Okay ... I'm an occasional poster, constant reader here. A few years ago I saved several threads on burgundy, maroon, purple and combinations. So I went looking for them ... Here goes: First, Weigela 'Olympiade' Briant Rubidor. I know it's a shrub, but does anyone have this one? It has "soft chartreuse" foliage and deep red flowers. Missouri Botanical Gardens has given it a "Plant of Merit" award. Grows to 5' - 8'. Sounds like it could be a gorgeous backdrop to Burgundy or purple flowers. Now here's one I have grown. Again, not a perennial; a biennial usually grown as an annual this time, but one that can be so helpful and fun. Beta vulgaris. The beets / swiss chards. 'Bull's Blood' gets you that deep dark color, but others, like 'Northern Lights' and 'Bright Lights' give you markings of gold, chartreuse, white, pink, and red-burgundy. And ... if you want to, you can steal outer young leaves for salads. I find these grow in pretty quickly from seed. Another thought is the snapdragon 'Black Prince'. Oh, it's beautiful. Seeds available a number of places and mine have been reliable return plants for several years. Both foliage and plants are dark. I've also purchased the Campanula 'Blue Eyed Blond' from Bluestone. Anyone tried that yet? It's supposed to have good gold-chartreuse foliage. Does anybody remember when Annie from Annie's Annuals used to post here? Here's a plant she suggested: "Another wonderful Burgundy plant- Angelica stricta 'Ebony' . Burgundy flower heads & foliage. to 4' with branching flower heads. Its lovely!" Sorry this isn't really about a coherent combination. I keep wanting to get organized and do a burgundy - chartreuse bed with blue and white highlights ... but ... other plants come along and get in the way. Wellspring

My Abe Darby has a sweet fruity smell but my soil is alkaline. Glamis castle was very bad smelling indeed and thorny and runty. I wanted Jaques Cartier to grow for me so much but every spring the frosting pink flowers had great big proliferations in each center. It broke my heart. It was not the nastiest rose ever, but it was the most disappointing along with the semi double orange I received instead of Heaven on Earth. Someone said to try patience and see if it would outgrow it, but it never gave me anything but the scrawny orange flowers. Finally, I gave up. Usually my SdLM is looking fine, but in the wet year of 2012, it looked wretched indeed and I wouldn't like to live with it if it was always like that. Same goes for Madame Issac P.

Goodmorning Everybody ! :) I heard from my swappers last night...:))) Mariann I have a couple of surprizes for you...We love putting surprizes in our boxes Regina started it.. Chell you are so creative and your writing is so much fun to read... I bet the boys loved playing pirate.. I can see their smiling faces now...What a great idea to make a hideout.. They will always remeber their hideout mom made for them... Norma I havent traded with you but I am sure you went way above in sending her nice cuttings..I seen pics of what you send...They are awesome boxes..:)) Please dont be sad..:)) Regina howdy :) I am so sorry about Mark having to have surgery and the heart condition would just send me into heaven.. Wow I am so glad to read it all went well...Shooo My heart sank for a minute...He will be all healed for college this fall..:)) You empty nester dont go through what I went through...Stay busy and call them alot... I miss my kids so much it hurts sometimes... Dogs are okay but they cant replace our true babies...I love reading about chell and her boys... It makes me smile so much... Frances lol You poor gardener..ahhah You need a break from mother nature..Really..:)) Oh big snakes yucky... I would be screaming... I love chippies...They are so cute...Havent had many around with a cat now...Kiki has brought home two gardener snakes...He was very proud of himself... Yesterday I was getting ready to go out and play in the dirt...The crows or blackbirds were screaming...It just like a scene in the movie the "birds"... It creeped me out really bad...I couldnt see what they were yelling at.. I watched tv...Than got bored and went coleus shopping..lol The master gardener sale for the next county over is tommorow... I cant wait to see what they are going to be offering..I have never been to this one...Oh I almost forgot..I heard from the master gardener I met...Looks like we are building another gh..lol She wants to do it closer to fall since everyone is busy with their gardens...I am glad we could help her..They are a pain to build.. well I gabbed enough lol must be the strong coffee and I got a lot of sleep...:)) Have a good day everybody..Barb

Well, I tried the sprayer. I loved being able to put enough FP in the container and not have to worry about refilling the watering can, especially for the large Eureka container. I used the sprayer for all of my trees, not just the citrus. The nozzle had three settings: flat spray, bullet spray, and gentle shower. The first setting, the flat spray is definitely not to be used for my (our) purpose; it is meant for lawn fertilization to cover a very large area. The second setting, bullet spray was waay too strong and when I aimed the stream into a container, the mix would just fly everywhere because it was essentially that, a bullet spray. Finally, the third setting, the gentle spray was my favorite, but the radius circle of water that was dispensed from the nozzle was very wide and there wasn't an option to make it smaller. I have a tiny mango in a 12 inch pot and the spray from the gentle shower setting was much too wide for such a small pot- it was at least twice as wide as the little pot. I do have a few more trees in slightly bigger pots, a mango and and two avocados. The water shower was still too wide for even these slightly larger container sizes. If it was just water alone, then I don't think I would have noticed (or cared) that much, but because it was a FP/water mixture, I noticed how much FP water was just being wasted because the shower setting water circle coming out of the nozzle was just too large! So, I think that I will browse and search the market for a really good hose end sprayer. I hope to get lucky and find one with several spray settings to choose from. My container sizes vary too much; I have little ones and I have an avocado and the eureka that are in pots that are just too big. The water coverage area for the shower setting on the sprayer ended up wasting too much FP water mix, in my opinion. I don't mind using the watering can and I will use it until (if) I can find a better sprayer. I do like the convenience of the sprayer, but I will give up the convenience if it means that I am wasting $ on FP water that is not being fed to my trees.