Thanks laceyvail and terrene! I guess it must be the cultivar. I got Deep Red and Queen Victoria. All the deep reds are still nice and brown, and one of the queen victoria's is still brown, the other turned green and looks sickly due to it. I read on one site though that some cultivars have green shiney leaves on top and brown on the bottom, and that is what mine seems to have. Guess it was the change that made me nervous. Here is the queen victoria that is still brown: Here is the one that has turned green: The deep red:

Thanks for the great pictures! It looks great with the white lilies. Helps with timing too. I have a lot of lilies too, mostly asiatics and a few Orientals like Casablanca. The lobelia looks like a kind of orange-y red rather than a blue red. I have a lot of pink in my main garden (the one with the moister soil, which is heavily amended) so if I put it there IÂd have more of a difficulty in finding a place where it wonÂt clash. I bought it hoping for the front yard where I am making a new bed: but that soil is not amended (just compost worked into the top layer) and so is drier. 1 foot down is clay, if that makes a difference. That bed would have direct sun for only a few hours a day, partial shading by shrubs earlier and later. HÂmmÂ

I pray it's not voles that I have. I think i was mice because I found a little nest and the roots were exposed enough (I dug it up kinda sloppily) so that after eatting the rosette of foliage the mouse could suck up the roots like little tasty strands of spagetti. The garage can warm up on a decent winter day.... the furnace and water heater are in a side room that vents to the garage so that adds to the warmth. It probably stays in the 40's. Ok the fig tree I keep in there is starting to sprout now too. I wonder if I can put it somewhere colder.... I already put all the potted bulbs outside, I gave up on winter. Terrene: open up one of their tunnels, put peanut butter on a trap and cover it with a board or something... if you can catch a few dozen it might make a difference. (from someone who was shocked one spring to find a mature cherry tree dying because it's roots were completely girdled and stripped)

Hi learn2turn, I have one Asclepias incarnata plant and it is loaded with seed pods. If all those pods actually make seeds I should have plenty to trade or share with you. Please contact me in 3-4 weeks and they should be nearer to maturity. I don't want to trust having to remember to find a post or email later when they are ready. Yellow aphids have been attacking the seed pods really bad, but I have been trying to keep them off by blasting them with water from the hose. chemocurl...aka Sue