Here I am a grower of ornamentals and start lots of seeds, mostly perennials and biennials outdoors in the summer. I have a plastic covered area 10x20 feet open on both ends, mostly shaded by tall trees. The summer temperatures are just about right and the fluctuating day/night temperatures actually seem to help the germination. The seeds are kept plastic covered to maintain moisture until germination, when the plastic is then removed. Al

Man, that's a huge sunflower head! 15-20 lbs??? Yikes - I guess I won't be trying those up here! LOL! I'm with Karen on stuff frying. We've had rain, but it hasn't done much to help with the heat. It's so humid here - a lot of my stuff is developig mildew; my poor asters, which should be blooming soon, look like little palm trees after I removed all the dried up foliage. Oh well, guess I'll enjoy the flowers on dried up stems. I'll just have to keep enjoying your pics! PV

Thanks everyone:) Hi Mary :) As far as Monarda is concerned I just belief M. didyma and most of it's cultivars are most susceptible to infection. Spraying plants with plain ol' water can aid in the prevention of the spores ability to germinate and often kills them, however it's hard to keep up trying to keep the leaves wet and doing so could also lead to other fungal issues that flourish with free moisture...especially at night or in humid climates, ect.; Botrytis, Downy Mildew, ect. Didn't even realize the Hollyhock flower was in that picture! Actually I only had a handful of about 30-40 Hollyhocks that looked worth a damn....the grasshoppers came in droves this year! The earwigs also did a fare share of destruction this year on these and several other plants as well. Today I noticed several earwigs hiding within the Yvonne's Salvia flowers and sunflowers...good grief! Tiffy, I'd be happy to save seeds for the M. fistulosa...this is just the common prairie species native to my home state of North Dakota as well as S. Dakota and Nebraska. I'm pretty sure it's also native to MB, SK, AB and ON. Seeds are ready to harvest in October. Might have to remind me when it's gets to be that time :)) Karen, Sure hope to bite into some tomatoes soon. My mouth waters every time I walk by LOL! I wonder how will I know when the Cherokee Green are ripe? I guess it will be by feel huh? Regarding fungal or bacterial infection of leaves; whatever it is if it's not severe you can remove and properly discard infected leaves....when dry...never wet. I'm sure you are already mulching beneath plants to prevent soil splashing :) Some more Hollyhocks that didn't look too bad. This giant red one had to come down after several days of rain/wind...my hummingbirds weren't too happy 'bout that LOL! It's ok though there's plenty others they visit....can't believe how much them go for the blue and purple larkspur! Here it was on July 8th...a monster ....again on the 14th... close up... Some hollyhocks in front on July 30th...

Y'all, I was so excited that it was going to rain....and it did rain, but only 2/10s of an inch! We had so much thunder and such dark skies, but this storm was mostly "all blow, and no go" for us, as my dad used to say. Bessie, I figured if we were getting too dry here, y'all were probably getting too dry over there too. What a change from a month ago! G. M., It is strange how y'all always get so much more rain than we do, and we're only 1 county away from one another! Several days while you were gone to the lake, we had little afternoon showers pop up in Marietta and they had a pretty good rain, but we were left out/passed over out here in the county. I can remember some cool August weather too quite a ways back. Almost every August since we moved here, though, the weather has been brutal during the first 2 weeks of the month. Our first year here, my brother and sister-in-law and their 2 kids came (from Pennsylvania) to visit and Ardmore was the hottest place in the country for several of the August days that they were here....with temps in the 108 to 113 range. They have been back to visit since then.....but only during the winter months. :) It is only 88 degrees here right now.....on this date last year, we had a high temp of 101. I'll take 88 over 101 any day. I was watching the news from Minneapolis-St. Paul earlier. Last night, watching it in real time, took me back to 2002 and Webbers Falls. I really feel for the people in Minnesota--what a shock to have a major bridge collapse! Dawn