dinah You are very welcome. I once affected the foliage of Phlox p. 'David' by spraying on too hot a day, perhaps 28 C - 84 F. The foliage was mature and looked so poorly that I could have cut it down but wanted to experiment . It looked worse after spraying with baking soda/water so I cut it the next day. Unlike you, it is very humid here in summer. Perhaps a half strength solution for more tender growth. Spray at 2 week intervals. Your remedy was working for you so I would suggest sticking to it! We all find what works best for us. I always start with the lowest treatment, that way you can have wiggle room. You have received great advice about airflow, thinning stems (for Phlox) and hygiene. That you treated the surrounding soil and did a great clean up bodes well for their health this year. The only thing I would add is that we should water the soil around plants that are susceptible to PM. If we water the foliage that can worsen the problem by spreading spores. If you continue to have issues with C. 'Baby Sun' then Blanket Flower is a great alternative. Jo, That would be a yes/no answer. lol! Horticulture can be such an inexact science. There are absolutes and there are areas that are fluid as we learn. Everything from reclassification of plants to pruning methods. The no side would be if you provide decent growing conditions, proper hygiene and watering PM does not have to be a reoccurring issue. If we have an issue and do nothing to improve the growing conditions and cultural practices then yes, we could have ongoing problems year after year. A plant that suffers from PM is then weakened and prone to other issues such as aphids. I had this happen with Heliopsis 'Summer Sun'. It was a wonderful carefree plant for so many years and it is a pity but I will dig out the weakened offenders and leave the unaffected ones. The general belief is that the cause of PM is twofold. The air is humid and the soil is dry. This makes perfect sense to me. PM usually starts here early July when the humidity rises, couple that with less rain and nature creates the scenario. If we supplement watering at this time we can minimize the stress. The monkey wrench is that PM is air born. The best we can do is keep our plants healthy and choose resistant varieties when offered. Nasty voles. I really like C. 'Moonbeam' and Zagreb'

Star Cluster, planted in my cottage garden, came back better than any other coreopsis. That said, voles tunneled under other varieties out in the deer resistant meadow garden! So, it's not really a coreopsis issue. Redshift was reduced in width by the tunneling, but the remainder of the clumps look good. I planted seeds (in the fall) of native prairie coreopsis palmata and those seedlings look fantastic. Cameron

Cutting back in fall is sort of out of vogue in the gardening world right now. But I think if it were really catastrophic for perennials, it wouldn't have survived for so long as a practice. There are certainly advantages to it, especially when it comes to preventing disease/fungus/rodents. I think it is just a matter of preference. DiSabato-Aust's recommendation to cut back heavy flowering perennials in late summer but not for winter comes from the work of Hansen and Stahl in their 1993 book Perennials and Their Garden Habitats. I do not know if they tested their theory or if it is just a theory with no data to support it. DiSabato-Aust does caution that if you do cut back, to only cut back within 2-3" inches of the ground because some of the basal buds for next season do develop slightly above or at ground level. Not sure if this applies to Coreopsis or not. I also grow bulbs in my perennials beds so I usually cut back in very early Spring and often before new growth comes from the perennials -- which is not exactly what is recommended -- but it hasn't caused any problems so far. Best of luck, Scott

Oh goodness, Trudi I don't have either one of these. You are terrible...now of course I WANT. GGG