Mary, Cosmos bright lights grow 3-4 feet tall. I've grown them before, and they flowers don't look like these. My cosmos diablo plants grow only about 18 inches tall, 24 at most if they get too much rain or water. The original seeds came from plants that my grandmother had about 40 years ago and my mother and I kept them growing all these years. That's why I collect as many of the seeds as I possibly can and trade them in the fall or offer them for BEAP. I should have plenty of balloon flower seeds in the fall, both the taller one that is at least 12 inches tall and the one that is about 6-8 inches tall. Faithfulone. Glad to be of service to get you of on your way with WS. Isn't it wonderful? There are so many different varieties now of cosmos. Sounds like you will have tons and tons of room to grow all the different varieties out there. Fran

Thank you for the lovely comments! If it makes you feel any better, Nancy, my zinnias are only about 4" tall and no signs of blooming yet either. Neil, my camera is a Samsung Digimax 530 (5.0 Mega Pixels). It's basically a point and shoot type of camera, but it does have a setting for flowers, which works really good, as long as there is enough light. I have trouble with some colors too. Pale yellows or whites reflect so much light that they will often come out overexposed, purples often look more like blue, and that Petunia 'Aladdin Orange' is definitely more pink than it looks in the photo. I'm very pleased with this camera for still shots like flowers, but it's horrible for action pictures. The delay from the time you press the button, to the time the camera actually takes the picture is way too long, and usually a second behind the "moment". Bonnie

Jay, Maybe the cooler weather has helped yours perk up a bit---I know that mine are looking a lot happier this week than they did last week too. Unfortunately the heat is back. Our local forecasters are saying at least 10 days of lots of heat and no rain, and since we have had rain recently, our heat index numbers here in southern OK will be in the 104-105 range or higher. It is supposed to be much worse in southwestern OK which has a heat advisory warning of heat index numbers in the 110-115 range. It sounds like a good time to stay inside during the heat of the day and only venture out "early" and "late". I'm glad to hear you're seeing more fruitset. I certainly have seen a lot more blooms the last 3 or 4 days, so hopefully some of them have set fruit during the cool spell. When picking tomatoes yesterday, I noticed some tomato fruitworm damage, so will be out spraying the plants with Bt in just a little while. It will be the first time I've used Bt in several years. I generally avoid it because of the damage it can do to butterflies and moths, but I'm not to let the fruitworms take all my tomatoes either. The harvest is heavy and the days are long. I hope you are able to start saying that back to me before too much more time passes. Chocolate Stripes. Chocolate Stripes. Chocolate Stripes. This has got to be one of the prettiest tomatoes I've ever grown and today I'll be tasting the first one from this year's crop. This plant is loaded with fruit, so I hope they taste good! Your humidity is so low. Usually we are only that low when we are in drought periods, although we did get down into the mid to upper teens a couple of days during the last big hot spell a couple of weeks ago. Lately, though, since 1.25" of rain has fallen in each of the last two weeks, we start our mornings with 95-100% humidity and then it drops to the 30s or so in the afternoon. If I could choose between "heat + high humidity" and "heat + low humidity", I'd choose the low humidity any day of the week. Larry, Your humidity is just awful. I like to get outside early to beat the heat, but that is when our humidity is highest so it really is more pleasant here in the late afternoon and early evening when the humidity has dropped. Yesterday morning, it felt like a steam bath here even though temps were in the 80s and I blame that on the high humidity. Yesterday evening, with a temperature around 90 and lower humidity, it felt so much more pleasant. I haven't found that firing the weatherman gets you any better weather. (sigh) What it usually gets you is someone new who doesn't understand the weather you have and promises weather they can't deliver. Our current local TV forecasters are wonderful and are the best forecast team we've ever had since we moved here. One of them is a gardener himself and occasionally mentions gardening in his forecast, saying things like "I think it is OK to go ahead and plant your tomatoes now if you can cover them up if a late frost threatens....". It is pretty cool to have gardening meteorologist! Carol, How wonderful that your mom is still so healthy and active at the age of 98! I hope her birthday was wonderful and that she enjoyed her lunch out. We do have a lot of 'old-timers' here in her approximate age group. There's a couple up the street that are (I think) 95 and 94, and another one a little farther away who is going to turn 101 later this year. Tim and I have often remarked that the "old farmers and ranchers" seem to live extremely long lives here, and I've noticed many of them still have large gardens and do some ranching even into their late 80s to early 90s, although "the kids" often have to "make" them stop driving their tractor once they reach a certain age. Dawn

Good evening! It's 86 F. and the mosquitoes had a nice dinner on me - literally! I have bites on my face and on my hands and knees. All the fun spots that I can't resist scratching in my sleep. Donna, I'm so sorry for all you're going through. Be strong and post more often for lots of (((hugs))). Jan, I have severe osteoporosis and have been on Fosamax for 6 years with good results. I'll never be perfect, but my bones are stronger than they were at 55. I also take two calcium tabs every night before bed. Raeanne, I really hope my son loves this birthday gift. In the last few years, I've taken the safe way out and just gone with a GC. And, I didn't make it to Dallas after Christmas this past year, so my sister and decided to just wait until this weekend to exchange gifts. I don't usually wait quite this long! Still lots of packing to do. I keep thinking of things like sheets and spring rods to take to my Dson for when they move into their new home in late August. That's what I used until we got our window coverings, and it was helpful. I also need to take Alexis's (9 yr. old DGD) books to her that she forgot last visit. I haven't seen her in a month, and I really am excited to see her tomorrow night when she flies in from AL and visiting my xh and his wife. Guess I'd better get back to it because experience has taught me that nobody else is going to do my packing for me! Have a great rest of the week!