Because we experience all the best each season has to offer, our area is the perfect place to experiment with cultivars native to different planting zones. What better place to mix and match plants native to both colder Northern climates and subtropical Southern species than in a family home in our area that started as a blank slate.
This home had an existing pool but little else to provide privacy or to accentuate the landscape. It was missing hardscaping and landscaping elements to interface between the house and the backyard. To create a cohesive outdoor living experience, we started 
by adding elements like pergolas, gates, and walkways to tie the house and outdoor living areas together. Then we set about creating a mature privacy screen in a unique way—by mixing both colder climate trees and shrubs with sun-loving palms and other classic tropical plants not usually seen in the same garden beds. With proper selection and placement, it is possible to grow certain varieties of palms and cold-weather spruce in the same garden for a unique effect.
Mature twenty-two-foot windmill palms mixed with clusters of needle palms and a sprinkling of banana trees surround the pool and soften the edges of surrounding gates and pergolas, creating a lush oasis-type feel to the space. Mixing in five types of heat tolerant spruce trees—blue-green Norway spruce, green Oriental spruce, 
Fat Albert Colorado blue spruce, blue R.H. Montgomery spruce, and dwarf globosa blue spruce shrubs from Oregon—“cool” the space. They thrive in this environment with the right soil mixture, proper drainage, and a half day of shade. Weeping Alaskan cedar trees fill in the spaces and are surprisingly heat tolerant. Moveable containers of succulents and cactus sourced from Arizona surround the pool and walkways.
Planting cultivars from different planting zones may go against common knowledge. Considering and understanding the living conditions each type of plant enjoys regardless of whether they are traditionally planted in zone four or zone nine is the key to mixing cold- and heat-loving specimens. Mixing zones creates not only vibrant regional interest and color, but also adds textural contrast that makes your landscape different from anyone else’s. Sometimes it pays to break the rules.
DAVID PAYNE is the owner of HOME & GARDEN LANDSCAPES and can be reached at 919-801-0211 or HOMEANDGARDENLANDSCAPES.COM.