Hi Melissa -- did you ever get that email I sent you about digging a swale to capture rainwater on a hillside? I'm working on a similar project (slowly) and thought of you. Fundamentally I agree with you. It's best to grow plants that want to grow in the conditions you can offer them. I have a couple exceptions. You mentioned blueberries. I just adore blueberries. If you stick to the newer southern highbush varieties such as Misty, Oneal, and Sunshine Blue you may have better luck. Sunshine Blue in particular is said to be a little more tolerant of higher pH. Try a raised bed filled with compost, wood chip, and peat as a growing medium. I'm experimenting with the same mixture, some soil and sulfur added, dug as a trench in the ground. It is too soon to tell, but so far all but one of my blueberries are growing well and not chlorotic. I did lose one, but think that I lost it to hot dry weather when I was away. They do need water. I don't begrudge it to food plants. My other exception is that I planted a couple of avocado trees because Tom loves them so much. I'm not convinced that I'm going to be able to make them happy, but we're giving it a try. After killing about two dozen rhododendrons, I've given up on them. I have two left. One under the redwood trees actually looks reasonably happy. The other, alas, is on its way out. I do so love rhododendrons. At least I have roses! And apples. And plums, and figs, and citrus. Really, so much does well here that it is silly to sigh for the few plants that won't thrive for me. It means that when I go garden visiting and see favorite plants I cannot grow well, I have the special thrill that comes from seeing the less accustomed beauty. Rosefolly

Hello- The best part of the New England Grows! trade show (not a flower show) was meeting Cady - first time I have ever met a cyber friend in person, too - what a delight! Next best were the lectures - a couple of which might be of interest to posters here. In terms of the "room" thread Tony has going ("Come into the garden, Maude" thread), P. Allen Smith of cable TV fame took the concept of the garden room to the limit. IMO he was obnoxious and commercial. Advised having your clients bring in paint chips and fabric swatches to match flower colors to the other decorative elements of the outdoor rooms and also to match to any indoor rooms looking out on the garden - all needs to match and look well together. . . the garden designer as exterior designer, based on the interior designer model. He sells books to keep all of your swatches, paint chips, and plant labels in order. A shameless promoter of his shows, books, and other paraphinalia. He heavily promoted his "recipe cards" for creating the "perfect containers." A paint-by -number approach to gardening which makes "the public", as he kept saying, seem really stupid. Enough of P. Allen. Lucinda Brockway, the garden historian and restoration expert mentioned at the beginning of this thread, gave an excellent presentation on the practical aspects of garden restoration. She is known for her authentic museum-quality restorations of historical properties like Strawberry Bank in NH and Fort Ticonderoga in NY. For this presentation, she showed many slides of work she has done in the restoration of historical homes. In this work her efforts were not to create historically correct garden landscapes down to the last detail, but rather to meld the old with the new into livable landscape gardens for her clients. Although she herself did not use these terms, I felt she was in effect saying she sometimes uses authentic plants in a new gardening style(such as colonial plants in island beds in the lawn) and sometimes uses new plants in an authentic gardening style("Proven Winner" annuals in Victorian carpet beds). She showed slides of a Colonial home with a modern swimming pool in the back yard and Colonial-style plantings; also a Colonial reproduction housing development for the elderly with complimentary plantings done in the style of the times. The gist of the presentation was to understand that a garden will have a lot of lives and that your work in it is probably not its last. In other words, don't take yourself so seriously when trying to be historically correct in reproducing gardens from the past in homes being lived in; remember they are not historic, museum properties with paid staff to keep them up. She had a good handout plus a flyer for a new book she has co-authored on the restoration of several Newburyport, MA gardens. I have extras if anyone would like them. E-mail me and I will send them off. Lots more, but no more time to post . . . Ginger

The H spicata is native to my land. I not sure about its ID. It is not the "normal more common H spicata. It is either H spicata var arizonic or the H . nitida , which I doubt because of it extreme rareness. There are only 30 known populations . The H. spicata var arizonica is also rare. It has come up 3 times on my land in three different places. then it disappears. None of the ones that came up have made a re appearance. IT takes 20 years from seed to bloom. I don't know how it grows or what it does during their long periods of dormancy. The Monarda punctata is native to Texas somewhere. I think it likes any soil. I found the seed pods on a plant in the sandy wash of Tent Rocks canyon in New Mexico. It is a relative of our Monarda citriodora, horse mint, bee plant. It is an easy annual to grow . I only found the first one three years ago. So I am on the look out for it now. I have found it on the northeast facing bank of my arroyo, on the lower shady oak/cedar moist leaf littered areas

Thugs may show up at garden club sales, but you may also find plants that can be divided or groundcovers that spread in a more friendly way, plants such as Hosta or some of the Geraniums. I would take a tablet or your phone and look things up on a reliable website such as the MOBOT Plant Finder or the New England wildflower's GoBotany or even just type in the plant name and the word invasive or thug to find out if it is invasive in the scientific sense (spreading into wild areas via wind, water, or animals and displacing natives) or just a thug in the garden like your spiderwort can be if give free reign to seed around. I would also encourage you to look at nonnatives since many are loved by insects and other pollinators when added to the mix. For instance many of the native plants to New England where I live tend to be woodland plants since our climax vegetation is forest, and many gardens have at least some sun. Rgardless, ask the folks if behind the counter if they are familiar with the plants you are considering and whether they spread aggressively.