Very interesting. If I had been betting, I would have bet that the peonies would be the no shows, followed closely by the liatris. Daylilies? I've had them live thrown aside on the ground for months! Depending on where in Zone 7 you are, you should definitely be seeing daylilies up. I have some blooming already. (okay. TWO.:) I have planted and lost liatris three times over the years. I am pretty sure that the culprit is my wet, heavy soil. Evaluate your growing conditions: was the soil well prepared, loose, and reasonably fertile? Do your plants get at least four to six hours of sun each day? How is the drainage? Daylilies don't demand perfect drainage, but they won't grow in standing water either (as far as I know). How late last fall did you plant them? Did they have time to put out some roots before cold weather set in? Did you mulch the plants? Too much mulch: crown rot? Not enough mulch: freezing? (not likely. All these plants grow much further north than you) Without more info, it's impossible to say what the problem is. It's not entirely too late for them to put in their appearance, but it's getting close. Another thought: where did these plants come from? If you bought them in the plastic bags with peat around their bare roots, they may have been DOA. I realize that none of these ideas may be right. It really is a guessing game. Good luck. :)

Hi Chrissy, You will probably get some bloom this year from your Oaks plants and for sure with your local acquisitions. Once they recover from the transplanting, they really take off. How long have they been in the ground? The foliage will turn yellow when first planted but will be quickly replaced with new foliage. I usually see new growth on newly planted fans in as little as a week. Good luck with your first dl's. Jan

Depending on what you are using to kill the grass it could be a long time. The information on the package should tell you everything you need to know about wait times and how it affects other plant material. A couple years ago I had a very weedy area and hired a guy to clean it out for me so I could plant bluegrass there. He killed everything with Roundup and said I only had to wait two weeks. So I waited three weeks, planted the grass and it did fine. He said that the roundup breaks down in the soil in about 14 days. Having said that, I'm sure there are alot of people who would disagree and say that it can last much longer. I've also had some experiences with weed and grass killers that seem to last for about a year or two. So you need to be very cautious with poisons. Corn gluten meal is an organic pre-emergent that will prevent weed seeds from germinating in the soil for about a year. It won't prevent the grasses that spread by rhyzomes though so you would want to just use it to prevent weeds popping up from seeds that are spread by birds or the wind. Corn gluten is available at feed stores and at some garden stores. One thing about your heavy clay, it is normally very high in nutirents and although it's hard to garden in, it is good for the plants. Besides adding the compost, try also adding zeolite. It's a natural, organic material that will enrich the soils and make it less hospitable to weeds. Weeds seem to prefer to grow in areas where nothing else can. They prefer poor soil. So by enriching your beds weeds are less likely to take hold. When you do get some nice new things planted be sure to mulch well. This will deter weeds, but it also makes any weeds that do manage to pop up much easier to pull. Compost loosens the soil, mulch helps keep it moist. One other thing I would suggest is to introduce earthworms into that bed. Earthworms have their own kind of magic they do on your soil, by tilling it with their burrows and fertilizing with their castings. They will also eat dead plant material and dry leaves that fall into the bed. Composted cow manure is a good amendment to add when you have earthworms too. Cow is good because the rumination process kills most weed seeds. Domesticated rabbit manure is good because they only eat processed rabbit feed and it has no seeds. I use a 4" cedar mulch in my rose garden and the weeds and grass actually grow between the soil and the mulch layer. Their roots are in the mulch so when I pull them out they come right up. I can shake off the mulch and toss the weed. I know you're frustrated with your azalea bed, but you have such an opportunity right in front of your nose. You don't have to throw out those azaleas you know. If you pot them up, soak them for a few days in water with fish emulsion and hang onto them until you are ready to replant you could certainly put them back into the amended bed where I'm sure they would flourish. Keep in mind that most the other things you're talking about putting in there won't look like much in the winter. The good thing about the azaleas is that they fill out and stay green year round. Cheryl

Hi, thanks for writing. These three hydrangeas were sent as replacements for plants that died by a mail order catalog so I didn't actually order them & I can't remember what they were. I think they may be endless summers? Although somehow I thought the one in the front was a different variety. IS Endless Summer a dwarf hydrangea? Yes the coreopsis is in a northern exposure and doesn't get all that much sun. The coreopsis probably has a shorter bloom time than they should but they were there when we bought the house 10 years ago, and they are ok. Can Hydrangea be identified by foliage? I can take photos of them if that would help. Thanks again.