Good Evening Idylls! Are you guys sure its Ajax? I set the container right on top of the toilet, unopened, just like T says...and nothing! Maybe its that "watched pot" thing? Ill check it again in the morning. LOL! You guys are on a roll today! :-) Hi Babs! Sorry to hear about Chris fender bender! I can tell that you guys are anxious! Sending positive thoughts that all goes well with the dissertation. I can imagine the stress, anxiety, pride, and relief all rolled up into one big emotion! I would be a bundle of nerves too! Yea, thats pretty admirable, isnt it...following his dream! Good for him! And youre a wonderful partner and support and Im sure Chris knows that and I hope he tells you that a lot too! :-) Congratulations! Sue got a kick out of your Mother post. Hmm my moms favorite curse to me was "I hope you have a dozen kids and I hope they are all *exactly* like you!" Hmm...whatever did she mean? Oh well, the curse didnt work here, I only had one and he was as good a kid as a mom could hope for, thank goodness! Marie I love the color of the camassia in your gorgeous pic! My camassia is a periwinkle blue, but I sure would like to add some of that pretty purple one to the mix. You guys had me puzzled with problems with Camassia. I really didnt think it was that fussy of a plant, so I wanted to find out what its horticulture needs were (maybe I should of looked that up before planting mine?...LOL). Anyway, says they like to be moist before flowering and on the drier side after flowering. I dont know how that works with my planting. Mine are planted in my river bed a/k/a drainage ditch. But the drainage ditch is really only wet some of the time and average most of the time and there is no predicting when that area will be wet or dry. So, I still dont know why Camassia might be hard to grow and/or why they seem to be growing fine where I have them planted. Marian what a wonderful environment you grew up in. Idaho is *gorgeous*! Thanks for sharing the link....thats a beautiful site with lots of great pictures. I *bet* that marsh is stunning! If you havent seen all the pics on that site you should go back and check it out. Im sure you especially would appreciate it. Im so sorry Nolon is having trouble. Thats a horribly uncomfortable feeling, I can well imagine. I hope he can find some relief, without the worrisome side effects. Sorry to hear youre not feeling well either. Hope you get that bug out of your system soon. Deanne, I worded it wrong...I *did* know that you repeated the pansy planting again this year. What I was *trying* to say is that it is as lovely this year, as it was last! That really is probably one of my all time favorite partnerships. In fact I was thinking that JM and Pansy pic would make a *stunning* cover for a book on Japanese Maples....with, of course, credit to you...and a little pay would be nice too! Hint hint to anyone out there listening! :-) Beautiful picture! The Purple Ruffles basil is not a big grower..maybe...1&1/2 feet (more likely a foot). Its not the most vigorous grower in the world, but I really like it. I love the color and the sheen is what really makes it special. Wish it were just a tad more robust. Thanks again for the *beautiful* fuchsias and surprise coleus Deanne! Everything is gorgeous. You are quite the propagator. What kind of soil do you use? I like the fact that it is light, but still holds together well. Also want to tell you thank you for sharing your container tips with all of us. Great to hear about your experiences and very generous of you to share all that great information with us. No wonder your plants look so fabulously happy! Who wouldnt be with a caretaker like you?!? :-) I have printed your instructions out...now all I have to do is remember to follow them! :-) My Love Lies Bleeding seeds never germinated! :-( I am bummed about that! Wanted to plant them in the tubs out front again with the elephant ears. Speaking of which, was it Honey, Deanne, or Norma who grew Black Magic Elephant Ears last year? Im sure it was one of you who posted a pic last year? Anyway, I bought them this year and really like them. Something has me puzzled though...all the leaves that were on the plant when I bought it are truly black, but I am noticing that new leaves that are forming are green instead. Ive been cutting them out for fear the plant will revert to green again, but then started thinking maybe its possible that they dont turn black until they mature? Although, the smaller leaves that had already formed on the plant when I bought it were black. Im confused. Anyway, whoever knows about this plant, do you know if the leaves should be black from start to finish or if it is normal for some of them to start out green? Ive been thinking about Brenda too...hope alls well on the farm! :-) Hi Brenda if youre out there...come stop and chat for awhile! V you have to tell us shade deficient people the name of the plants in your pic. I think I recognize the leaves of the trout lily? But, what is the pretty white flowering plant? Or, is that all one type of plant? I love woodland plants - wish I had better conditions for them. Ill have to try that Walgreens site. Thanks for letting us know about it. Oh well, gotta go! Hope you all have a wonderful evening. I probably wont be able to be back until Sunday or Monday, but hope you all have a wonderful week-end. Warm thoughts and good wishes to Taryn...keeping you, your family & friends in my thoughts and prayers! Ei

