kato - yeah, sometimes hibiscuses can 'stick out'. I think I sort of solved that problem by accident :-) I tend to plant things as part of a bigger picture - i.e. I always consider what other plants a particular plant will be partnered with - the individual is always part of a group; the color scheme of the area it will be added to; the relative size of the plant and the companion plants; and all the usual considerations of soil, light and moisture. There are a lot of hibiscuses in the front garden now and they are a key part of the August garden display. They are very showy but they also play well with the other things in bloom at this time of year in the pink/white/blue color ranges. I think hibiscuses tend to 'stick out' when they are grown as a specimen plant and/or are pink ones paired with golds. To pair with golds/orange/rusty red, I think (hope!) the hibiscuses with dark foliage and dark red flowers would work best - I will find out if that works when the 'Midnight Marvel' in my 'hot' bed blooms (soon, I hope!) I'd love to see pictures of how other people blend in hardy hibiscuses into the garden....

I Did Injoy, very much.That Janet Benz is gorgeous.I love your garden shot. So pretty.I know you was sad to see How Sweet it is,not looking like what you expected, but, give it some time,It will improve.I have some ruffled ones too, didn't look like they suppose to, but each bloom they have improved a little at a time.We had some cold nights here and cool days,and they didn't open very well at all. Jean

Well, Id be glad to bring sedum cuttings for anybody who wants some, but I posted that over on the swap thread (back when I first posted some pictures of what I had available), and nobody has taken me up on it so far. As of right now Im planning to bring cuttings of some of the sedums along for Azuras son, but if anybody else wants anyLET ME KNOW! Bonnies pictures are goodexcept for the one that you said to correct you on if you were wrong! The third oneif it was evergreen (ever-red???) all winter, must be Sedum hybridum rather than S. kamtschaticum. The kamtschaticum, in both the variegated and the plain, is deciduous, so it couldnt have been that. When theyre green in summer, if I have the two of them side by side, I cant tell which is which, but the one thats evergreen is hybridum! I could possibly have had that marked wrong when I sent it since it was green at the time. That was a long time ago, so I dont remember! SO, what youre supposed to deduce from all that is that the variegated one is kamtschaticum, and the plain green one is hybridum! Here are a few more pictures of some of them. If anybody wants any cuttings, let me know. You can see what Bonnies little cuttings have turned into since last spring! Dragons Blood left and Angelina right (plus one of my hen & chicks!) 02.23.08 (I cut mine way back a couple times a year to keep them "contained" and neat looking, so theres not a whole lot there! (Click any picture to enlarge) Left to right: Sedum hybridum, Dragons Blood, Angelina 04.08.08 Sedum album with some of its winter color left 02.23.08 This one is DANGEROUS! Little bits of it will root all over the yard. You wont even know for sure how it got there! Sedum kamtschaticum Variegatum blooming (Angelina in background and also 4 kinds of hen & chicks) Blue Carpet Sedum pachyclados (Cant bring cuttings of this one to this swap cause it was looking "stemy" so I cut it down to the ground!) And here are a few of the hen & chicks I have. I dont know the variety names of most of them. Im bringing unrooted ones along for at least three people as of now, and would be glad to bring some for a couple more people, but I cant guarantee which ones youd get. Itll just depend on which ones have enough "chicks!" By next year (maybe by the Fall Swap) I should have plenty of almost all of them to bring some for whoever wants some. As a matter of fact, by then Ill probably be begging people to take them so Ill still have room to keep getting new varieties! I have some new ones I got last summer that havent even been planted into the ground yet! I think theyre FUN! (The first picture is a named variety. Its Icicle) And nowsince this thread is about whats blooming nowheres what Ive had blooming so far, and whats blooming now! The captions dont show up when I link them here, but if you click on them they come complete with dates! Phlox douglasii Cracker Jack Its way past its peak now! Primrose Johnny-jump-ups - these have been blooming some since January, but they keep getting better! Bleeding Heart Ajuga Chocolate Chip Ajuga Arboretum Giant And an absolute favorite of minethat looks MUCH prettier in person than it ever does in a pictureWaterperry Veronica I guess itll be a while before you ask for pictures again, eh, Bonnie? SIC David uh guess that doesnt sound so good! David, Your sedum is most likely Dragons Blood since thats one of the most readily available ones, and yours is probably still red since youre still getting snow out there sometimes, and its colder than for some of us. It greens up pretty quickly when it decides to, and mine has just completely greened up in the last two weeks or so. They should normally bloom every year, but if yours are getting "cut down," intentionally or unintentionally, that could be setting them back enough that they dont bloom sometimes. Tricolor gets leggy and floppy easily, and I tend to cut mine back a lot, and it rarely blooms. So if you want yours to bloom every year, you may need to put an 8' fence around it! Or sit out in your yard 24/7 with a shotgun! ;-) I have dandelions too, Michelle, but I just weed & feeded today, so I hope that takes care of them! Spring has sprung, Skybird

First off, I like them ALL. Therefore, none should feel left out when I list my favorites, so just consider them runner-ups. There's not an ugly duckling in the flock:) You sure have the magic touch when doing purple seedlings of which I can never get enough of seeing....so if you have more, pretty please? I had to scroll up and down a couple times to determine which were the faves. I especially like #004, #006, #008, #009, #012, #016. (#012 looks bitone to me and is my absolute favorite, just love it!). I do like #017 for it's unique look and also it's good plant habits. I think I'm going to be terrible when it comes to culling my own. LOL