If you have not yet visited Tranquil Lake Nursery, you owe it to yourself as a reward for all your hard work gardening this year. In Rehoboth Ma., just outside of Providence R.I., 1 hr. from Boston. I attended their annual July open house and heard these presentations- that are being repeated the next 2 Saturdays. Terrifically helpful talks. And the display gardens there are just simply the best in any New England public garden or nursery. They also sell alot of unusual perennials and woodies(and in great condition). Here's the notice of their upcoming programs: Greetings The many garden at Tranquil Lake Nursery in Rehoboth are always beautiful in the late summer and fall and the latest blooming varieties of our daylilies will blossom until frost. The nursery is offered three Garden Talks on Saturdays in September at 11:00 a.m. Bring a lawn chair. We will move indoors in case of rain. Our Fall Garden Festival is scheduled for Saturday, October 3. The workshops and festival are free and open to the public. Spread the word. Saturday, September 12 Daylilies for the Late Season Garden and Their Companions (Garden Talk) 11 a.m Philip Boucher, horticulturist and co-owner of Tranquil Lake Nursery will show off some of his favorite "Daylilies for the Late Season " from the collection of 3,600 or more daylily varieties in the fields at Tranquil lake Nursery. Learn what characteristics to look for, how to use daylilies in the garden and then ramble through the fields to see the September blooming beauties up close. He will also recommend a diverse selection of perennials for the late season garden and will suggest plant combinations that will complement these plants through the garden season. Early fall is an excellent time to plant perennials for beauty this year and continued appeal in years to come. Saturday, September 19 Plant Combinations for the Late Season Garden and Early Spring (Garden Talk) 11 a.m. Take a look at some plant combinations that will accent the late season and add color and interest to the early spring with horticulturist and garden designer, Warren Leach. Early fall is an excellent time to plant and establish plants for the spring garden. Explore planting combinations of spring bulbs, perennials, and shrubs that will add color to your garden next spring while also offering interest in the late season. Try some of our suggestions for perennial and spring bulb combinations or put together some new combinations of your own Saturday, September 26 Plants for Late Fall and Winter Interest (Garden Talk) 11 a.m. Garden color and interest need not fade with the first fall frost and frost and may even persist through winter snows. Enhance this often overlooked garden season by adding perennials, grasses, shrubs and small trees that will add color, texture and structure in your borders throughout the fall and into the winter. Warren Leach, garden designer and co-owner of Tranquil Lake Nursery will highlight a variety of uncommon and lesser known late season beauties that will spice up your borders adding late-season blooms, fall foliage effect, colorful twigs and attractive fruit to brighten the fall and winter landscape. He will also offer design suggestions for combining these plants into your borders and protecting them for the winter ahead. Saturday, October 3 Fall Gardening Festival (Full day of garden talks and demonstrations) 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Spend an educational and fun filled day at Tranquil Lake Nursery in Rehoboth, Massachusetts on Saturday, October 3rd from 10 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Learn new techniques that will help you to hone your gardening skills and improve the look and care of your own garden. We have invited a variety of speakers and exhibitors to share their knowledge and tools of the trade with you through workshops, hands-on activities, garden talks and demonstrations. Learn how and when to divide perennials, prune shrubs, propagate tender perennials, harvest and dry herbs and put the garden to bed for the winter. Experience the fine art of stone wall construction, add a water feature, or make hypertufas and more. There will also be workshops on perennials and shrubs for fall and winter interest, planting for spring color and spring bulbs. Plan to spend the whole day and learn how to improve the look of your garden this autumn, while you also get ready for the winter ahead and the spring to follow. You will also have the opportunity to wander among the gardens at Tranquil Lake Nursery, where you will see a diverse variety of perennials, grasses, shrubs and vines with late season interest. The gardens include a number of perennial borders, mixed perennial and shrub gardens, an ornamental vegetable garden, a thyme bench, container herb garden, an entry garden, an ornamental grass garden, a pond-side water garden, a bog garden, a dry-scree garden and more. The nursery also has more than 10 acres of daylilies and Siberian and Japanese Iris in the field. Some of the late blooming daylilies will still be in bloom at the end of September. Tranquil Lake Nursery offers a diverse selection of perennials, herbs, shrubs, grasses and tender perennials. Bring a picnic lunch; we'll provide the drinks. For more information, directions or a schedule, call the nursery visit our Web Site at www.tranquil-lake.com Warren Leach and Philip Boucher tranquil-lake@earthlink.net

How come we grow plants that aren't compatable with our zone? lol Your flowers are beautiful. My gingers are just now sending up flower spikes, I doubt there's going to be enough time left for them to open. The color of that scarlet ginger is beautiful. It looks a lot like a canna. Which one is the cape honeysuckle? The red, yellow or both? I've heard of it but have never seen it. Do you grow it from seeds or cuttings? Does it have a scent like wild honeysuckle? I have some sort of hardy red honeysuckle but it has absolutely no scent and is kind of a raggedy vine. I was going to rip it out but the hummingbirds like it. Most of this week is supposed to be warm so we sould be able to enjoy our gardens for a little while longer. Karyn

I have nine pepper plants growing in my basement under artificial light. 3 Bhut Jolokia, 2 Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, 2 Trinidad Douglah, a Orange Habanero Suave, and a yellow Bhut Jolokia. When the night-time temps fall below 55, the flowers will not produce and will possibly fall off. Same will happen with immature fruits. So I brought them in a few weeks ago. Some of them doubled in size in that short amount of time. It probably helps that the room gets up around 80 degrees when the lights are on and drops to the lower 60's at night. I had them on a metal halide for 18 hours a day and switched to the HPS bulb a couple weeks ago and dropped the photoperiod down to 12/12. Make sure your plants have plenty of calcium. Peppers need it. I give them a dose of that with their regular fertilizer every couple weeks. I just bought an Apollo Horticulture GLK400GW19 400w grow light on Amazon for this season and it is amazing. For $125, it is an AWESOME deal. It puts out 36,000 lumens with the MH lamp and 56,000 with the HPS. A Home Depot florescent will only put out about 1,000. I also have some decent T5 florescents that pump out 5,000 lumens. I got those for around $30 a pop. Another decent deal is the Hydrofarm 125w compact florescent. I believe that puts out around 8,000 lumens. All I know is -- don't look directly at the bulb like I did. ;)

Thank you Jim and Ann! Jim, it was some of both. I think our winter was too mild. I think there were a number of factors that caused my spring flush not be as good as usual, and while a lot of my roses bounced back and recovered nicely, Pink Peace seemed to struggle more than some of my other ones did.