Busy day with adult kids home for Dad's birthday...couldn't REALLY get to the garden until they left. (Go home kids, Mom's got work to do....not)Anyhow, after they left I got to change from Mom to Gardenwoman. DH got out the weed trimmer and we trimmed the paths through where I had all my sun- loving flowers last summer. Now I Have found where the beds are supposed to be, LOL. THere are about 40 Stargazer lilies that were completely hidden under bindweed, but I don't think it had covered them long because they don't look too bad. Others that were one yr lilies last year are looking much better and I found an inula that I planted last yr that is 2 ft hight and has a flower in full bloom! I never had one bloom or even saw it other then in the catalog! I have half a doxen seedlings to set out to join company with the one, which I am sure whill take off and grow much larger. I have to figure out what to plant in the peony bed. LAst yr I planted zinnias and they grew 5-6' tall and I was afraid I would loose my peonies! They did survive but I don't want to do that again! Tomorrow I will start digging out the beds. I pulled all the plants out of the greenhouses today and set them out in our cool overcast weather, hoping it rains on them tonight. And the dahlias that I started in pots, I have several open flowers from...all anemone or singles for my own pleasure. 'Fire and Ice' is very pretty! OH for a week with no interruptions! Unfortunately I beleive I have a day in the city for a dental appt midweek. ...hope it pours all day! DAng,,,forgot to move my sprinkler hose and turn it back on and it is dark now. OH well, found another one under the grass in the garden I was working on so tomorrow maybe I can get two of them going. OH yes, I have the first Chrysanthmum 'Merry Mix' flower...cute! Also the Campus Apricot cosmos are beginning to bloom (strange color, like orange over purple- pink). Haven't even planted any regular ones out.

Lilies can be kept in the ground year-round practically anywhere. Are yours Asiatics or Orientals, or something else? In your climate, Asiatics may be short-lived. They prefer some cold. Orientals might have some of the same effect, but they don't need as much cold as Asiatics. Lilies "set" their flower buds for the coming year over the winter. If they don't get enough cold, the buds aren't set, or fewer are set. When lilies have multiplied/split, you will usually see a second stalk. If they have made little babies on the stem, you'll see a rather small leaf or two near (but not quite on) the main stem. If you don't see either of those things, you can't divide them except by scaling them. That's not easy. I wouldn't try it unless I were willing to risk losing them altogether. If you scale them now, not only will the plants from those scales not bloom this year, they may not bloom for several years, when they finally get big enough. You can get more continuous bloom from lilies by doing staggered plantings, if the bulbs have been properly stored and haven't gotten completely dried out in storage. I wouldn't buy lilies from anybody but Ednie's at this point, since they store them properly cooled (refrigerated with exact temperature and humididy control.) In fact, you can get lilies from them any time of year, as they supply commercial year-round greenhouse growers. No doubt there are other such suppliers, I just don't know them. I wouldn't buy lilies from a hobby catalog now, either, except the very most reputable ones. I've gotten burned in the past, getting completely dried-out, papery lily bulbs when ordering late. They grew, just barely, and took three years to reach blooming size. Oddly enough, I WOULD buy late-bargain lilies now from a store, if they are packaged in a way that allowed me to see and evaluate the bulb, and feel how heavy (not dried out) the bulb is, and they passed my inspection. Lilies can be planted in fall or spring. That's why vendors offer them that way. In cold climates like mine, fall planting is riskier, as they may not have enough time to develop their roots, but it can be done. Actually, lilies can be transplanted at any point in their life cycle if you are careful with the roots. BUT - lilies never go completely dormant and don't like to be out of the ground. They cannot stay full of water that way and slowly dry out. They don't have a papery outer coating like tulips, daffs, and glads corms do, to keep them from drying out. That's why late lilies may not be a good idea. If they haven't been properly stored, they could be very dried out and in very bad shape. As for the dahlias - I'm just jealous. I haven't transferred mine from pots into the ground because it's so dang cold and wet, I'm afraid the stress will cause them to rot. Jeanne

flowerfarmer--thanks for asking. I probably can't help you tho. I didn't get Prospero; I have Naomi, Lagoon, Bon Bini, and Amanda. I think I thought I had Thalia, but re-looking at the flyer, the ones I have marked are the ones I just listed. Naomi must be the dark purple/maroon that bloomed ONE BLOOM!!!!!! a few weeks ago. I can't remember which is where. I did label them, but I haven't been on my hands & knees in a while to find the labels. Our heat & drought is causing catastophe for my dahlias. What a year for the uninitiated into dahlias! I had such high hopes! I've lost A BUNCH of plants to drought, they've just fried. I still have one section that are just maybe 10 inches tall; some of the probable Naomi's are about 2- 2.5 tall. Maybe not even 3' yet. VERY few blooms. I'm watering almost every night, and still they droop and swoon in this heat. If I can keep them alive til the fall cool spell sometime in Sept or Oct, I'm hoping that then I might have some flowers. I did give each plant a sprinkling/small handful of organic rose fertilizer a few days ago. 6-8-6 or something similar. Lots of leaves were/are yellowing, and I figured it couldn't hurt. Don't think I gave them enough to burn the plants, esp. considering how much I'm watering. And, they'd had no fertilizer since I planted them in late March. Ironically (?) the very few plants I managed to get mulch around are my shortest! And they're wilting as fast as the non-mulched plants. Go figure! Last time I visited w/ Sherri, she said she was having height problems on her Karmas, and she has ALL of hers in full sun. (We have the same varieties). I thought for a while that my short ones were in more shade than the others, but I think the sun has changed locations enough in the sky that the short ones "seem" to be getting as much as the "tall" ones. None of them are 48" though. If I hadn't heard a fairly local dahlia grower last fall rave about his (non-Karma, "ordinary") dahlias, I'd be more believeing of a friend who claims we can't grow dahlias in Texas. I think she said it's because it gets too hot, (which it is), but I thought Dahlias originated in hot climates anyway. Oh wellllll. Experience is "grand", isn't it?! LOL! Per one of your responses to the "how to cut dahlias" thread, I have cut out the center bloom on a few plants, hoping to build up longer stems on the side buds. So far, no effect, but that may be because of the heat. Let us know what Germania says. Good luck at your market tomorrow/today--whenever you read this. Susi.

Those are wonderful dahlias. They stay very compact and don't get tall and spindly. I can't remember if I even pinched them but to keep them compact, pinch them anyway. You have plenty of sun for them. I feel for you with the Voles. I lost all my clematis. They just tunneled down and ate the whole thing. It had taken 3 years for them to cover the arbor and now nothing. I have tried everything with the voles but my dahlias are in raised beds. I have never had voles there. Good luck.