wonderful poppies to give me the shape of the flower, and have thousands of them! I can grow daffodils, anemones, alliums, ranunculous, amaryllis, freesias.....

I don't care if the hyacinth does smell good, it doesn't look good here. I want things that look good in my garden!

As for clivia, y'all need a good friend like my friend Virginia. She has shared 2 of them with me over the last few years. Along with a ton of other neat plants.

I just don't want it to get cold. I am with PJ, zone 7 would be too cold for me. I would just die up there! I hate cold, hate cold, hate cold! And DH is worse than me, LOL

I have a new plant I am trying to figure out where to plant. It is called 'Musical Notes' because.......

Yep, the blooms look just like a musical note on paper.

Janie

We had 'Musical Note' on Name That Plant! I know what you're talking about.Gee, I've gotten such a great edumacationalness here on Name That Plant! :^P PJ

Janie, I am with you on "hate cold, hate cold, hate cold" - I am definitely a warm weather person. Oh, and did I mention that I hate cold. We had our first light frost here in North Texas last night - not enough to damage the mature plants, but I did take all my new and rooting brugs inside (thank heavens). This is the time of year I really don't like - when you get an early killing freeze and frost and have to live with the dead plants in 70 degree weather for a long time.