You should be fine planting Moonbeam in early fall, just make sure it is in a somewhat dryish spot if you garden in clay, perhaps a little high, and not somewhere where the melting snow runs off. I have two large clumps, one in a regular mixed perennial bed & the other with daylilies. The first clump is over ten years old. I find that Moonbeam likes rich soils, but needs to be dry in order to winter well in the cold here. It also needs to be rejuvenated every 3 years or so as it seems that its long bloom seems to deplete the soil somewhat. (I lift them, split them up a bit, replenish the soil, & replant them in the same spot, or as I did once, use some to start another clump elsewhere). Moonbeam does get a late start for me in spring & it is easy to mistake it for grass or weeds, so mark it well. I also tried Baby Sun & Tequila Sunrise (a variegated variety) late last summer and they both wintered over well in a raised bed & have bloomed heavily for me this year as they did in their first year. Creme Brule was planted last year in the spring between some established daylilies & wintered over, but it is still too new to tell if it will be a long lasting perennial. I'd also wait till next spring to plant most other varieties of Coreopsis. Early Sunrise has wintered over for a couple of years in my garden, but its survival/return is always iffy here. IME, if you plant 3 to 5 plants, one or two won't return the first year, several will live a couple years and one, if you're lucky, will persist for 4 or 5 years. They do bloom for a long time, with larger blooms than the others I mentioned, so it's a tradeoff, depends what you want. I only tried Zagreb one time. I fall planted. It returned but never flourished, seemed to be stunted, perhaps from planting late & I finally removed it after a few years. Other gardeners I know have had no problems with it at all. As someone said, the really pretty newer varieties of pink coreopsis are annuals here. However, I have had some luck with rosea. It is a spreader, doesn't really clump for me, & unlike most coreopsis it prefers consistently moist soil. It seems to like the moist lower edges of my daylily bed. Be warned, however, it is a pale bluish pink which does not go well with peachy pinks. I have it planted with Cerise Queen Yarrow (behind on higher drier ground) around some small orchid daylilies (Siloam David Kirchhoff) at the front of the bed. A very pretty combo when it works - the dl sometimes bloom too early, while both the CQ yarrow and C. rosea are mid to late summer bloomers for me. Ah well...:~) that's gardening!

Jim, I am hoping someone with more experience than I will respond, but here is my opinion. There is danger in either choice. Plumeria need heat and light to root, and it takes a while for that to happen. I would expect it will be getting cooler where you are as well as fewer hours of sunlight, so rooting now may be difficult unless you have a heat mat and grow lights to augment mother nature. However, although there are reports of cuttings being viable after months in storage, I think the chance of successful rooting drops the longer you wait to root them. Personally, if there is any chance of giving them bottom heat and extra light, I would try rooting them now, rather than waiting. Mike

Hi High alt, I definitely second the motion to plant them now! Fall is a GREAT time for planting. The only real negative is the fact that you have to wait all winter to see for sure if they'll come up in spring, but most of them will---and they'll be so-o-o far ahead of where they'd be if you waited till spring that it's worth possibly loosing an occasional plant. Anytime the soil's not frozen the roots will be growing! And with Achillea--which is virtually indestructible--I'd be amazed if they died overwinter. As Charlene says, be sure they're well watered when you put them in, and after that be careful that you don't keep them too wet. There's some Achillea millefolium growing in an isolated area by the Kmart I go to and it is NEVER watered or taken care of in any way (it's a Kmart, after all!), and it just keeps going and going and going..... The only thing I'd be hesitant to plant in fall would be something that's only marginally hardy in our zone. I still have some things in pots I bought earlier this year that I never had time to put in that I hope to get planted yet, and in terms of mulch, I don't plan to do anything once they're planted. I do have bark mulch around all my perennials to make it look nice and help conserve moisture, but I won't be adding anything else that's actually on top of the plants. With some plants--especially ones that like it dry or are in any way a succulent type of plant--the crown can stay too wet if there's not enough air circulation, and they could rot out. If you do decide to mulch over the top, be sure it's something that allows free air circulation. One word of caution--be sure whatever you're planting is thoroughly hardened off if it will be cold for the first few nights after you plant it. Or else wait till we warm again and you know it will be warm for the first several nights before it gets really cold again---that way they'll harden off naturally as the temps drop once it's in the ground. You especially need to be sure you harden off things you get in the mail since you don't know what conditions they've been in before they were shipped. The plants you have sitting outside in pots I'd just leave out there! If they've been out there for over a week now, they've been exposed to some pretty cold temps and should be well enough hardened off to be just fine. If you move them inside, they'll just need to be hardened off all over again. I'm not familiar with Coreopsis 'Autumn Blush." Is that one listed as z5 or colder? Some of the newer Coreopsis's (sp?--Coreopsi!!!) are not reliably hardy. I hope that one is--it sure sounds pretty! Happy gardening, Skybird P.S. Charlene, good luck with your "little sticks!" I LOVE your descriptions!

If you can get to Queens or LI, several places like Gardenworld, Hicks and Dee's are having clearance sale on stuff up to 70% off so they can do Christmas village in stores. There are a lot of nice string and solar lights at Harbor Freight and BigLots and even decorative lanterns and gazing balls. Both Harbor Freight and BigLots now offer ship to home.