have mixed impatiens, purple cone and yellow coreopsis seeds. e-mail me if interested.

All the perennials (upto 16" in height) stated earlier in my post are deer resistant to deers residing at NY and PA. In order to broaden up the scope of this post, I am posting a general list of deer resistant perennials. I hope all the gardeners here in this forum will comment on this list if they had any experience(s) with their particular cultivars mentioning it's height, color (blue or purple only), if it is suitable for borders or not, if they encounter any deers etc. Deer Resistant Perennials (USDA hardiness, height/bloom color/period needs to be investigated) Acanthus Aconitum Agapanthus Agave Allium Amaryllis Aquilegia Artemisia Arum Astilbe Campanula Carex Centaurea Ceratostigma Clematis Cortaderia Crinum Crocosmia Delphinium Dicentra Digitalis Epimedium Euphorbia Ferns Festuca glauca Filipendula Gaillardia Geranium Helianthus Helichrysum Helleborus Hosta Iris Kniphofia Lavandula Leucanthemum x superbum Leucojum Liriope Lupinus Lychnis coronaria Melianthus Melissa Melittis Mentha Mirabilis Mysotis Narcissus Nepeta Origanum Paeonia Papaver Polygonatum Potentilla Pulmonaria Romneya coulteri Rudbeckia Salvia Satureja Scabiosa Sisyrinchium Tellima Thalictrum Tiarella Trillium Veratrum Vinca Yucca You would notice that Asters are not there. There may be some more individual cultivars from other species which are not inluded here. Good luck! Reference: "An illustrated guide to Perennials" by Prof. Marshall Craigmyle (re-printed in 2001 at UK, a good colorfull reference guide to over 1500 perennials)

I'm in zone 7 so I can't help out as far as if it can be winter hardy to zone 5, but I will tell you during the warmer growing months it spreads quite a lot, but not undesireably so, being so pretty and easy to cut back into bounds if you want it to stay more put. I don't mind at all that it has weaved through its neighboring plants! I planted 'Homestead Purple' in front of some daylillies and it wandered all the way to the back of them. The touch of purple poking up through the strappy daylilly leaves looks very, very nice. They spread by the lower stems which turn woody and root when they touch the ground. If a runner gets longer than you want it you can chop off the woody stem and move the rooted end and plant it somewhere else. I used to think you had to get a rooted piece to make another plant but I discovered you can also just cut off a non-rooted green stem and stick it in the ground. I found that out when I cut off a long flowering stem that was hanging way over the edge of the bed. I was going to throw it away but it was such a pretty and healthy piece I wandered if I could pinch off the lower-most 3 or 4 pairs of leaves and just stick the stem in the dirt. I made a pencil-shaped hole and plunged the stem in all the way to where the first set of leaves was at soil level. There was even a flower at the top of the stem that I didn't bother to remove which had wilted by the next day, but the stem grew new leaves in just a matter of days. Easy as pie. Although I haven't tried it, I don't know why you couldn't overwinter your 'Homestead Purple' in the garage. Seems like it would work to me. I would sure give it a try.

Lantana was my first thought, but you say you've got enough of that for your taste for now, so I'd suggest thinking about some of the dwarf growing Ruellia plants (not the full sized as they'd be taller than your stated height restriction, but the 'Katy' varieties would stay shorter). I like xoxos' suggestion of Salvia greggii too. Asparagus fern would do well there too, though won't provide much flower color. Let us know what you select and how it works out! Portland and Tucson?? You get the best of both worlds! Take care, Grant