I keep going back and forth as I watch my ground covers spread. I do not like the "empty" look of nothing or the dead, messy look of mulch. I have a perennial vinca vine and ajuga. They just finished their bloom cylce. I loved the blue flowers among my hosta. The creeping jenny is just getting ready to bloom. It keeps moving toward the grass away from my woodland garden. At my place the ground covers compete more with the ferns, bleeding hearts and astilbe than they do with the hosta. The hosta aren't bothered but the others struggle mightily if a ground cover gets too close. They are not a huge issue to keep back. Once twice a season I go around and remove any invaders from under my hosta canopies. Once the hosta come in it is too dark under them for my ground cover to be happy. I have had LOV and snow on the mountain deep in the back of my woodland hosta gardens for over 10 years and never had a problem. They seem to be creeping now and I find myself pulling them up but I have so many seedlings to edit out it is all just part of the process. Wild violets love my gardens and I have all colors. It the spring they are very welcome. About now they are getting pretty large and the rain is usually at a premium so I pull them as I go. I prefer to think of "editing" vs weeding. People see my garden and imagine I do nothing but garden but they are wrong. I enjoy and hour or so a day. Some days when I am "painting" re-arranging I spend longer. This Lamium has me intrigued. I wonder if it would grow for me?

I've decided some of my daylilies' colors just aren't working for my garden color schemes. I could bring two Klehm daylilies if someone is interested. 'Smooth Vanilla Pastel' and 'Afternoon Tea Time.' Pictures are here http://www.songsparrow.com/2006new/plantdetails.cfm?ID=566&type=Daylilies&pagetype=plantdetails and here http://www.songsparrow.com/2006new/plantdetails.cfm?ID=485&type=Daylilies&pagetype=plantdetails However, the pictures (at least on my screen) are not perfect. I'd say Smooth Vanilla Pastel is really a creamy daylily with a strong chartreuse/green throat. And Afternoon Tea Time is essentially sherbet orange. They are nice, healthy plants in great condition, and they have spent the last year in my garden, enjoying a good compost-enriched soil. My yard has no daylily rust, and these plants seem free of it as well. If those would be good in your garden, let me know! At this point, I am looking for healthy shade shrubs for my back yard -- viburnums, pretty azaleas, hydrangeas, or things that can take DRY shade would be great, and a few shade perennials -- possibly asarums, carex, hakone grass -- or ...? Thanks, Julia

Wow, that's a lot of plants! I don't have a list of what I'm growing in my little gardens -- sometimes it takes me a couple of weeks in the spring to realize that that weird looking weed in the corner is something I've had for years. I just assume that more plants than not will grow in this area! One of the more unusual plants I grow is agapanthus. Not a particularly hardy variety, this was simply a florists' plant my mother gave me four years ago. But it's come up reliably every year for the past three seasons in Central Ohio. It's planted against a south-facing brick wall with excellent drainage, and apparently doesn't realize it's not in zone 8+ anymore! One of my mother's more spectacular plants is a 15 year old calamondin orange that arrived as a little "get-well" houseplant. It spends the winter on the unheated glassed in back porch in Cincinnati, and now stands over 6' tall in the pot, and is nearly 4' around. It always has flowers and fruit on it, and we've picked 200 ripe fruits at one time.

