Question
I am a new planter who likes a lot of color in the landscape. I would like to know what to plant to add color without incresing my water bill. The are get more than 4 hrs of sun per day.  

Answer
Hey, Candis.

I'm like you in that I have this inherent dislike of water bills.

Without knowing exactly where you are, I'll answer based on you getting four hours of sun per day, disliking water bills, and not being in Phoenix or Palm Springs.

First, look at the succulent family, the aloe family, and the agave family. They provide a wide variety of leaf colors and shapes, there's a constant display of flowers, and they don't require any extra watering (unless you're in Phoenix or Palm Springs). Some of the aloes and agaves have soft thorns on them, but for the most part they don't poke, scratch, or prick. The aloe flowers, especially the red ones, attract hummingbirds. Also look at the aeoniums in the succulent family.

The geraniums (geranium and pelargonium family) also provide some very hardy plants that don't require watering, and they come with a great variety of leaf shapes, colors, and even smells, not to mention the very wide variety of blossom types and colors. There are people who specialize in growing just scented geraniums, and the scents run the gamut, including peppermint, lime, lemon, chocolate, etc. The vining geraniums will create an excellent ground cover. Many geraniums are everblooming.

If you need a good ground cover, look at both the vining geraniums and verbena. Verbena doesn't come in very many colors. We used to have a choice of pink or white, but plant geneticists have added dark maroon (almost chocolate), red, and purple. Alyssum also makes a good ground cover. Both verbena and alyssum are everblooming. Sweet alyssum is very fragrant, sometimes so much so that people get sick of it. I love it.

The crown of thorns is quite popular because it also is everblooming. However, when it says "thorns," it means thorns. The stems are covered with thorns which, while not as brutal as rose thorns, are thorny nonetheless.

Depending on exactly where you are, other good plants to consider include varieties of ice plant and jade plant. If you need some good bushes, cassia and bougainvillea make very beautiful small trees or bushes. With the bougainvillea, though, the original variety has very nasty thorns; roses don't have anything on that bougainvillea. However, plant geneticists have again come to the rescue with thornless varieties and dwarf varieties. The dwarf varieties are particularly beautiful because the blossoms will open one color, change to another color (sometimes on a daily basis), and then fade to a final color, particularly the pink and golden varieties.

Following is a link to pictures of water-wise, flowering plants listed above and growing in my yard. Note that I'm in Spring Valley, California, and eastern suburb of San Diego.

http://www.abouthomes.info/pics/plants.pdf