DRIPPY, don't give up on those tubers. Some of the ones I had from last year looked kind of dried up when I potted them up a couple of weeks ago. I figured why not. Well they have just started to sprout. Think the weather is nice? Talk to us when the heat and humidity hits for quite a long time. Bet you won't think it's so then. I hate humidity. BONNIE, You don't sound snotty at all. The pots work for me, been using the same ones for 6 years, this is year 6. They look all but brand new. I store them in the cellar in the winter as they would no doubt never survive the cold and snow in the winter. I have humidity in the summer, not dry air, and I don't have the altitude problems either. I wouldn't buy plastic pots to use either, if they only lasted a year. That is a waste of money. DAWIFF, You are part of the experiment with the dahlia seeds I sent you that I collected from my dahlias last year. I don't know if the fireworks dahlia seeds will come true to seed, so we will find out this summer. I sure hope they do. The dahlia diablo seeds will come true to the parent plant they where collected from, at least they have done so for the past several years for me. You sure got better weather than we've had here. Now those collarete dandy and the mixed fireworks seeds I sent you are new packets of seeds from TM seeds. I have no idea what the collarette dandy will actually look like other than the pics on the packets and they where beautiful and the fireworks ones. Well had 2 packets, and sent you seeds from both packets. 5 of us will have seedlings from both packets of seeds. I just hope that from a mix of both packets and 5 of us growing plants, we will each get 1 different color from all the others. OK so I'm dreaming, but we can sure try. Since last year I got 5 seeds in a special trade. All 5 germinated and between Heidi and me, we got 5 different colors. FGIRL2, Oh you bet you are going to be getting dahlia seedlings from me at the swap. Quite a few of them for that matter. You are one of the 5 I can trust to collect seeds from them for next year. And I'm counting on "someone" bringing us lots and lots of luck in your gardens. She will bring us luck that we get several different colors. I also have some tubers that I saved from last years plants and they are just sprouting now, so you get a pink striped one too. VERA, As far as I know, there isn't a need to pinch the bishops children or any of the dwarf dahlias. The ones in the pots in the pics where just planted right in the middle of the pot, and watered. What you see is what they did on their own. I don't know about the Early bird dahlias, but if I remember correctly, it is a dwarf dahlia. If that is correct, then I would just leave it alone and let it grow the way I have done in the pots. Now how to save the tubers for next year. I'm not really the person to ask on this one. This was only my second attempt at doing this. First attempt was a total failure. They became food for a field mouse that somehow got into my cellar and managed to get the cover of the styrofoam cooler off and ate every one of them. So I don't know if this year I got lucky or I did thing correctly. But this is what I did to save them and it sure did work. I waited until about mid October when the plants where pretty much dying back and not much left of them, except for the 3 stargazer that where in the ground. I got a bunch of the brown paper lunch bags, both the regular size and the large size ones that the local market had. Starting with the pots, I took one pot at a time and pulled the plant out of the pot and gently banged off as much soil as I could possibly get off the tubers as I could get off. Then I cut off almost all of the stem that was attached to the tuber, but left just a little bit so that I would know which stem the tuber was attached to. I figured that was the main tuber. Then labeled the paper bag with the name and color of the dahlia and put the entire tuber and all it's offshoots into the bag, rolled down the top and put it in a plastic grocery bag. Before I go on, don't be shocked that the tiny seed produced the beautiful plant and a ton of tubers in the bottom of the pot. My mouth fell open when I saw all the tubers. I proceeded to do this with each of the pots that had dahlias in them. Then I dug out the 3 stargazer I had that where in the ground. Funny thing with those is they had the least tuber offshoots than the ones in the pots. I did the same thing with them as I did with the ones in the pot. The paper bags just got stuffed into 3 plastic grocery bags. I left the bags in the house, by the front door, to dry off a bit. Then I shook off and sort of pulled off more soil that was left on the tubers, but some soil still remained. Then I put the bags inside 2 plastic coolers that locked closed. This time I knew no little creepy critter would get into them. Then the coolers went into my cellar that is cold, but not below freezing. My wash machine and dryer are down there, along with the furnace and hot water heater. Around February mid to late february, i brought the coolers up to the kitchen and one by one, I took out the tubers, wet them with a gently stream of water running from the kitchen faucet, shook off the water and put them right back in the bag and into the cooler and back in the cellar. I wanted to start the tubers earlier than I did, but it was so cold outside and I didn't have a place to pot them up and keep them inside. So when it began to warm up the first week in May, out came the tubers. Many of them where already sending out roots and a couple had started to throw out some shoots. I took a small steak knife and carefully separated the tubers, 1 by 1 and took a good look at them. there where a few that had really shriveled up and I tossed them, and a few look dry, but I potted them all up. I used miracle grow potting mix and put them in 4-5 inch pots. Some tubers where bigger than others, and the small ones ended up in going in 6 inch pots a put 3-4 of them in one pot to get them going. So far 50% of them have sent out shoots and leaves above the soil. The tubers get buried under the soil. I will be potting some of them into their own 10 inch pot this week. Yup. FGIRL2 you get some of those too. Like I said, I don't know if this is the best way to store the tubers, the correct way, or I was just lucky. BUT, it worked for me and I will do it this way again this year with the tubers I want to save. Fran

I'm here! Been so busy haven't had a chance to get online! I got my HUGE box from Remy Friday! She sent a BIG planter (really pretty), a magnetic photo maker, a Weman's bag (that's where she works), flavored ice tea bags, herbes de provance, a citronella bucket (so timely - we just got a batch of skeeters this week because of the recent rain - it's rained four times this summer - HaHa), jostaberry jam (she made from her own bush), and plants gerber daisy, rudbeckia, vinca, sedum, a succulent and a geranium. Thanks Remy I loved everything! Sue G.

magiclamp1, It's important that the temperature in your garage does not get below freezing, and it's also important that it doesn't get above 50 degrees F. Check some of the forums on this site for information about storing dahlia tubers.