Irish Luck and Kiwi Full Monty are both listed as Mediums. But as you can tell from Don Rawson's photo of Irish Luck, it is a very vigorous medium! And, Kiwi Full Monty is also a medium, and it is vigorous too. Therefore, I do not know what to tell you about locating KFM. Someone else who planted Striptease near their walkway had to relocate them because they outgrew the location, overwhelming the path. I think that thread is running around on the back pages of our forum somewhere. My plants in pots are easily adjusted to their growth and also easily hidden when they look ragged. I can move out to prominent spots the top performers. In that respect, I am lucky. But, eventually, if things do not go right, the lump under the rug where I sweep my mistakes gets to be mountain-TALL. :) Do you have ideas where it will go? Fill the bed as you intended and wait for KFM to make its move. Either it likes where you put it and grows like a demon, or it pouts and you move it. Personally, it has grown nicely for me with never a time it did not look good. I'm very pleased with all my Striptease family. Another one, as you can see in the family photo I posted above, that grows similar to KFM with that loose open look, is Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. Whether the two remain similar in form as they grow, only time will tell for me....Maybe I can cheat by checking photos of mature plants, eh....(only problem being, no mature YPDB is in the library photos).

I'm really surprised at the bad luck you've had with Bluestone Perennials too, walnutcreek. I order from them every year and always have excellent results. I hope when you try them again, you'll be pleasantly surprised! I did order from their sale this year, alisande. I ordered several delphiniums and Centaurea. And about the plant size... Bluestone always shipped small plants, at a very low price. But once they were planted, they sure took off and grew fast! I've always loved both the plants and the prices. Then, a year or so ago, I read that Bluestone was responding to customer wishes to ship larger plants. Then, this year, I realized their normal prices were about double what they used to be. I assumed that was to cover the cost of the larger plants. I believe the sale prices this year are about the same as normal prices were in previous years. But, I am expecting that I will get much larger plants then in the past. I'm looking forward to their arrival next week!

Here's why I personally feel buzz words don't work. It's a little like custom features. Everyone's idea of what "luxurious", to use one example, can vary wildly. Even words like "large" can often be disputed as what may be a large backyard in your own neighborhood, may be a postage stamp in someone else's. We've sold FSBO three times and each time when we let the buyer do most of the talking, we discovered interesting information about their home search. And with every home we've had buyers who were downsizing. Had we wasted time in our ads or trying to convince them that our "fabulous deck area" will sell our home, we would have found out that maybe they don't want the maintenance of a deck. Or that the deck they currently home is massive compared to ours. For the majority of people, a home will be the single most expensive thing they ever purchase. So it stands to reason that most of us don't want to over pay. Superfluous adjectives create high expectations. And whenever those expectations aren't met, the buyer sees that as an opportunity to create objections in their own mind in order to offer less. The idea of the ad is just to get buyers in your home. Period. When the buyers show up, you want them to leave thinking that the property has SO much more going on than even the ad promised. That creates value in the mind of the buyer and it pushes them to make a decision because they know their competition (other buyers) will probably be feeling the same way.

Sure! I've posted my "magic mix" several times before, and it was in the thread on Chinas and Teas I referenced above. I also went into detail about it in this thread, and Lisa Adams shared a few pics in this thread, but here it is again: Get a large wheelbarrow, a 1-gal bucket, and a 1-cup measuring device which you won't mind getting dirty. Mix 3 buckets of peat moss (or coco moss if you prefer), 1 bucket of Bovung dehydrated manure, 1 bucket of perlite, and 1 bucket of vermiculite. Pick your favorite organic dry fertilizer -- I use Espoma Organic Garden Tone now because I can get it in big bags, but I've also used Jobe's Organic Knock-Out Rose Food in the past -- and add 3 cups. All these ingredients I find at my local Home Depot, and clicking the green text for each will bring you to their item descriptions on that website. I didn't link "peat moss" or "coco moss" because I'm sure you know what they are. I use nursery liners in 1- and 2-gal sizes, depending on how big they are when they arrive. I get mine from Greenhouse Megastore. They're not fancy, but they're both cheap and durable. I've gotten several uses out of each, and I haven't had to throw any away so far. Since I also collect used coffee grounds from Starbucks daily -- except during the worst part of Winter -- I also add about a 1 inch layer on top after they're potted. I also line the bottom of each pot with a coffee filter or two, so as to keep the potting mix from spilling out of the drain holes. This still allows water to drain through. Newspaper will do the same trick. Once potted, I put the rose into a large bucket and let it soak in water while I move on to the next one, then continue down the line. The earliest I get roses here is April, running through until June. Within this window, it's usually mild enough that I can put the potted roses out in full-sun, and we also get enough rain that I usually don't have to water them again until about July. I'll keep them potted until late August or early September, by which time we're still warm enough to plant in the ground, but the hottest temperatures have subsided. Keep in mind that these are my conditions in central NJ near the coast. If I was living where Winters didn't put an end to "rose season" but Summers were severe, I'd likely get them started in Autumn. :-) ~Christopher