Pretty pic, rouge! Unfortunately for me, I have a horrible problem with oriental beetles. They decimate my daisies, including my Beckys, as well as daylilies and echinacea. The daylily damage isn't so bad, since they don't seem to attack the buds and the flowers are only here for one day, but on the other two plants the beetles attack the buds as well as the blooms, which as a result are always brown, eaten, and ratty. I would love to have the beautiful blooms in the photo above! Dee

* Silver Princes Shasta Daisy (I grew these plants from seed three years ago) * Crazy Daisy Shasta Daisy (NEW! Growing from seed this year. The flowers look like Marguerites! Very frilly.) * Gloriosa Daisy (growing them from seed) - Love these big Sunset yellow and orange flowers. Reminds of a desert sunset on the mesa. I have some Clara Curtis seeds I got in a trade. Never have tried to grow them yet. Guess I'll give them a try. Thanks for reminding me, Glenda! They sure are pretty. I have English Daisy seeds to sow in April. I direct seed them into the garden every year. So pretty. Not sure that you would call these daisies, but I bought a one little pot of Coreopsis verticillata 'Moonbeam' & one of Coreopsis hybrida 'Sweet Dreams' Coreopsis last year. I planted the Moonbeam in the potager. There a dozens of tiny seedlings coming up around where the mother plant was. They are growing to the front of a bed of Double Pink Knock Out Rose and Double Yellow Knock Out Roses. Moonbeam's soft, buttery yellow color will look pretty in with those roses. Self-seeded Chamomile is coming up and California poppies that I planted on the 15th are up. Tall Mauve Bread seed are everywhere in that area of the garden. I never know where they will move to each year. Pink & white Tasha Tudor HH's transplanted behind against the fence and Black and Blue Salvias I moved back there last fall. I transplanted a Don Juan (cl) rose back there to grow on the fence. Larkspurs and Heleniums are coming up on the other end and white Baby's Breath. Bright Periwinkles and white and purple Sweet Allysum will probably coming back from seeds, and who knows what else. I love bold splashes of color throughout my garden. I don't know if the Sweet Dreams reseeds or not since it is a hybrid, but the plant kicked it - darn it. Sweet Dreams Coreopsis is pink with purple to red centers. Very unusual colors for a Coreopsis. ~Annie

I'm thinking of cutting my "Becky" shastas back today. They got beat down by the rain a few weeks and I've bought some 32 in. fencing from K-mart to encase them in, as they have got so heavy and floppy. I had same at my former house and we got rid of them. This is exactly what I'm planning to do this Fall with these. Will WS "Alaska" variety in its place if not something else completely. Don't seem to be holding up to the high 90's temps we had earlier this week despite watering them every other day or every day.

Thanks again David! Yes, these were planted one weekend ago. It sure has been windy here but they are fairly well protected by fences and houses and such. Your hypothesis makes a lot of sense though (especially after my answers to Skybird's questions below). I really appreciate your help :). Skybird, here we go: Pots were about 6 inches in diameter, 7 inches tall. Plants are about 7-8 inches tall, no flowers. I just went and looked at them now (11:15 pm). There are three. All have perked up some. The one in the middle looks normal and happy, and looked the best throughout the day. The two on the ends looked pretty terrible today, have perked up some tonight, but are still pretty "soft" and not very happy looking...not firm like the middle one. I planted them last Sunday and watered them that evening, then I watered them again Wednesday evening after our mini run off hot days...and after they were starting to look like they were struggling a bit. No, I haven't been watering them everytime they looked wilted. They started looking a little wilted on Monday (maybe even Sunday afternoon after planting) but I rode it out until Wednesday, watered them then, but they have continued on a seemingly downward path. All I added to the soil was Clay Buster, which has some organic matter in it. My local garden shop advised not to add anything else if I was using Clay Buster. Everything else in my garden is doing fine....even the other newbies planted in the same general area. Yes, bought them all at the same place on the same day. The roots looked good but they were pretty compacted and starting to grow round the pot if I remember right. The weirdest part, as I touched on above, I planted three in a V shape pattern pretty close to the fence. They are about 2-2.5 feet apart. The one at the bottom of the V is doing pretty well overall...still wilting some but bouncing back. The two at the top of the V, and closest to the fence, are the ones that are struggling the most and not bouncing back as well. Soil contamination in those couple spots doesn't seem to make sense because I dug a pond three summers ago and built a little hill with the excess dirt, which was tilled and amended and mixed real good, and the neighboring plants are all doing fine..so far. Ahhhhh, the joys and perils of gardening! I don't know how you balance it so well! Thanks Skybird!