It's actually warmer up north than down here lately. Unfortunately our plants don't mesh into a decent trade, I have the things you mention that I want and have very few shade plants in abundance or I'd be into it. Good luck, that's a good list. In the top section "seeds I have to trade" I put the date there, so people can know how current the list is. That might help you out. Do you mind if I ask about your Talinum? How long have you had it? I find that I'm cutting the whole thing back about once a month. After a flush of stalks starts making the seed balls, it stops, and those long things are flopping all over the place. As soon as I cut them, new ones start coming up fast. Needs some elbow room, this plant. I love seeing the little flowers "floating in mid-air" when I look out the window though. Have to be careful where I throw the cuttings too, they can root easily. It's really unusual and fun.

OK, I'll give them additional thought. :) the screaming acid chartreuse doesn't bother me. It is the alien form. I have seen them in California gardens looking wonderful but not here. I grew up in Arizona and now that I am in Portland, I like my garden to look like Portland if that makes sense? I LOVE Arizona and would move back in a heartbeat if DH would go but he won't. I LOVE the desert. LOVE tropical/arid plants but think they look funny here out in the landscape for the most part. I think Euphorbias and most succulents look better in gardens South or at least with houses whose architecture is better suited. I've seen some gorgeous stucco cottages with tons of tropical/succulent plants in the PNW that are awesome but my house just doesn't. I did get a small greenhouse for my birthday and am going to fill it with tropical plants so I can go out and putter or sit when it rains here. I'm totally full up on trees, I actually have too many but can't bear to edit, yet. I've got a Prunus x bleiriana that has been nothing but diseased and infested and ice damaged since day one. It was a present from my DH the first birthday after we bought this house (which had no trees at all, or shrubs other than Laurel for that matter) and the first tree we planted. I'm darn near full up on shrubs and subshrubs too. I've ripped out several this year to make way for new favorites. :) I can always squeeze in one more dwarf conifer or Rhodie...or heather or Daphne....:)

I hope that interpreting 'perennial' loosely is OK. I have found Geranium 'Jolly Bee' is hardier than 'Rozanne', but both bloom all summer starting in early July. Type 3 clematis start blooming in early July and continue for at least a month, and for some varieties much more. I don't have all the names off the top of my head, but I know Ville de Lyon and Venosa Violacea bloom for more than 5 weeks. Clematis are vines, and type three clems get pruned to about a foot in late winter. My third plant is Hydrangea 'Endless Summer', which started blooming for me in early July and is still blooming. Like G. 'Jolly Bee' it will still be blooming (based on 4 years) when frost hits. I also have a coppery double mum that starts blooming in late August and will bloom through several hard frosts until the ground freezes or it's covered with snow, so it's often still blooming in mid-October, later than anything else in my garden.

I second the recommendation for the Rozanne cranesbill and coreopsis. Coreopsis come in different flower forms, all long blooming. I have had the best luck with a yellow threadleaf coreopsis called Zagreb. It's supposed to be extra hardy. I have also had bad luck overwintering Gaillardia. I had five Arizona Red Shade plants last year, and all of them died over the past winter. I also second the recommendation about the reblooming daylilies such as Stella D'Oro (golden yellow). They are very long blooming, and they should be fairly easy to find and probably cheaper than some of the fancier daylilies. There are other "Stella" varieties in other colours, too: I have purple and red Stellas. Up here, I see Stella D'Oro daylilies planted in places like shopping mall parking lot medians. That says something about how low-maintenance and useful these plants are. I doubt they get a lot of TLC in places like that, and they probably provide colour more cheaply than annuals that must be replaced every year. Some salvias are relatively long blooming, especially if you cut off the old blooms. Blue Hills salvia and East Friesland salvia have been good for me, but there are probably others that also bloom well. Salvia are pretty tough.