Landscaping - I'd like your opinions and pictures

Our build package includes landscaping. They do the labor and we get to choose the following:

Three 15 gallon plants/trees
Twelve 5 gallon
Eight 1 gallon
and 2 flats.

I'd like to hear your suggestions and see any pictures you have. At this point we are thinking about 3 Queen Palms for the 15 gallon, some Sega Palms and Oleaners for some of the 5 gallon and we are not quite sure on the rest.

For the layout, we will probably do a small bed behind the spa with on of the Queen Palms and a sego or two (not sure what else) and then a larger bed on the back side of the pool. We will also put a couple Oleaners in front of the equipment pad to act as a screen.

Comments suggestions?

Sean, be careful with the Queen Palm. If I remember correctly, don't they bud a large amount of little fruit pods (Orange in color). You may not want that mess in your pool or spa. We are planning on using some Pygmy Date Palms alongside several Sago palms. I will try to find some pictures and get them posted. I would caution you on the Queen palms. Ask your landscaper and see what he/she says. The Oleanders will offer some nice cover to the pool equipment.

Addition to the post. I just found this website:
http://www.floridagardener.com/pom/queenpalm.htm

Copied from website:
Fruits: Yellow to orange, produced in copious quantities

Pests or diseases: Ganoderma, phytophthora bud rot

Uses: Specimen tree

Bad Habits: Fruit is messy. Weak-roots combined with a prodigious sail-like canopy makes it prone to topple in strong winds. Frizzletop a serious problem if not feed regularly especially on alkaline soils. Pollen hazard. Very quick growing, tall palm hard to prune. You will graduate from pole saw to ladder and pole saw to cherry picker in a few years.

Cost: $$ -- reasonable

Hmm..had not heard that about them. I've had a couple people with pool recommend them, but theirs may not be mature enough to be producing fruit yet.

Now I'm looking at Majestic Palm and Princess Palm. I need to speak directly with the landscaper and make sure they can actually get what I want and that I don't need to choose from a predetermined list. I don't know how readliy available some of these plants will be.

Every part of the oleander is highly poisonous. I'd avoid those if you have or will have young kids who stick everything they can get their hands on in their mouths.

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Originally Posted by KurtV

Every part of the oleander is highly poisonous. I'd avoid those if you have or will have young kids who stick everything they can get their hands on in their mouths.

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Thanks. I did know that about Oleaners as we've had them before. Fortunately, my 3 kids (and my dog) aren't plant eaters. Also, no children will EVER be unsupervised in our backyard now that there is a pool. I'm far more concerned with drowning than I am poisoness plants.

Sean, we have oleanders around ours as well and they have done well. I think you are further south than me (Fort Worth). We have done well with red yuccas, agave cactus, lantanas, etc. Native Texas plants should do well. We have a sego palm as well. We had several palms last year but they did not survive the winter (they were still young and had a very cold snap last December which killed them). Our sego is still in the pot but is planted in the ground. When below freezing weather comes we will take it out of the ground and bring it in. Good luck in you plant selection!

Mike

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Originally Posted by mkamp1515

Sean, we have oleanders around ours as well and they have done well. I think you are further south than me (Fort Worth). We have done well with red yuccas, agave cactus, lantanas, etc. Native Texas plants should do well. We have a sego palm as well. We had several palms last year but they did not survive the winter (they were still young and had a very cold snap last December which killed them). Our sego is still in the pot but is planted in the ground. When below freezing weather comes we will take it out of the ground and bring it in. Good luck in you plant selection!

Mike

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Thanks. We usually only get a handful of nights that get below freezing, and then only for a couple of hours. I'll probably wrap them, but that's about it. I'll take a looks at those others you mentioned - except the Lantana. We had that in the front of our last house. It's pretty stuff, but grows like a weed and tends to take over whatever area it's planted in without regular pruning.

You aren't making tequila with that agave are you? ;)

In lieu of oleanders, you may want to consider wax myrtles. They're evergreen and can be kept as a rather large shrub or limbed up as a small tree. The leaves have a bayberry scent when crushed. They do drop smallish leaves but near an equipment pad I don't think it would be a problem. We have 2 that are growing as large shrubs (about 6x8) here in north TX and also had a couple limbed up as trees to shelter/shade an a/c unit when we lived in NC.

We just had the landscaping around our pool finished about 3 weeks ago. Want to get some pictures up here, but just haven't taken the time.

We had windmill palms put in. They are very cold tolerant. Don't know how cold you get there in your part of TX. The jelly palms are very nice looking also. We have oleander also. Love the look of them. The landscaper used some knockout roses throughout. I really like the look of them and they bloom from spring all the way through November here. They are easy to maintain, aren't prone to disease like most roses, stay full and bushy (not long and lanky like some), and give lots of color.

Good luck with your landscaping. It really polishes everything off after living with a bomb crater through most of the pool build process.

We also have wax myrtles around our equipment. We like them because they grow fast are very drought and cold tolerant. The NC Dept of Transportation plants them everywhere to landscape roadsides, so it is a hardy shrub. I was told the slight scent repels fleas and ticks (not sure about that is true but our dogs and cat don't seem to have a problem).

Here is my landscaping package, including sod all around the backyard . Budget 1500.00 here in Austin, TX.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...y/IMG_2929.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...y/IMG_2928.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...y/IMG_2926.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...y/IMG_2923.jpg

Looks good. I like the rocks with your water feature - kind of a southwest look.

I need to get some better pics .. :D