a hateful acanthus - Mr Camps had 'insisted' on this and I put up with its hugely vicious and graceless habit for several years - long enough for it to become a rampaging thug, leaning over and threatening a delicate small leafed philadelphus. Had to get my boys in to help so I made use of their youth and vigour and ordered the destruction of a horrid phormium (Mr.bloody Camps again - supposedly one of the much smaller P.cookianum, but still massive - lurking mealybugs and snails made great use of the indestructible leaves ).Heaps and heaps of valerian (but I will guarantee there will be a hidden smidgeon, waiting to blow around the allotment. Numerous verbascums (there was a mini-craze for these a few years ago, in the UK) - gets chomped by mullein moth and totally falls over every year. Note, all these plants so far have also had socking great root systems so I am not expecting this to be a one-off job - I have been yanking a lurid Beauty of Livermere oriental poppy for the past 4 years. The two gigantic clumps of daylilies (common old H.fulva) are really counted as weeding, along with a zillion verbena bonariensis but the removal of the sad and stunted balloon flowers - never got any taller than 9 inches and just looked ridiculous with oversized blooms - that was a yanking moment. Unfond farewells to lobelia cardinalis, knautia macedonica (1 is quite enough) nepeta Walker's Low - I know it's invaluable but it smells horrible and finally, the last of the bearded iris - such a faff for less than a week then nothing to disguise the hideous leaves for the rest of the summer.

You know what's funny--I thought the picture I posted was just similar to the house I'd seen, but today I was in Cambridge and drove by the house in question, and it is the SAME house in the picture! Can't believe I didn't recognize it as the same. I didn't see it at its peak with all the flowers blooming at once, so it looked a little different. So I can confirm as of this afternoon that the border in the picture alternates lady's mantle, salvia, and catmint. You can see a little catmint behind the salvia. Since some of you say that you have had success with May Night salvia in part shade, I'm thinking I might try the lady's mantle, salvia, catmint combo with some variegated hostas at the shadier ends, and maybe some campanulas and balloon flower to provide extra color.

coy broadwell used to answer the phone in the eves from 7-8 or 8-9, i can't recall which. his # is 639-2952. they didn't used to have the varieties by name, but tagged by color. you can definitely get a lot more bang for the buck if you aren't picky about exactly which variety you get(just the color). we bought a 10'+ one with a 400# rootball(4' in diameter) a number of yrs ago that was 'watermelon red', and it was about $35. probably around 50 now, but you won't find full size trees for that anywhere else. the big ones are balled & burlapped. i think they carry smaller sizes in big pots, too. rob, the guy across the rd who's coy's nephew at old stage nursery will also have them, and they may be named varieties over there. his # is 772-6214 in eve, 631-5729 cell(but that could be old). good luck! tammy

My groundcover is doing very well. One of my more successful gardening ventures. I was lucky and planted in a very wet year, which has helped a lot. The pachysandra has just started spreading in the past couple of weeks. It is the bulk of the yard because it was much cheaper. I expect it will take at least a year, probably closer to a year and a half for the pachysandra to cover well. I planted from flats, about 8 inches apart. The stepables plants are spreading at a more rapid rate--their other advantage is that they will take some foot traffic (how much varies by plant). I planted the stepables about 12 inches apart. I planted a variety and am pleased with the tapestry effect this has created. The Nierembergia repens (Creeping White Cup) is actually spreading too quickly to suit me--it's outgrowing things I like better. So I may take it out this fall. My favorites are Veronica repens (Creeping Speedwell)--also a fast-grower but I like it better, and Euonymus fortunei Kewensis (Dwarf Euonymus). In my experience if stepables says something is fast-growing they aren't joking. I highly recommend the stepables website. You can do a search there for several criteria--zone, soil, sun/shtde, amount of foot traffic--and it will make recommendations. I actually bought the plants at a local nursery that sells the line. The yard already takes less work than it did when it was grass. I do weed it once a week or so, which takes about 15 minutes--this suits me much better than mowing 2x a week and fighting weeds unsuccessfully. I suspect fall maintenance will be more difficult than it was with grass--I may have to clear fallen tree leaves by hand. But if you have a service that will blow the leaves this shouldn't be an issue. Also, this fall I plan to plant a variety of bulbs, hopefully I'll get some nice spring color! Good luck solving your problem! Here is a link that might be useful: stepables