Master Gardener MaryAnne Spinner who coordinates our very successful Electronic Plant Clinic was a first prize winner for her spectacular garage rooftop garden in Chicago Mayor Daley's Landscape Awards Contest in 2005.

There is a very nice story with pictures about MaryAnne's garden and a list of her favorite plants on the The Horticulture Gardening Institute's website which is now called Learn2Grow at http://www.learn2grow.com/.

Learn2Grow offers personalization options, an online garden journal, fun and easy projects, online courses and regional content delivered via cutting-edge tools. You can take the online course, " Creative Containers" for free until March 31.

MaryAnne's Top 12 Plants

1.Love-in-a-Puff vine (cardiospermum halicacabum)

2.Salvia 'Hot Lips' and 'Black and Blue'

3.Coleus 'Religious Radish' and 'Pineapple Prince'

4.Petunia 'Lilac Wave' (one of the most prolific of the Wave series) and Supertina 'Royal Velvet'

5.Xanthosoma violaceum (like a colocasia, but with blue leaves and violet stems)

6.Zinnia 'Zenith Red' (a triploid; doesn't need deadheading)

7.Gaura (a few varieties, such as 'Siskiyou Pink' and 'Karalee White', it waves in the breeze and is a butterfly and hummingbird magnet)

8.Cuphea (several varieties, including 'Georgia Scarlet' and 'Petite Peach'; great for small pots and edging)

9.Polyganum variegata 'Shiro-Gane-Nishiki' (also known as variegated Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate; gets to be 8 feet tall, with 2-foot plumes of flowers)

10.Plectranthus 'Mona Lavender' (late-flowering with stunning color)

11.Verbena bonariensis (butterflies love it, self-seeds well)

12.Rudbeckia 'Cherokee Sunset' (unusual coloration)