Items I have for trade I have the following rather large plants in my yard. If someone could talk me through how to get samples, I should be able to do this. azalea (pink) Bamboo camellia (deep rose) crepe myrtle (I think this one blooms a light pink, but I am unsure) Fantasia Japonica Fig tree hydrangea Monkey grass Also, I just germinated a few Majorcan Date seeds. Seeds I can share (I purchased these seeds): alfalfa (VNS) Amaranth, red Garnet Angelica Anise Anise hyssop Arugula Asparagus -Mary Washington Basil – Italian, Thai Bean – Blue Lake (BUSH), FAVA – Broad Windor, Golden Wax, King of the Garden Beets – hioggia, cylindra, early wonder, ruby queen, bull's Blood, Detroit dark red Bergamot Borage Broccoli - Waltham 29, green sprouting Brussels sprouts - Long Island Bush beans - blue lake, contender Butternut squash - winter squash Cabbage – Copenhagen market, golden acre, pak choy, Chinese cabbage, red rock mammoth California giant heirloom zinnia carraway Carrots-Danvers, scarlet Nantes, red cored chantenay, shin kuroda, royal chantenay Catnip Cauliflower - Snowball Cayenne Pepper Celery – Tall Utah Chamomile Roman and German Cherry Tomato - Large Red Cherry Chervil - Curled Collards – Georgia Southern, vates Coriander - Cilantro Corn - golden Bantham, Yellow Dent Cornsalad - Dutch Cosmos crazy mix Cress - Curled Cucumber - Marketmore, pickling Boston, Straight Eight, poinsett Culver's root Cumin Dark opal basil Dill - Mammoth Echinacea Eggplant - Black Beauty, long purple Fennel - Florence Garlic chives Gerbera Daisy Goji berry Green beans - provider Heal all Hummingbird & Butterfly Garden Mix (perennial and annuals) Hyssop Kale - blue curled scotch, dwarf Siberian, dwarf blue curled, red Russian Kohlrabi – purple Vienna, white vienna Lavender Lemon balm Lettuce - black seeded Simpson, iceberg, ruby red, bronze mignonette, butter crunch, oak leaf, prizehead, red romaine Lima beans - Henderson Mad dog skullcap Marigold Marjoram Melon - Hales Best Jumbo, Hearts of gold, honey dew green flesh, honey rock, banana, rocky ford Mexican mint Milk thistle Mint Mixed Daisies Mustard – florida broadleaf, southern giant curled, old fashioned okra - spineless Clemson, emerald, perkin’s long pod, red burgundy Onion - Red Burgundy, yellow Utah sweet, evergreen bunching, white sweet Spanish, yellow sweet spanish Onion chives Oregano Oregano Greek Parsley – moss curle Parsnip - Harris model, hollow crown Peas - green arrow, little marvel, sugar snap Pepper – banana, alifornia wonder, cubanelle, early jalapeno, Hungarian hot was, cayenne, long red thin, serrano Pink chrysanthemum Pinto beans - shell Pumpkin - small sugar, mammoth gold Radish - cherry belle, French breakfast, white icicle, champion, china rose, comet Rosemary Rutabaga – American purple top Sage Savory - summer Scallions - green bunching Snap peas - sugar peas Spaghetti squash - winter squash Spinach - blooms dale, giant noble Squash – early straight neck, table queen acorn, cocozelle, table queen, Waltham butternut, zucchini dark green, zucchini golden, blue hubbard, early white bush, table king bush, vegetable spaghetti Stevia Swiss chard - ford hook, large white ribbed, ruby red Tarragon Thimbelina Fragrant Double Thyme - winter Thyme, orange Tomato - Beefsteak, Roma, Rutgers, ACE 55, San Marzano, Floradde, golden jubilee, homestead 24, red cherry lg, Rutgers, azoychka, big rainbow, brandywine red, Cherokee purple, chocolate stripes, costoluto Genovese, marion, marglobe improved, purple calabash, striped suffer, tigerella, yellow pear Turnip - seven top, white globe purple, purple top, shogoin, white egg Watermelon - Crimson sweet, sugar baby, black diamond, Charleston grey, congo, tendersweet orange Witch hazel Yarrow, white Zucchini - black Beauty WHAT I Want If it blooms, smells good, looks interesting, has different textures, can be used as a house plant or a container plant outdoors, or can go in the garden (veggies or fruit) then I am interested. I am listing a ton of ideas, but this is in no way extensive. If you have something that isn't on my list, let me know because I am probably interested. (Seeds, bulbs, cuttings, plants) Abutilon Adenium African mask plant African violets (My grandmother always collected these) Ageratum Aloe Vera Alternanthera Aluminum plant Angelonia Anthurium Arabian jasmine Asiatic lily Asparagus fern Asters Astilbe Autumn joy Baby's breath Bacopa Bamboo Palm Begonias Birds nest fern Black-eye-Susan Blanket flower Bleeding heart Bolivian Jew Boston fern Brachycome Brandywine (viburnum nudum) Brazillian fireworks Bridal wreath spiraea Browallia Butterfly bush Caladium Calatheas Calibrachoa Cannas Celosia Chenile Chinese evergreen (Aglaonemo) Chrysanthemum Cipher Citrus Coleus Copper leaf Corabells Cordyline Corsage orchid Creeping wire vine Croton Crown of thorns Daffodil Dalmatian bellflower Daphne's Odara Day lily Delphinium Diachondra silver falls Diacia Dianthus Diascia Dracaena Dragon wing begonia Dusty Miller Dwarfs plume grass ERysimum Eucalyptus European cornel Evovulus Fiber Optic Grass Fiddle leaf plant Fire witch dianthus Forget-me-not Foxglove Fuchsia Gazznia Geraniums Gerbera Daisies Gomphrena Graptophyllum Guara Pink Fountain Harlequin glory bower Helichrysum Helichrysum Icicles Helichrysum licorice vine Heliotrope He'll ours peppermint ice Hibiscus – (My Mother always collected these) Honey suckle Hypoestes Impatients Indian blood peach tree (This is what my Grandmother called this tree) Iresine Iris Ivy geranium Ivy variegated and Green Jacaranda tree Joseph's Coat Kaleidoscope Amelia Knock out roses Lamium beacon silver Lantana Lemon grass Lobelia Lotus Lysimachis Magilla Perilla Maidenhair Fern Melampodium Mock orange Money tree Monstera deliciosa Moss rose Muscadine Bush Nemesia Nerve plant New Guinea Impatients Newesia Nicaoataians Nierembergia Nirembergia Oleander Orange jasmine Ormental grasses Osteserman Oxalis Pansy Pansy Orchids Papyrus Passion flower / may pop Peace lily Pelargonium Pentas Peony Peruvian lily Petit blue Petunia Phlox Plectranthus Pleomele (Song of India) Plumbago Poimsettia Portulacca Potatoes (red, gold, yellow) Prayer plant Purple fountain grass Purple Heart Rainbow chard Reblooming lilac Red Aglaoneme Red Japanese Oak Rex begonias Rubella (skimmia japonica) Salvia San coleus Scaevola Scheduler a Silver vase plant Solanum Spider plant Strawberries Streptocarpus String of pearls Sun coleus Super cascade petunia Sweet bay tree Sweet potato vine Tahitian Bridal Veil Tea rose begonia Thyme, doon valley Ti Plant Tomatillos Torenia Trailing petunia Trailing vinca Tulips Umbrella plank Variegated basket grass Verbena Vina vine Vinca minor Wandering Jew Wave Torenia Zinnia Anything Tropical