Gladiolus callianthus aka Acidanthera

GGG -- great idea! I've googled Loropetalum Little Pixie and don't get anything. I was looking for growth habit and other details. Can you fill me in? And does anyone know where to get some Little Pixies? I didn't see any at my Pike yesterday. Bev -- I got some snaps 3 years ago and thought they would just last through the fall, but when I thought I should rip them out, they were perking up and then they bloomed again early spring. The Pike guy said they were probably reseeds, but it was happening on the original plants. I have gotten some volunteers, too, so they do re-seed. I'll let you all know if they continue to live this year. They're in containers in a shelterd area, so maybe that's why they've hung on. I smelled something fabulous yesterday at the nursery and it turned out to be stock. I've never grown that before, but it's beautiful and the right size. Would that be a good choice for an overwintering annual here?

Hi Sharon I got Calypso at a local garden center, as well as Lowe's this year. In fact, Lowe's had tons of them among about 6 other Easy Elegance roses. I think you need to look locally for most of the EE roses, since the don't seem to be working with many online vendors. The good news is that Lowe's had them for maybe $15 a pot for a large plant. In terms of size, I'd planted these at the front of that bed thinking it would stay small (it's listed as around 3' in height). I'd say mine is getting taller than this once mature, and in fact some of the canes are over 4', but they flop over a bit so it still works OK in the front. Mine have been as compact and tidy as Patty's when young, but seems to spread out a bit more as it matures. Patty's picture is way more gorgeous than my photos, and most of mine are a year or two old. I'll post two pictures to give an idea of color variation, and one to show the size of an immature bush. It's listed as an apricot, and sometimes it has the most beautiful apricot tones: Other times it can go quite pink and I wonder "what is that rose"? The impatiens below the bloom are that vivid coral orange-pink, to give a sense of reference. In the hot summer, Calypso tends to pink out: And in hot weather it can fade a fair bit, but not as badly as some apricots. Here's a small bush with some pinkish-apricot and fading blooms shortly after planting this June: Hope that helps - it's a nice healthy rose in all conditions, and it's a pretty steady rebloomer. Cynthia

Paula, We always have them down here and they usually hit the stores here around the 3rd or 4th week of August when it is ridiculously hot, when we are in drought and when no one in their right mind wants to be buying and transplanting cool season crops while the weather is ridiculously unfavorable. By early to mid-September, people seem to be buying them. Whether or not the different cool-season crops will do well when planted that late just depends on the weather, and how much the person who bought them is watering them. There's also the issue of timing and luck. My experience is that the performance of anything in the brassica family from late-summer/early autumn purchased transplants is going to be hit or miss. The brassicas greatly resent being rootbound and often they sit in the stores in the six-packs too long and are rootbound when bought. This often results in them bolting a few weeks after being transplanted. This seems more of an issue with broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts but not so much with cabbage. The cabbage plants I've planted in fall have all done amazingly well and often keep giving us heads of cabbage until January or February. (You cut off your original cabbage head when it is a nice, usable size. Leave a good bit of stem on the plant. Using a paring knift, cut an X in the top of the stem, and it usually will form 4 new small heads---one from each cut quarter of that main stem.) Lettuce can have the same issue of trying to bolt if it was allowed to stay too dry while in the store, but you often can help it recover by keeping it really moist and by cutting it back hard if it looks like it is trying to bolt. If the plants in your store are nice and fresh and don't look too big for the containers they're in and don't seem overly stressed or rootbound, they likely would do fine if bought and planted. It seems too late to me for tomato plants to be bought and put into the ground now, though it might be worth the risk if they already are in bloom (since I know that you have row cover for the coming cold nights). My fall tomato plants have been in the ground two months and are finally setting fruit now that the nights are cooler. I haven't planted anything else for fall. We remain in severe drought, our daytime highs are running 7-10 degrees above average for this time of the year and there's not much point in me trying to get cool season crops to grow in these conditions. I have to purposefully avoid walking through the garden centers at the big box stores right now because it is so hard to resist the urge to buy something and transplant it into the garden. If I thought the conditions would improve substantially over the next couple of weeks, I might buy something and plant it. But I don't expect that improvement in the weather, so I'm just trying to avoid looking at little containers of plants beckoning to me from the garden centers. Those of you looking for garlic---I have seen some in little cellophane packages in a couple of Wal-marts lately. They were with brand new displays that includes daffodils and other spring bulbs that need to be planted this fall, so you might watch your stores for those displays. In the store I was in this week, the new displays of bulbs for fall planting were inside the garden center, not outside with the live plants. Or, you can order from any of the great online retailers that sell garlic. They ship in the fall, and some of them likely already are sold out because they take orders all year for fall shipment. Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Territorial Seed, Baker Creek Heirloom Seed, Seed Savers Exchange, Peaceful Valley Farm Supply and Victory Seeds all generally have garlic and perennial onions (assuming there were no crop failures) for sale right now for fall planting. They normally ship in at least September through November, and maybe later than that if their planting stock doesn't sell out. Or you can buy garlic in the produce section at the grocery store and plant it. I like to look in places like Central Market or Whole Foods for different varieties since they typically have a much wider variety of garlic than your average grocery store. Often, about the only kinds you'll find in the produce sections of big box stores are basic varieties like California White or elephant garlic. Dawn