Cameron, Your Lavender and Pinks in front of your Knockouts are glorious! What is the Clematis on the fence? Slobber, slobber....just beautiful! You could send some of that rain my way!!! We are high and dry! I am mighty tired of dragging that 100 feet of garden hose. I am only blessed by having my own well water. If drainage is a problem, build up the soil where you plant your lavender plants with a lot of sand, rocks and gravel. Then you can water your other plants all you want (or all that rainfall) and the lavender will be happy too. ~Annie

I grew up in Omaha and always admired my Mother's Peonies. I live in Los Angeles now (zones 9 to 10B) and wanted to take my chances at growing Sarah Bernhardt Peonies. I know Los Angeles is not this plants zone but I'd like to take my chances by applying some special care techniques. I recently mail ordered three bare root Sarah Bernhardt Peonies. They arrived and look extremely healthy based on the shoots. I immediately planted them in the ground in a special bed in my front yard I am dedicating to these Peonies and have been watching the shoots get larger each day. The specific bed location faces east and receives direct unobstructed sunlight from about 7am through about 1-2pm as the sun moves around the house from east to south. I am wondering if it would not have been better for me to have planted my bare roots into individual containers rather than directly in the ground so that I could move them about as needed as the late Spring and Summer heat gets started. I really want to succeed at growing this beatiful flower. I was thinking in containers I could still keep them in the dedicated bed but have the ability to move them around as needed. Right now Los Angeles temperatures are in the 60's to mid 70's with lows in the upper 40's to 50's but that will be changing to upper 70's to 80's by May and June and then by August 80's to 90's and in September we hit some 100's degree days. If your recommendation is to plant in containers now, how large a container for each should I select. I read that they do not like to be disturbed once established and this particular Peonie reaches a size of about 36 inches wide and 36 inches tall. I am guesstimating that each container should be about 30" to 36". What I am planning on doing during the winter months is to apply ice all around the top to help with the cold this plant needs. During the winter months Los Angeles gets consistent lows for about 5 months of the year of 30's and 40's which probably isn't good enough, hence the reasoning for the ice. Is there any advice someone can give me for succeeding at growing my Mother's favorite flower? Its such a beautiful flower and it would be very special for me to enjoy something that brought my Mother such happiness.

If you think you have a problem that requires a systemic insecticide, better to buy a product with label instructions for applying it....like the Bonide you mention. Is your goal insect control (which one), fertilizer? We don't know what you wish to accomplish. The 2 in 1 product shown on their website is imidacloprid and granular fertilizer, Bayer states it is not for use in containers. A granular type fertlizer would not be the same as the time release osmocote pellets that release small amounts of product over weeks. I use a water soluable fertilizer product for container plants, rarely mixing to the full strength of label directions, I haven't found it necessary. Here is a link that might be useful: Bayer - questions/answers/product label

You have plenty of time this fall to take that rose out of the pot and put in in your garden, you need 6 to 8 weeks before continuously freezing weather begins to put plants in and even then the plants roots will continue growing. There are some people that think that the first frost is the end of the growing season, but most often even after the first frost the weather moderates and is very good for growing and even when the temperatures steady to below freezing the soil temperatures take quite some time to cool down. Soil temperatures very slowly follow air temperatures in dropping.