Need suggestions for plants

I am pretty sure the the alpine plants are out of the question for me due to heat and humidity, however I would like to plant a trough or raised bed. Can anyone suggest plants for a humid zone 8 that would be small (very) and compatible. I currently have a tiny species narcissus (2-3 blooms per stem, each smaller than a dime). I want to showcase that in the spring with at least one mounding and one trailing companion

Beth

Any of the creeping veronicas (there are several) would give you pretty blue flowers on a small, mat forming or mounding plant that is great for well-drained conditions.

Thanks, I will look into those. Are they pretty tolerant of heat? The only one I have grown is Crater Lake Blue and I loved it.

Beth

tolerant of heat? heh. I have them growing between pavers and over rock wall in full sun, in Colorado, where a "cool" day in summer hits 90. Yeah, I would say so.

Except there is the humidity factor you need to consider that Colorado doesn't have. V. pectinata I don't think would do, due to its wooly tomentum over all parts. Gosh, a dime size daffodil! What's the species on that? I was going to say Veronica 'Waterperry', but that will get 4-6" high when it spreads. Maybye V. oltensis? I grow V. armena, a neat, 1-2" spreading plant too, but I think it doesn't like the humidity, even here in Minniesota. At least there is something it doesn't like here, and the symptoms are pretty typical of summer melting. Research V. alpina. That one could be very good.

Certainly the sempervivums and tiny sedum types, and thymes would all work.

Erodium chamaedryoides and similar species would be nice.

Thanks for the suggestions.

The heat and humidity are limiting factors. Many of the silver leaved plants melt down here. Oour winters are also quite damp, so that the ones that tolerate summer tend to rot in the winter. Naturally I want to grow alpines.

A very human trait, to want what you can't obtain. I am experimenting with specie tulips, just so that I can say I grow tulips in the deep south. I refuse to grow the hybrids as annuals. I simply can't afford them for only one season.

Beth

Perhaps you could look into some of the species more native to the "alpine" areas -- Smoky mtns. etc. -- closer to your climate?

I looked on the NARGS site, and the closest chapters are in North Carolina. Oh well.

Even us here in Minnesota can have problems with winter wet. Some of our members place pots over certain plants, like Lewisia's, to keep them drier. A favorite place for us to grow cactus is on the south side of a house, under the eave. It can use up some otherwise useless space. And I have seen someone out in Washington fashion a plexiglass roof (3ft x 3ft) over an area for his cactus.

Actually, I don't think Erodiums are alpine anyway. I'll bet they'd love your climate.