Hi Cargo, they haven't grown very well for me. Two springs ago, I bought 3 'Pink Mist', because they supposedly attracted butterflies, and they didn't have that many blooms and only 1 made it through the winter. I moved that one, and it didn't bloom much last year either. Then last fall I bought 2 more on sale, with a whole bunch of other perennials and grasses, and shouldn't have bothered. Out of 55 plants, most which were overwintered in pots, they were the only 2 that didn't make it through the winter. So I still have only one. It better bloom this year I'll shovel prune it!

Last year I started my first cutting garden. I planted: several types of zinnia asters larkspur bachelor's buttons veronica foxglove ammi majus nicotiana stock delphinium cosmos coreopsis yarrow mexican hats sunflowers sweet peas verbena bonarensis lavendar carnations echinacea bellfower shasta daisy rudbeckia dahlias & glads Everything was from seed/bulb & I had mixed success. This year I'm doing a lot of the same plants, but wintersowing. My flower garden is in a 15' x 12' bed which gets morning shade on one side & some afternoon shade on the other. I had pretty good germination on my seeds. Most of my dahlias came up, but I didn't notice any blooms. Almost none of my sweet peas came up, & although most of my glads came up my mix from Lowes gave me only two colors (& not the ones I was hoping for). I'm a west-coaster still getting used to an east-coast garden. I saw plans from gardner's supply for a small cutting garden with the plants pretty tightly packed & thought that would work here, but we have a much longer season & more heat. Some things didn't do so well, & toward the end I had a lot of mold on my plants. The stand-outs were the zinnias, cosmos & the sunflowers. I'm hoping that the perennials that survived make a showing this year. Actually, the stock already is - it just started blooming last week! I thought the nicotiana was lovely in the garden but not good for the vase & I ended pulling it out. I'm not sorry I did, because not only did it re-seed like crazy, it spread by its roots & I'm still finding it poking up all over from little bits I left behind. Around Christmas I pulled out all the bulbs & moved some of the perennials. Then I planted a bunch of bulbs I got at Lowes at 75% off. They are coming up now & I love to go out in the morning & see if any new ones have poked their heads up. So far the dutch irises, freesias, paper whites, & ranunculas are up. The daffodils, tulips, bearded irises & glads are just starting to show. I filled in some empty space with two discounted flats (one dianthus & one violas) while I wait for my seedlings to be ready to plant out. I have some sweet peas up this year, & will be starting more this month. I read a post here on the gw about surface sowing, & I'm hoping that will help my germination rate with sweet peas. Currently I have I think all of the above mentioned plants sown in milk jugs, along with calendula, lupine, love-in-a-mist, bells of Ireland, snaps, & ballonflower. I don't really have enough space! I wish I had more friends here who like gardening. The thing that I enjoyed most was sharing the flowers with my dd. We were constantly filling little vases (made by my mother when she was a girl) for her & she loved having her "flowies." Next I loved seeing all the butterflies & birds, & even a hummingbird from time to time. The garden was full of butterflies - mostly black swallowtails. They then flew to the other side of the house & laid eggs on my parsley, & when the caterpillars had eaten all that they ate the leaves off my pepper plants. This year I am trying to plant some cat food in its own spot. We couldn't believe the number of cats crawling all over that small bed! I've read up a little on the butterfly forum to figure out what to provide, & will do my best, but boy - they show some dedication over there! I wish I were a better gardener, but I tend to go in fits & spurts, with other areas of life taking over my attention at different times. I'm great at planning & getting things started, not so good at the tending over the long haul. I envy all the lush gardens I see in photos on gw. However, I'll keep at it. One day you'll see my lush garden in photos here! :)

When my grandmother passed away in 1999 I rescued an AV from her kitchen table. Her house had already been closed up for a few weeks when we went to clean it out, and it was mid-summer, so the poor thing had essentially been in an oven. It was all brown and dried out, and my heart went out to it. I had no idea what it was, but I took it home... and promptly killed it by over-watering it. Enter AV #2, because clearly I needed to prove to myself that I could take care of one and not kill it. So for a little while, yes, I had only one AV. However, AVs #3, 4, 5, and 6 followed closely thereafter. Then I moved from Boston to LA. My apartment I was moving into didn't get any light and I was worried the AVs would die during the road trip, so I left them all with my mother. That was years ago and she's taken wonderful care of them. She always shows them off to me when I visit them. I mean her. :0) Now for the most recent round of obsession... Three years ago I rescued an AV off of a co-workers desk after she quit unexpectedly (that's the one that's never bloomed until now). For a few weeks, yes, I owned only one. But then I happened to see one with girl foliage at the supermarket, and found it so unusual that I had to buy it. For three years I had just the two AVs, but now I'm in full-on obsession mode again. It started when I moved into my condo over the summer and had all this sunlight flooding in... and, well, you can imagine the rest!

I wonder whether Ultra Violet is hardy in the east to zone 5b. Just because it is that hardy in Colorado doesn't mean it will be here, but it is certainly worth testing. You might want to look at some of their other sages. Several of the types they offer have proved very hardy for me. Greggii Wild Thing has been in my garden for three years now and has always come back strong. Even after temperature fell to around 10F this month the plants continued to have lots of green leaves. Maraschino is also extremely hardy and most years does not even die to the ground. The only downside to this plant from my point of view is that it doesn't flower much until late summer. Microphylla San Carlos Festival has also been here for some 8 years and although it generally dies to the ground it comes back with a passion. None of these are rated to zone 5b but I wonder. After all, the minimum temperatures for a particular zone aren't reached every winter and even small yards have micro zones that are warmer.