Hardy small plant recommendations
 

We brought a pre-owned home here last February and will be snow birds, at least for now.

The plants/landscaping around the house is in reasonable shape after we had some trimming and mulch spread except there are about 5 plants that are dead or near-dead that need to be replaced. They are all about, or intended to be about, 2-to-3 feet in height, some flowering some not. I’m planning on doing the replacement myself and want to obtain plants that are hardy requiring minimal maintenance. I’m looking for suggestions on which plants might be best? Thanks in advance

Following. Sorry, no suggestions. We are building soon and I will be looking for similar ieas.

I think my sweet wife has about 150 different plants around our house.
Let's see. The button junipers are low maintenance and very hardy (there are other junipers too, some grow higher than others). Hawthorn bushes are hardy and there's a lot of them around here, you'll need to trim 'em a bit, same with podacarpus, but either of those are a good choice too. Annetta is another easy bush type that's easy to care for, and last I'll suggest coonties , which are quite tropical. Good luck!

I know my answer to your question is not what you are looking for, but as a part time resident also, I will give you some advise. Downsize your garden and plant grass. Otherwise, you will be fighting weeds endlessly. If you are at your home full time and can do a little bit of weeding every week, no problem. But if you are away all summer, the weeds will totally take over. The dam weeds really put a damper on your planned schedule when you get back to your villages home. Just some food for thought. Good luck with your new home : )

over the years we've looked for plantings that don't require a lot of maintenance. As pretty as they are when in bloom, I'd suggest that you stay away from bougainvillea....they grow extremely fast and require a lot of trimming. Another to avoid is the Cardboard Palm (unless you have a lot of space)...the Boston Ferns also grow huge down here....so take width into consideration too. Which plants to go with depends upon the orientation of your home....some plants do well in full sun others do not. less is sometimes better.

we recently had the front plantings redesigned and installed by Village Palm.

We also plant the tops of pineapple plants in the back which faces south, and every
18 months or so the plants yield a fruit almost as big as what you'd get at the store, but sweeter.

happy gardening and welcome to TV

Take a look at indian hawthorn. Grows slowly

I had Blue Daze, a lovely sky blue low level plant. It died a month after planting and my landscaper planted another one. It also died. Then I checked my camera. The culprit were two bunnies who liked chewing on it. You might want something wild life resistant.

We started with a "picture perfect" yard that matched the "photo" done on the landscaper's computer program showing our house set amid the beautiful plants. The yard looked like the colorful photo when it was finished. That lasted only a few months, when most of the bushes either took off and grew wildly, or in the case of the loropetalums, got something called a spider mite.

First to go were the knock-out roses. They started off small but seemed to grow so fast you could almost watch them do it. We got rid of the Muhly grass, too, it was too big and messy and I heard that snakes like to hide in it. The two wax ligustrums decided they'd like to be trees and they won. The tree rose didn't want to be a tree, it just liked to sprout suckers alongside it. The two camellias at the front door didn't like that location at all. One never developed beyond the root ball. My husband stuck the survivor on the side of the house where it likes the conditions much better.

Now what's left are low-maintenance, mostly boring, but dependable plants. Variegated pittosporum, which can be kept 2-3 ft. high, boxwood, Indian Hawthorne, dwarf yaupon, Walter's viburnum, Foxtail fern, and encore Azaleas. We replaced some of the loropetalums with healthy ones. Oh, and two wonderful podocarpus now occupy the spot shunned by the camellias, and love it there.

If we had it to do over again, we probably wouldn't do much at all. Lesson learned.

Landscapers like to load your yard with plants, bushes and palm trees. Less is way more because it all grows so fast. My thought is it's profitable for them but I'm not sure that's the reason totally. I have a 2 bedroom courtyard villa with a lot of patio, stone and 4 palm trees. Whoever did that did not take into consideration how big these palms would get. I had 2 removed last year - Phoenix sylvestri palms - in my current courtyard villa the landscaper put a Chinese fan on the side in a small area and it overtakes the sidewalk and ouse and needs to be cut back constantly. So beware of what these guys do. Also I am seasonal and gone 5 months so I have someone spray for weds monthly while I'm gone - I have all stone.

Hire a good landscaper.

lagustrom and Jap.holly

Small Plants
 

For a little color Crotons are a good choice for small plants that grow 2-3 feet. There are a couple varieties, so a mix looks very nice.

Knock out roses. Hardy, flowering and easy to care for.

IMHO this reply to your post is the best answer you are going to get. I am a seasoned gardener and I can tell you that unless you are here full time you almost cannot garden here. My suggestion is to stick with the awful foundation plantings that come with the house and when you are here go to one of the big box stores and buy seasonal flowering plants in pots.

I have been here many years and have a basic few plants in the ground, the rest are in pots and changed with the seasons.

Podocarpus and holly do well with part time maintenance. Agree with other writer - get some flowers in pots when you return for instant color and easy care.