I'm going to shovel prune mine this fall, just not worth the space. My Peacock and Blue Chip were really slow to get going this year, and I can deal with that if eventually the plant is worth the wait. The Peacock is finally getting some blooms, but no flowers on the Blue Chip, don't even see any buds yet. Also, truthfully I just don't think the flowers are all that pretty - they are quite stubby compared to other BB flowers, and the color is nothing to rave about. So, out she goes during fall cleanup. Re: container: I have a Peacock planted in a good-sized container, and one in the ground. The one in the container (which is new to me this year), is really pumping out the blooms while the one in the ground is finally revving up, as mentioned above. So, I'm definitely enjoying the potted one and am considering potting up the other one, too, and placing it in a sunnier spot (the one in the container is in full sun all day, while the one in the ground gets about 1/2 sun - so that is probably making a difference). Will have to over-winter in the garage, though.

For the climbers in particular be patient. It takes most climbers at least three years to start to really put on any tall top growth. And that's really the minimum of time it can take. Some will take a good 5 years to really climb. On the others it depends on the variety. But if they don't seem to take off and start to grow next spring I'd cut your losses and replace them. Some of the big box plants aren't very good to begin with so they may never have any vigor. You'll be wasting time and resources on trying to keep them going. I've always had much better luck with bare roots from nurseries. They normally have larger, healthier root systems to start with since they aren't chopped up to be put in bags or boxes. That's not to say I haven't bought plenty of those bagged or boxed roses before. I have and, like you stated, some do just fine while others never seem to get with the program.

I have a feeling you are not going to have any dahlias this year. Your dahlias should be starting to bud, even bloom by now. I would certainly contact Swan Island so that you can get advice and a guarantee of good bulbs for next year. Did you verify that the tubers you got had eyes on them? Personally, I have had the worst luck buying tubers from mail order companies. I have been growing dahlias for about 10 years, and the best ones I get are the ones I buy from Home Depot and Lowes. I have bought from some of the best rated dahlia suppliers, and they do not grow well. I planted 14 tubers this year, and none are in bloom and at least half of them are too small at this stage to grow enough to produce blooms. And the cool spring and early summer certainly did not help.

Amy, Five dogs is a lot! When we had 8 dogs (because our Honey showed up as a skinny, starved and apparently pregnant stray), only 3 or 4 slept indoors in the house and the rest slept in the garage. The three we have now all are spoiled house dogs, and they're getting to where they don't like going outside when it is too cold, too hot, too wet, too windy, etc. I guess they are spoiled from living inside a climate-controlled house. I hope y'all have a great week and that the wedding is perfect. I bet your dad is really enjoying having everyone around a bit more right now. I used to get livid over the herbicide drift, but what good does it do me to let my emotions get all riled up? I have tried (really, really, really hard) to remove emotion from the equation because I just want to be able to live with a peaceful, happy soul. This is one reason I don't document everything and file complaints---I just don't want to end up in a perpetual war with everyone who sprays, and I guarantee y'all that people never will stop using herbicides. I did tell Tim I wanted to put up a big billboard across our front pasture near the bar ditch that says something like "Organic Garden: Stop Spraying Your Herbicides Carelessly and Killing My Plants", but he was not a fan of the idea. lol. Oh, and I was just kidding about doing it.....but there are days when it seems like a good idea if I thought anyone would change their ways because of it, and I do not think that they would. I think I found the source of the Round-up drift, and it is a fairly close neighbor. (sigh) I hope that killing what they wanted to kill was worth the two dozen tomato plants that we lost to their drift here. I wonder how strong some of this crap is that they use. Y'all might remember that several years back---maybe 4 or 5---somebody in the road spilled a tank of herbicide in the road or at least had a big major leak from a tank that ran down into a portion of our bar ditch. I didn't see it happen and only became aware of it after the fact when that area turned brown and died while everything around it was green and thriving. . It was a broadleaf weedkiller, easy to tell because all the broadleaf plants died and the grasses did not. So, here we are 4 or 5 years later and there's still only grass in that area---everything around it has wildflowers. Obviously that soil is contaminated and I assume the contamination is so bad because the herbicide ran into the soil in a concentration greater than what is sprayed through the air. I expected to see the wildflowers return to this area, but they still haven't. After that spill we stopped collecting the grass clippings when we mow the bar ditch. We used to catch them in the riding mower's grass catcher and use them as mulch or as fodder for the compost pile, but we don't any more. The rain mostly missed us too, but I am not going to complain because our soil remains incredibly wet from all the previous rain. We ended up with about a half-inch, which is much less than the 2-3" or even the 3-4" that the QPF predicted for us 7 days out from the multi-rain event. I'm not complaining. Heavy rain fell west of us, moving north towards OKC. It fell over a huge area to our south with so many problems caused that it makes my head spin just thinking about it. Overnight it fell to our south/southeast. All we had here was light rain, mist, clouds and, today, fog and mist. I miss the sunshine and hope it comes out of hiding today. Larry, Your garden might be spotty, but it sounds like you'll have plenty of everything regardless. Jennifer, There's something to be said for planting only a reasonable number of tomato plants. I might do that next year because this year my tomato plantings are totally out of control, and I'll pay the price for that by having to preserve tomatoes like mad this summer. Luckily, I am not a sentimental tomato grower, so when I have harvested and canned, frozen and dehydrated all I want to preserve, I can ruthlessly yank out the plants and throw them on the compost pile without a second thought, keeping only a small handful for fresh eating. I always remind myself when that time comes that (to steal my cousin's daughter's favorite childhood phrase) that "you are not the boss of me" (I'm speaking to the tomato plants there) and out come the excess plants. There are people here in my neighborhood who think it is a crime to pull out healthy tomato plants that still are producing. Well, that's their issue, not mine, because my large number of tomato plants are a tool that serve me and when their service is done, I want to be done with them and replant that space in something else that will provide a different harvest. I also have no desire to spend the entire long, hot summer trying to keep 100 tomato plants watered and happy and healthy because that becomes an increasingly difficult battle at some point every summer. I'd rather have southern peas growing at that point because you generally don't have to water them much if at all. I believe I could give up canning, freezing and dehydrating tomatoes in a heartbeat at some point and just grow a few for fresh eating each year, but I am not at that point yet. I think I might retire completely when Tim retires from working. Well, maybe I'd make one or two salsa batches per year for us. Just for us. Rebecca, It sounds like it was the perfect day for you to get a lot done yesterday. I planted corn and beans yesterday and this morning, while it is foggy and misty out, I'm going to start some hot-season flower seeds in flats. It is hard to guess how many to start because so many volunteers are so slow to pop up and show themselves in the garden this year. I don't know if we'll have less because of all the excess autumn/winter rain and the excessively wet ground we've had since September, of if they are just slower to appear. Or, if maybe I mulched so heavily last year that they cannot sprout. Time will tell. This year continues to remind me a great deal of 2002 when we stayed cool and rainy through June and then were instantly hot and a whole lot less rainy. I wonder if that will happen this year? It wasn't the worst year ever as the cool-season plants stayed productive very late into spring and almost into summer. The only hard part was the ultra-brief transition from cool to hot. My broccoli is trying to head up. I hope we are going to get normal heads and not buttonheads. It seems awfully early considering how late (compared to most years) that I planted. Dawn