Just a few thoughts: In an ideal world, plants should be tested thoroughly before being put on the market just like any other product, but there are so many variables with plants: region, heat tolerance, cold tolerance, different soil conditions, etc. New cultivars are typically produced by individuals and small nursery operations, not large corporations with lots of resources. So, to get your plants into QA so to speak, you have to rely on other nurserymen and universities around the country to test your plants for several years. That takes a huge effort and coordination with people outside the sphere of your control. If the margin of profit is small, the producer probably has to weigh whether it's worth it. Also, there are probably others working on the same type of hybridization, so there's pressure to get your cultivars to market before someone else does. I don't assume that every new cultivar will or should do well in my garden even if its touted to. That's why I come to sites like this to compare notes and I appreciate when others do share their experiences with the new cultivars. It gives me a clue (not a guarantee) whether a specific plant would also work for me. So, while I think alot of the info in this thread is valuable stuff, I really can't blame the failure of these plants for different individuals on conspiracy or greed. I just file it under: "Nice to know....maybe I'll wait and see how others are doing with these plants before I go out and purchase a slew of them."

Pat - I saw someone's "Harvest Moon" recently and it looked great last year. This year the petals are either quilled or have petals missing, etc. The plant is half as tall as it was the first year. "Sunrise" starts out a real light yellow, but fades to a dirty white color. There isn't one that exactly matches that color yet, but like I said...it doesn't keep that color long at all. There is a new one at Terra Nova called "Maui Sunshine." It might be a good one to try. It starts out a brighter yellow, but when the bloom fades, it would probably get close to that light yellow color. Here is a link that might be useful: Maui Sunshine

I wouldn't assume that just because you have one doubleheaded bloom that it is due to a virus. At the beginning of the summer, several different types of plants of mine had one or two of those, but all the rest of the blooms since then, have been perfectly normal. I did pinch those off though, so they didn't produce any seeds. I remember a couple like that early last year too, so I don't think that it's necessarily a sign of disease. Bonnie

Jo, I use a drip irrigation system and put it away before freezing temperatures arrive. Parts of it...like the t-tape can be left outdoors but it drastically shortens its life. My garden slopes much more than yours, so I have my drip irrigation set up in zones with ball valves, so I can shut off some sections while irrigating others. Since water tends to flow downhill pretty well, even underground, my higher beds dry out faster than lower ones and need to be watered more often. Also, because they are on the higher south and west ends of the garden, they are more exposed to summer's south winds. Most of the time,, since water does flow underground from our neighbor's higher ground to our south, the lower beds at the north end of the garden have good deep moisture under them for a much longer period of time and often I don't have to irrigate those beds at all until mid-summer or later. To make drip irrigation work in our big,sloping garden, setting up zones has worked better than anything else I've tried. Our lowest temps at our house this winter have been 9, 10 and 11 degrees on several different nights, so I was glad we didn't have any drip lines out exposed to those temperatures. The people who leave their drip irrgation lines in the garden all winter often unhook the lines and situate them so any water left in them can run out. Then they use an air compressor to blow air through them to insure they are dry, and then hook them back together in place to they are ready for spring. I am not certain what they do with the rest of the system, but I imagine that even if they leave the lines themselves in the ground, they take the pressure regulator, filter and other parts and dry them out and store them indoors where they won't freeze and crack. Drip irrigation might not meet your needs if you don't want to put it up every winter, but it might work okay. You can learn more about drip irrigation at the website of Dripworks, which I'll link below. They even have designers who will help you design your drip system if you want them to, free of charge. If you go that route, be sure you tell them about the change in the grade in your garden so they can take that into account. Also, there is an irrigation forum here at GW and I bet the irrigation specialists there would be happy to answer your questions. I agree with Larry that a pressure compensating system likely would work for you. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Dripworks