All of the above. Ditto, ditto, ditto - Sometimes I feel like people on this board are reading my mind... 2009 season - outstanding peony poppies 2010 season - unhappy, rapid bloom to demise poppies. I think I had one week that they looked stunning. Fungus on rudbeckia: The goldstrums are fine but the ones with the softer, fuzzier leaves that I love - ynaked almost all of them today. Nasties - If they could, they'd get up and walk themselves to the shade of a tree. I wanted to lots of it in fronts of beads this year too. I direct planted, they sprouted fine and did great till we hit this dry/hot spell. We had our first rain in a month here today and boy did they look happy. (I have irrigation but these guys seem to always prefer rain falling formt he sky.

Wonderful photos, thanks for sharing. I particularly love that really BLUE passionflower. Do you know which one that is? The Lady Margaret is gorgeous, and the nun's orchid is fantastic. Do you have it in sun or shade? I've thought about trying that one, but haven't yet. Marcia

Welcome! What are you composting in there? Could it be partially decomposed wood chips or something? Can you post a picture? How is the moisture content? So many decomposed bits of vegetation might be described as 'brown hard things' even worm poop might be described that way. :-) My compost is brown when it's done. This post was edited by pkponder on Fri, Dec 27, 13 at 21:52

Yes vesfl, my Mary rose is nice and saturated deep pink. I believe this is because it only receives morning sun. I really like the nonstop blooming. The fragrance is actually pretty good, needmore. I just never cut any anymore, because they only last about a day or so cut. That's a real bummer, because cutting is a at least half the fun for me. I like to enjoy my blooms indoors, especially when it's too hot to be out much. My Mary Rose is VERY heavily virused, but still blooms really well. I am LOVING this cooler weather! I cannot remember it ever being like this in midAugust. I sure hope we don't get a furnace blast of heat after this, but it's likely. We are supposed to have a week of mild temps. Then September will probably bring our Santa Ana winds, heat, and fire. I dread that, but at least my water and electricity will get a break this week. Ingrid, I know what you mean. It really is always something, isn't it? Goodness, I think if everything was ever all perfect at once, I'd invite everyone I knew over for a look! I'd also make a utube video and post it here:) I don't have any raidiating heat, like you do. I know makes a big difference, plus the temp difference is substantial considering how few miles we are apart. I'm no fan of those LONG MRI's either. I've been putting it off, and it needed to be done. Yesterday I was worthless afterwards, as they had given me Valium in the IV. I've had lots of muscle spasms lately,(always worse in the summer heat) and they needed me to be still for two hours. When I came home, I was still dopey and dumb. Best not to garden like that. I'm thankful it was such a cool day, and not even the pots required water. I just watched some TV with Sebastian. Interestingly, I have found he will lay on the bed with me if I remove the comforter. Following the advice of someone here,(sorry name escapes me atm) removing the scent of Millie seems to help. He does however, continue to lose weight. I'm going to have to send him back in with my son soon. It's just so hard. In order to get the 75% discount,(which I need) he has to go to work with my son all day. Sebastian gets squeezed in for his tests or exams whenever they have time. He hates it there, and I feel terrible sending him all day long, adding to his stress. One day, he even came home without being seen at all, because they were so busy. I can't complain though, this would already have cost me thousands instead of hundreds, and I'm so grateful. The scary/confusing thing is that he has lost nearly 5lbs in 2 months. He is VERY sensitive to my health and emotions, plus Millie is bothering him. The head vet there says that amount of weight cannot be emotional. Yet, they are not finding anything. It's very troubling, and just adds to my stress, which in turn, probably adds to his. He really does stress out when I do. Sorry guys, I probably should have emailed that to Ingrid. I didn't intend to go into all that when I began. Cassandra, I'm not 100% about what I'm going to use. I know I need to do it fast, before my whole garden is affected. I don't spray or use chemicals either, but I'm going to in this barrel. I was just in no shape to have my dad stop somewhere yesterday so I could look over my options. I'll research and update it here. I know exactly what you mean about a bell going off on n your head. I have all sorts of bugs, and I complain about them, but most of the time I don't even identify them because I'm not going to do anything to them. When Jim posted pictures, I heard that same dingdong:) That's why it's never bloomed! When I looked, sure enough, the ends looked burnt and they crumbled off when I touched them. The midge can get into your whole garden and all your roses. You could have no blooms, and no new growth. Whatever we do, we need to do it fast. It's something like every 14 days the larvae hatch out of the soil and start eating and multiplying again. They can devastate an entire rose garden. Let me know what you do, too. I'm going to research and do something today. Lisa