Thanks, ZM! I live in a "city" -- ok, maybe suburban (anything with sidewalks to me is "The City" :-) but I have quite a bit of 'growing for wild-life' landscaping on my postage-stamp sized lot: for the birds & butterflies. One of the 'benefits' of living in an urban area is one does not have to worry about deer, groundhogs (just squirrels [and that's only because I feed the birds], and very few bugs --not even mosquitoes!), so I can plant pretty much what I want. Anyway, I digress. So to answer your question, I would have to say the sunflowers are for the bees (during the developing stages) and birds (after the seeds have come in) -- but also as something beautiful to look at from my dining room window when the sun is setting during the summer: the bright yellow petals would just glow from the late afternoon until sunset from this west facing window -- about 6-8' tall specimens were the perfect size for viewing this spectacular site. When I was successful, I would have about a 6-8 large-headed sunflowers in a row. This caught on to others in the neighborhood and some people had as many as 25 in their small patches of ground. I liked that idea better and since then have been trying to get that same "field of sunflowers" effect -- there is enough space for that amount but, unfortunately, my yield has been '0'. I also have another area along my fence line that would look great for a 'wall of sunflowers' but I have never (even when the first area did yield some) been able to grow any there. That would also be an ideal location, not only esthetically (so I don't have to look at my neighbor's "junk yard") but also because that is where my birdfeeders/'pond' is located -- so the birds would not have to go far from their MacDonald's fast food bar to enjoy some fresh food too. I am hoping that your suggestions work because I would also like to take some seed from the best flowers to use for subsequent years -- but so far, that's only a dream. :-) Just talking to you guys has made me so excited just thinking about cleaning up for the new season. I am very concerned, however, since the hydrangeas were already putting out their buds in January and I had not even pruned them back yet -- that usually doesn't happen until March/April -- but the mild winter played havoc on some of the plants. I suspect I won't get much in the way of flowers this year. But, if I have a "wall of sunflowers" that will make up for the loss. :-) :-) Thanks!!

Yep, that's it! I do have that plant in my collection. I have been a lot more lax about keeping up with the tags since I stopped selling plants, and I have a pesky squirrel (an no less than 4 large snakes) that are currently living in the GH and sometimes they are a little, um, DISRUPTIVE. Thanks, Lisa!

Hi You dealth with the roots, and not only that but you seperated 3 plants from each other, I think the roots got quite disturbed and the plant is currently in shock. If you had something such as SuperThrive you should have then soaked all 3 plants root systems in this mix for 15-30 minutes. Then repotted them. Live sphagnum can become an issue to small plants, most people seem to just cut the sphagnum away from the area that it is overcrowding. You could always go the route of using no sphagnum moss on the surface, my Capensis plantlet is now planted in a small 2" pot, I only used 50/50 peat/perlite mix with no sphagnum top surface until the plant gets bigger. Just get the plant good light and water and it should recover fine. Could you not rather use peat mix to anchor the plant down as apposed to sphagnum moss mabey? Anyhow hope the little guy does ok Sheldon

Our son's dog, Kate B. left us in her 12th year. She slept at my feet on the corner of the bed for so long that I automatically bent my right leg to make room for her even after she was gone. I told my DH that we had to find another friend. He said we could not replace her. I told him that was true but a new little friend would help to fill the void she had left (I boohoo'd for what seemed like weeks...my son could not believe I took it so hard). Six weeks later Tess came into our lives, all 1 3/4 lbs of her and she has been the best dog of our 42 year marriage. She loves us both, loves to talk to our grown son on the phone...hates his 4 huge cats! We just took in 2 black feral kittens we found under our house. I thought Tess was going to disown us. LOL She loves to tattle on what they are up to and with those two they are ALWAYS up to something (what was I thinking!). The good Lord shared a wonderful friend like Tweed and surely HE will send you another that will help you during the trying times you are dealing with. Much love from Tess, YoYo, YaYa, DH and me (((hug))) Peggy