Hello, pdabill!
I am by no means expert in landscaping, and I only lived in Florida for 5 years (others with more experience will probably give you more serious advice. I traveled a couple of times to WPB, and, though you are located north from Miami, the weather is still quite similar, maybe half-a-zone colder than here.
You say that the hose entrance faces north, however as long as you don't plant very close to the house, I think you will have a lot of sun coming.
It depends really how much you are willing to alter the current lawn.
For huge and relatively immediate impact, I can tell you a couple of shrubs that will bring you color and are really low-maintenance for our Florida humid weather:
- hibiscus -
evergreen foliage, with a diverse range of colors for the flowers: white, yellows, pinks, reds and in-betweens. The flowers last one day only, but for me they flower year-around. You can get really good prices for them at your local HD. If you want fancy cultivars, you will find a good selection online as well, and maybe you have some nurseries close to you as well. One caveat: some HD are really good in taking care of their plants, some are not. Check your plant for aphids. Otherwise, the hibiscus are very happy plants, grow quite fast, cope well with pruning so you can maintain whatever size you want for the bush. The more branches means more flowers. Not pretentious with their soil, maybe fertilize occasionally, but they can survive even poor soil, as long as they have plenty of water. Loves sun as well, the more the better. I have some hibiscus in pots in dappled shade, and they flower as frequent and as big flowers as the ones in full sun.
-bougainvillea -
vine/shrub, again evergreen (at least for Florida). The flowers are quite inconspicuous, but the colorful bracts display a heavy show at least half-year round. Initially with a reduced color option (pinks, red and white, now they come in yellows and creams and orange. They can train on a fence (has to be very sturdy, since it can grow quite big and heavy, it "climbs" using its thorns as support/anchor) or create a rich shrubby mound. The bracts develop on new wood i think, at least the ones in our garden (our landlord's) "flowers heavily after pruning). All is nice except for the thorns, so if you have toddlers, maybe think twice about placing it close to the walking path. I live in a house with one 3-year old, but never had any blood shed because of the bougainvillea. Again, cheap finds at HD all year round, unless you want to buy huge ones. It grows quite fast, doesn't seem pretentious. Our mailman kindly asked us to prune it twice in a year-and-a-half, so he can stay out of the road and on the pavement to bring us the mail... Loves sun. We have two huge such shrubs, one towards northeast and one towards northwest. They get plenty of sun in the afternoon hours and they do just dandy! Never watered this plant, it lives on what Mother Nature provides! Maybe, until it establishes, you might need to give it some supplements, in case it doesn't rain (like it happened last summer).
- croton -
No flowers for this shrub. However, I don't think it needs them. The leaves themselves make all the money. A mix of colors from yellow to green to red and purple on every leaf, shiny and big. Other croton varieties have smaller leaves, with multiple corors, others are bicolor only (green and yellow). This ones, we have quite close to the house, on the north side, moderately tall (3-5 feet) with no pruning since we moved in here. The light is good (at least bright shade) and I think they see the sun as well, during afternoons. Again, HD can provide a good selection. Quite affordable (I did not actually buy any, since there was one in the garden). I watered this one a couple of times last summer, but otherwise, It didn't ask for.
For close-to-the-house, I would choose something to bring you some fragrant comfort, like gardenias (shrubs), or jasmines (vines). They can take part-shade/bright shade, however, my experience is limited with such gorgeous plants. The flowers are white, sometimes yellow or pink, and the perfumed flowers give a great welcome. Not mine, however. I read here on DG that they like to be planted in the garden, mine are potted. Never saw a flower, buds plenty, but they didn't open...
Let me catch my breath, I'll come back. I'll also try to give some pics for what I suggest.
Here is two hibiscus that I bought in May last year (they were less than one foot tall each). Now they are at least 3 feet each, the yellow one naturally branched, and gives me 4-5 flowers daily now.
Alexandra
